July 25, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Marc Fornes & THEVERYMANY

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It’s hard to be in the vicinity of Parsons School of Design this summer and not be lured toward its exhibit window. The expression on the person’s face in the second photo is probably similar to the one I had when I crossed the street a couple of weeks ago, catching a glimpse of these striking floating structures from the corner of my eye. Turns out, these digitally sculpted dancers, titled Les Danseurs du Tailor, are the work of one of this year’s Architectural League Prize winners, Brooklyn-based Marc Fornes & THEVERYMANY. Fornes is a leader in the development of computation applied to design and digital fabrication. He realizes geometrically complex and self-supporting structures for both artistic and commercial purposes, from pop-up stores (such as the Louis Vuitton Pop-up Store in London with Yayoi Kusama- 6th photo from top) to gallery installations and park pavilions. I don’t exactly understand the process, but Fornes digitally designs these skins—which are then produced either in carbon fiber, hand-riveted aluminum, or plastic—by analyzing and evaluating the algorithms and rules encoded in computational systems against the explicit forms, resulting in precise but unpredictable operations. Whatever the process, the results are show-stoppingly stunning.

Photos: Francois Lauginie; Guillaume Blanc; Stephane Muratet; and Moss Bureau

July 24, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Bence Bakonyi: Transform

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Hungarian photographer Bence Bakonyi camouflages others in his series of color-blocked photos titled Transform. From the artist:

How much is our environment forming our personality? How much can you prescind from its medium examining the individual? The photographs of Transform can be considered to be a straightforward commitment besides the inseparability of the individual and the environment. The impersonalized forms of the pictures are almost assimilating and fading into their backgrounds. These works are demonstrating this as an intentional conformism and not as an unconscious progress because only the external marks of the forms shaped consciously, i.e clothes are fading into the homogenous environment. The pieces of the series are describing the ability of people to fit in; they are demonstrating the phenomenon, by which the individual can identify himself/herself with the physical or mental medium. It takes and puts on the features of its environment, as a consequence of this it becomes a part of it.

Nice! If you like these you might also enjoy Liu Bolin’s photographs,

via cosascool

July 24, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Llyn Foulkes: One-Man Band

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Not only did we enjoy Hollie Chastain‘s collages on Saturday, but right before that we went to the New Museum and saw Llyn Foulke’s collage-like work. I was not familiar with Foulke’s art and was surprised to find out that the Los Angeles based artist is a contemporary of John Baldessari, Robert Irwin and Ed Ruscha. Though his work is quite varied in style, there’s a consistency in his portraits (our favorites) that makes it hard to differentiate between the ones created in the 1970s and those completed just a couple of years ago. Foulkes’ portraits are fabulous. Some are a little gruesome à la Francis Bacon, but feel more like anti-corporate commentary (it’s funny that Foulkes is LA-based and much of his work gives it to Disney hard) than tortured souls. Many of these works have a wonderful 3D quality, with arms or ties protruding from the frames. Foulkes has always been a bit eclectic ranging in style from Pop to Dadaist as well as being a performance artist with his own one-man band playing “The Machine” which he created himself.

You can see Llyn Foulkes’ work at the New Museum through September 1, 2013.

Photos courtesy of the artist and the New Museum.

July 23, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hollie Chastain: Book Cover Collage

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We stopped by the hole here in NYC over the weekend to see their Summer Reading group show—an exhibit that combines a reading room atmosphere interspersed with book-related art—and became enamored with Hollie Chastain’s book cover collages. The Tennessee-based artist has worked in multiple mediums but collage stole her heart at an early age. Chastain uses found materials including old book covers, and lets the scribbles, labels, and aging quality dictate the direction of the piece. These charming and detailed works combine the archival with colorful geometric shapes and patterns, making them antique-y and contemporary at the same time. Lovely. Lucky for me, and anyone else who enjoys these as much, Chastain has an etsy shop where she sells some original works and limited edition prints.

July 23, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Gus Petro: Merge

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Swiss photographer Gus Petro was impressed by NYC’s density and popularity as well as by the extreme emptiness and uninhabitable space of the Grand Canyon and Death Valley on his travels to the U.S. He took a series of photographs of New York titled Dense, another series titled Empty of the Grand Canyon, and then, to complete the trilogy, Petro merged the two in his aptly named series Merge. Exploring the polar opposites was interesting enough, but seeing what NYC would look like placed in the Grand Canyon is a surreal experience.

via mug

July 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Ian Strange: Suburban

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New York based Australian artist Ian Strange (aka Kid Zoom) has created a multifaceted photography, installation, and film project titled Suburban.

