When I stumbled across this sculpture by Swiss artist Marc Moser for this summer’s Sculpture on the Sea exhibit in Aarhus, Denmark, it made me smile. Clever from its concept through to its punny name: Sea Pink. It’s pop art at its best; huge, oversized sunglasses at the beach with pink tinted lenses that allow the viewer to see, well, “sea pink.”
Here’s a short video to see it from all angles:
UPDATE: Here is a link to Marc Moser’s website.
Click to enlarge.Of Polish Jewish origin, born in Paris, and currently residing in Johannesburg, South Africa, Ronit Judelman (a clinical psychologist and second-generation Holocaust survivor in addition to being an artist) focuses on the paradoxical nature of society and specifically as it pertains to the horrors of war. In her series Weapons of Mass Destruction: Games People Play, Judelman juxtaposes toys with weapons “to highlight the paradox of using war to achieve peace [she] combined children’s toys, which stand for safety, innocence and fun, with adult weapons, which symbolize aggression, deviance and cruelty.” As a result, the works are a bit unsettling and quite powerful.
Click on images to enlarge.I was walking past the Flatiron building last weekend and came upon this art installation by Miles Neidinger in the Sprint store window at the base of the building. Everything We See is Never Enough is the name of the piece made of twist ties, vinyl tape, yarn, cellophane and tinsel. This is the first of Sprint’s “Art in the Prow” series of installations.
Miles Neidinger, an artist from Missouri, uses — as he states — “the crummiest materials” in his work:
I think the newspaper installations are my favorites.
English artist Richard Sweeney concentrated on the hands-on manipulation of paper to create design models in his studies which ultimately developed into sculptural pieces. He now combines hand-craft with computer aided design and CNC manufacturing techniques, maintaining an experimental approach to discovering unique sculptural forms. Pretty amazing.
You can see more here.
Gustav Reyes uses salvaged wood that is then repurposed to create his jewelry designs. He strikes a balance between the contemporary and the ancient through his fine craftsmanship.
Available on his site.
Click to enlarge.Michael Jantzen, an artist and designer based in California, uses architecture as an art form. By combining art, architecture, technology and sustainability, he proposes new ways of living and considers himself an inventor and problem-solver.
Jantzen has a particular interest in exploring public gathering centers using sun and wind as energy sources and in turn sharing that energy with the community where the center is built.
You can see many more of Michael Jantzen’s designs here.
via designmilk
When we were in Istanbul a couple of weeks ago, we happened upon the Arter gallery showing an exhibit of Patricia Piccinini’s work. Patricia Piccinini – in addition to having a great name (I think it’s the extra “ni” that makes it especially delightful) – is an Australian artist who works in several styles and mediums. One of these is a Vespa-inspired series of sculptures.
These wide-eyed and appealing deer-like creatures are molded by an automotive modeler using ABS plastic, automotive paint, stainless steel, leather, and rubber tires, of course. They represent Piccinini’s thoughts on machines behaving as animals; taking on a personality. We as humans are sometimes scared by their autonomy and our lack of control over them.
Click to enlargeThis looks quite spectacular! World renowned artist and architect Anish Kapoor and Arata Isozaki, respectively, have teamed up to create Ark Nova, a mobile concert hall. An initiative of the Lucerne Festival and Kajimoto Music, the idea behind the unit is to bring hope through music to those who are living with the after effects of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan this year.
The concert hall can be easily transported, making it possible to visit many locations within the devastated area. The structure, designed by Kapoor, will be inflatable and made of elastic material. The concert hall will bring many kinds of music and dance performances associated with the Lucerne Festival and will be supported by sponsors making it free for all.
via designboom
Click to enlargeThe Dutch design trio that form the collective We Make Carpets are Marcia Nolte, Stijn van der Vleuten and Bob Waardenburg. Together, they have made a series of contemporary interpretations of the centuries-old medium. Their most recent carpets are presently hanging at the Graphic Design Museum in Breda, the Netherlands, made up of over 30,000 clothespins (see top four photos.) Previously, We Make Carpets have used everyday objects such as paperclips, pasta, bandaids, plastic forks, toy soldiers, and bricks, just to name a few, to make carpets of mostly large-scale dimensions.
If you’re in the Netherlands, the exhibit in Breda will be up through August 28th. If, like me, you’re nowhere near there, there’s always their site.
German artist Regine Schumann lives and works in Cologne. Her most recently exhibited installation was Dreamteam last month at Art Santa Fe 2011. In this collaboration with Alberto Frei, Schumann combined fluorescent acrylic spheres with a grid of compelling black & white photographic portraits in a black box environment (top four photos.)
In all of her installations and works, Regine Schumann plays with color, transparency and light. Most of her work — from translucent acrylic or glass pieces to flexible plastic woven works — is typically displayed under black light creating an aura or glow around each piece and onto the nearby surfaces. In some cases where fluorescent works are involved, they emit enough of a radiant quality that allows them to be displayed in normal daylight.