“… Since 2011 Strange worked with a film crew and volunteers in Ohio, Detroit, Alabama, New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire to create, photograph and film seven site specific interventions incorporating suburban homes. The recording of these interventions through film and photographic documentation forms the basis of this new body of work.”

SUBURBAN will premier in a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia on July 26, 2013.

Photos & video courtesy of the artist.

via junkculture & designboom

July 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Paul Marti: Matchstick Architecture

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Artist Paul Marti of Englewood, Colorado builds elaborate architectural constructions such as cathedrals and castles using only matchsticks. These intricately designed pieces are not replicas, but rather original artworks conceived by Marti in his head, from their rounded towers and elaborate arches, to their painted stained glass. He solves the construction problems the way an artist does, by envisioning something beautiful first, then executing it. The detail on these is impressive. The “brick” facades are created by stacking cut matchsticks, and even the gravel is made with chopped and painted matches.

Photos Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post

Thanks Ana!

July 18, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Philip Haas: Four Seasons

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If you’ve ever been intrigued by Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s monstrous portraits of composite heads made entirely of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and other objects, then American artist/director Philip Haas’ Four Seasons is for you. Haas has reimagined the 16th century painter’s series Four Seasons as four large-scale sculptures standing over 15 feet high, one representing Spring, another Summer, Autumn, and lastly, Winter. The three-dimensional interpretations are created with intricately detailed fiberglass made to look like flowers, bark, vegetables and leaves.

The Four Seasons sculptures have been traveling from London to Phoenix and now, since May and through October, they are at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx.

Photos courtesy of the artist and NY Botanical Garden

Thanks Ramon!

July 16, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Noriko Yamaguchi: Peppermint Girl/Mother

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Japanese artist Noriko Yamaguchi works in video animation, photography, illustration and performance art. Her art, rigorous in its form and composition, stems from intimate experiences, thoughts, and references to personal memories and cultural encounters. It concentrates on the human body and its relation to nature, tradition, social environment and technology. In her photographs and claymation video titled Peppermint Girls and Peppermint Mother, Yamaguchi’s imaginary characters are creatures borne from chewing gum. Her video, below, shows numerous living gumsticks moving around and covering every part of Yamaguchi’s body. All her works are self-portraits with the idea of transmutation of the human body.

via artnet

July 15, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Sarah Rosado: Dirty Little Secrets

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Inspired by the many images created using food, New York based photographer/illustrator Sarah Rosado decided to create images using dirt. Accessorizing the dirt illustrations with actual objects gives them a bit of a 3D quality that Rosado was going for. The series is cleverly titled Dirty Little Secrets. You can see the rest of the series on her website.

July 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

40 Days of Dating: Walsh & Goodman

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Part graphic-designer-online-reality-show, part experiment, part sociological/psychological art project, part super-clever-promo-piece, or whatever else you’d like to call it, Jessica Walsh (of Sagmeister & Walsh) and Timothy Goodman’s (previously here) 40 Days of Dating has Daniela and me completely hooked. Launched a few days ago (today is Day 5, so there’s not much catching up involved) the two good friends have opposite relationship problems—one an incurable romantic, the other has commitment issues—and are growing tired of the NYC dating life. Both single, they decided to embark on an adventure/experiment wherein they date each other exclusively (complying to a list of rules) for 40 days, answering a daily questionnaire that is revealed on the website, day by day. In addition, they enlisted an impressive slew of designers from their professional and personal circles to contribute daily typographic designs, beautifully illustrating the themes of the day.

It doesn’t hurt that both Walsh and Goodman are incredibly cute, talented, and appealing (plus we’re longtime fans) making the project that much more compelling, but there’s no doubt that under all it’s designy-ness and fun, 40 Days of Dating is a voyeuristic fest, complete with some cringe-inducing moments. Nonetheless, we’ve been totally drawn in, finding ourselves in daily discussions and speculating on what direction things will take. We’ve even piqued Em’s curiosity, so I’m sure she’ll be following soon.

They’ve also made a series of related videos that you can see here, and the behind-the-scenes one is below.

via coolhunting

July 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Brad Downey: Hacking the City

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These are a lot of fun. As part of the Public Art Horsens event in Denmark at the end of last month, American artist Brad Downey created several clever and witty urban interventions. Downey specializes in the element of surprise, making the viewer do a double-take by disrupting their visual perception. You can see the other four works here. The Horsens event was co-curated by Henrik Haven and Simon Caspersen and included other public works by the likes of Escif (Spain), Sam3 (Spain), Pøbel (Norway), Thomas Dambo (Denmark), and more.

Photos by Henrik Haven

via junk culture via fecal face

July 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Through Hollow Lands: Lilienthal|Zamora

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LILIENTHAL|ZAMORA is a collaboration between Etta Lilienthal and Ben Zamora, both performance designers who together have worked on many striking stage sets (I especially love last year’s Underbelly) as well as the labyrinthic installation Through Hollow Lands at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. Made with 200 suspended fluorescent tubes, the bright and geometric piece has a great futuristic look to it. Beautiful.

Photos: Malcolm Smith courtesy Frye Art Museum except 4th photo down oieouio

via colossal

July 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 5 Comments

Robert Barta: Crossing Half a Million Stars

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German artist Robert Barta uses everyday objects in his work. His installation Crossing Half A Million Stars — currently on view at Galerie Sherin Najjar in Berlin — consists of roughly half a million 8mm metal balls or ball bearings that cover the gallery floor. Visitors are invited to enter the space and attempt to walk/cross the ball-covered surface with extreme care to avoid slipping or falling. The installation could be seen as a performance art piece with the viewer/participant as the performer. Makes for an entertaining gallery visit, with everyone slipping and rolling into one another. Wonder if guests have to sign a waiver before entering, or maybe lawsuits are more of an American passtime.

Crossing Half A Million Stars will be on view through September 7, 2013.

via galerie sherin najjar

July 9, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Monika Grzymala: Raumzeichnungen

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Poland-born, German artist Monika Grzymala creates large-scale tape installations that can be seen as three-dimensional drawings. The black tape constructions are site-specific taking over the their designated spaces, seemingly bursting from the walls, particularly in her series of works titled Raumzeichnungen (Drawing Room). Grzymala constantly pushes the boundaries of the line by creating drawings in space. Currently, Gryzymala has an exhibit at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, titled Mono Meros, (bottom photo) through August 28, 2013.

via ignant

July 9, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

The Pool: Jen Lewin

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Colorado-based artist/architect Jenn Lewin creates large, immersive, interactive art pieces for the public. From interactive sound and light sculptures that inspire people into play, to woven fiber video curtains that reflect movement, or giant, robotic, ethereal moths that dance based on human touch. In her interactive light installation titled The Pool, Lewin put together 106 interactive circular platforms in giant concentric circles that communicate wirelessly. Each pad is independent and simultaneously interacts and listens to its environment based on user feedback. Together, the 106 pads create complex, surprising, and unpredictable color arrays with their user participants. Each pad in The Pool senses a person’s movements. User inputs such as foot location, foot pressure, and speed are sensed by the pad surface. As a person moves, light ripples out to the surrounding pads. For example, by leaning left, a ripple of varying intensity starts in that direction. A stronger more deliberate lean could cause a ripple to jump rings and fill the entire Pool. Each person’s ripple is unique. The more people that participate the more of a cacophony is created.

The Pool can be as small as 35ft x 35ft or, if spread out, as large as 70ft x 70ft. It’s powered via a normal household outlet and can be placed indoors or out.

Here it is in action:

via bbc

July 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Giuseppe Agnello: Memories|Lateral & Oblique

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Sicilian sculptor Giuseppe Agnello gives new meaning to the expression “one with nature.” His surreal sculptures of bodies with roots, branches, or tree trunks emanating from heads, feet, or chests, are at once intriguing and disturbing. Working in plaster, polyester resin, clay and bronze, the Palermo-based artist plays with the idea of metamorphosis, much of the time incorporating tree-like morphing, though not limiting himself to vegetation, as in the case of his Corpi nuvolosi (Cloudy Bodies) or his zipped up bodies in Anima e corpo (Body and Soul.)

Agnello currently has an exhibit of 40 works titled Memories: Lateral and Oblique Views at the Carlos V Tower in Porto Empedocle, Sicily through the end of the year.

via balarm

July 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Near Unison: Dan Dodds

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UK-based architectural designer and artist, Dan Dodds, has proposed an installation for Burning Man 2013 titled Near Unison that visualizes the harmonic relationship between two people using a pair of pendulum swings. A prototype of Near Unison, sans the elegant and striking exterior structure, was exhibited at this year’s Kinetic Art Fair. The installation specifically explores the harmonograph — a machine that became popular as a 19th century capable of producing beautiful drawings by mapping the relationship between two swinging pendulums. The oscillation frequency of the pendulums can be changed by modifying their lengths. Near Unison acts as a large-scale interactive harmonograph, allowing people to take the place of the pendulum weights, swinging back and forth, creating patterns in the sand that are ‘near unison’ a 1:1 ratio when the people occupying the swings are of similar weight. You can see the prototype in action below and keep your eyes peeled for the even larger version at the next Burning Man Festival in Black Rock Desert this August. Should be fun.