You can see more of Schumann’s work here.
Click images to enlargeIrish artist Clive Murphy creates installations and sculptures that deal with – in his words — site and surface. From his site specific inflatable installations – made from duct-taped black garbage bags filled with air by electric fans – to his DIWIF (Demonic Intervention With Ikea Furniture) series and smaller sculptures, Murphy tends to work in a lo-fi manner embracing low-brow culture.
I am especially a fan of his DIWIF (Demonic Intervention With Ikea Furniture) sculpture. The monstrous-like work would make anyone smile who has attempted to put together the infamous flat-packed furniture. The sculpture comes complete with Murphy’s humorous diagrammed instructions on how to assemble.
Click to enlargePhotographer Michael Taylor from Northern Ireland aims to “let light reveal itself.”
Using electroluminescent wire, Taylor explores luminescence. A current is passed through a copper wire causing the surrounding phosphor coating to emit light. The EL wire is wrapped around or within the costumes worn by the model and the movements are then recorded introducing a kinetic element. The result: some very cool photos.
via Saatchi Online
Ruy Ohtake, a Brazilian architect and son of Japanese artist Tomie Ohtake, is known for his dynamic and unique building designs.
Equally spectacular inside as out, a visit to his website is well worth the time to see all the projects documented from the beautifully simple concept sketches through to completion.
Waste Landscape, at the Centquatre art space in Paris, was created by artist Élise Morin and architect Clémence Eliard using 60,000 recycled cds which have been hand sewn together and placed over domes resulting in the undulating, metallic landscape.
You can watch a video here.
via Contemporist
City Leaks, a group of artists/street artists that describe themselves as “An Urban Investigation of Inventive Dwelling.” Recently this Melbourne based group created PlayMo (top images) and Hotel Facebook, (bottom 3 images) both collaborative projects, the second via Facebook photo uploads as “check in”.
They have a sort of manifesto on their facebook page and seem to stick by it.
On PlayMo:
PlayMo was born from the intention of inventing a space that turns into a place where people meet, spend time and play. Its name comes from “playmobil”, a Lego styled child’s creative play toy. Using milk crates was like playing with big Lego pieces.Milk crates are a fantastic material for many reasons; they are structural, light, modular and they have an iconic role in Melbourne’s cafe image and laneways. We believe that familiarity to a material plays an important role in engaging with it.PlayMo uses 3 different types of crates. Black = platforms, Grey= stairs, Green=moveable. The green crates provide the undefined random element; people rearrange their seats or even build small stairs themselves. There hasn’t been a single day where we found them in the same place.
Finally, PlayMo is designed to grow and adapt. People are encouraged to leave things behind and to add to the structure. We found artworks, plants, toys, pillows, new crates and received hundreds of letters. We even found that people had constructed a bin so that it could be kept clean.
via sub-studio
Being related to a structural engineer, we probably notice scaffolding more than most. We even have the occasional vacation photo that includes a close-up of some unique type of scaffolding, though we’d have to confess to some eye-rolling on our part.
That said, I was so surprised at how much I loved the site Scaffoldage.com maintained by Shaun Usher. Fantastic! All the images are amazing and interesting for different reasons. Some for the sheer beauty of the photo; others for the incredible feat of the workers actually positioning themselves on the precarious structures; and still others for the unique abstract designs and patterns they create. Such an original idea and a bit addictive.
Check it out here.
via My Modern Met
French street artist JR has hit the streets of New York City in full force this summer. With several murals up in downtown Manhattan and a series of smaller posters up in the Bronx, the closely cropped expressive faces and eyes are a fun surprise to see as you round the corners of NYC.
JR’s wish? To use art to turn the world inside out. His Inside Out Project is a “large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work.” The three of us participated in this ongoing event, with the help of our buddy Rence, and set out to post our poster under one of JR‘s massive Soho murals. As you can see above, our poster is a mere speck on the wall by comparison (click to enlarge for better view) and clearly no JR but, regardless, we had a blast putting it up and it’s great fun to be a part of this international well-meaning project.
If you’d like to take part in JR’s worldwide project, just upload a photo to the site and you’ll be contacted to make a donation before receiving your poster.
Numen/For Use was formed by Sven Jonke, Christoph Katzler, and Nikola Radeljkovic, with offices in Vienna and Zagreb. Among their many projects, For Use has several impressive packing tape installations; elevated tubes created by winding tape around columns and extending it to create passageways strong enough for people to enter and interact with the structures. In some views they look like monster cobwebs.
The top installation was created for a 20-artist exhibit at the Schirn Kunsthalle Gallery in Frankfurt. The installation was completed in approximately 200 hours using 50km of transparent packing tape.
The second structure above was createdas part of the International Design Festival DMY in Berlin, at the Tempelhof Airport, out of 700 rolls of tape (38km) in 240 hours (4 days).
The last project above, represented the Vienna Design Week at the Mikser Design Expo, Belgrade.
via Juxtapoz
CollabCubed 