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
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
Click to enlarge.Paragon Architects in Johannesburg, South Africa, have dramatically changed the skyline of the Sandton section of town with the new 15 Alice Lane Towers. The 17-story (hard to believe it’s not taller) corporate offices for a major law firm is incredibly striking with its curved facades and its neon-lit silhouette in the dark. The two towers are linked by a narrow, vertical atrium which houses walkways and bridges that spiral upwards and allow skylights to fill the space with light. The towers are clad with glass and aluminum, the latter used as an energy-saving measure to reduce direct sunlight, as well as add the sculptural element.
The abstract surfaces create changing effects throughout the day, depending on the light. Paragon Architects not only pushed the boundaries in the visual aspect of the towers, but in the environmental aspect as well, in their selection of materials and positioning of the building.
Paragon has definitely “raised the bar” in South African commercial architecture, as their website proudly touts.
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
Click to enlarge.The Timber Pavilion, or Woods of Net, at the Hakone Open Air Museum was designed by Tezuka Architects in Tokyo. Composed entirely of wooden beams without any metal parts, the structure is built with 589 pieces of timber using ancient temple construction techniques to build this, ironically, futuristic form. The total floor area measures 528 square meters. Dramatically hanging from the interior is a huge colorful climbing net reminiscent of Ernesto Neto’s art installations, designed by artist Toshiko Horiuchi Macadam.
Inside and out, a very cool structure.
via Spot Cool Stuff.
Click to enlargeI have to admit that I had never heard of British sculptor Antony Gormley, nor had I seen any of his sculptures, until last year’s wonderful show here on the buildings around Madison Square Park in NYC called Event Horizon. It was one of those New York City events that, once let in on, you wanted to share with everyone. 31 life-size sculptures of the artist cast in iron and fiberglass were positioned on the rooftops – and a few on the sidewalks – of New York’s Flatiron District. At first glance they looked like men contemplating jumping off buildings such as MetLife or the Flatiron, but upon closer inspection it became clear that they were sculptures. Then a Where’s Waldo quality would kick in and the hunt to locate all 31 of them would begin. I don’t think I ever quite spotted them all.
All this introduction is to say that I have since been very aware of Gormley’s work and am so happy to have been exposed to it finally. I can’t get enough of it. Every sculpture, in every form surprises and delights me. In all the different materials, styles, and installations.
Above are a sampling of Gormley’s body sculptures, as well as some images from his installation series Breathing Room where lights go on in a sudden, almost blinding, interrogation style in 10-minute intervals.
There is much more to see on Gormley’s site, and here is a 50-minute video of a lecture he gave in Chicago a few months back where he explains much of the thinking behind his work, including seeing the body as a place not an object, and as the subjective and universal condition of human existence.
It’s not new, but it’s still amazing. Wade Shotter’s 2007 music video for Fujiya & Miyagi made by arranging crazy amounts of dice. Spotted by Em earlier today.
via Justapoz
Since the age of 10, Victor Enrich has been creating unreal cities; first with pencil on paper, later with computers and 3D software. Using a combination of photography and 3D architectural visualization, the Barcelonian Enrich modifies and deforms existing buildings from Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Helsinki, as well as other locations, with impressive precision so that they fit perfectly into the landscape and picture.
Victor Enrich sells prints of his works on his site.
Click to enlargeWe recently met Ivan Navarro at a couple of end-of-year graduation parties and learned that he is an artist who creates fluorescent light sculptures. After looking up his work, I was excited to see that I recognized some of it from this year’s Armory Show (the Armory Fence) as well as having seen some pieces online. I love all of it.
Originally from Chile, Navarro’s work Threshold was presented in the Chilean Pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale, consisting of three separate pieces: ‘Resistance’ (the chair attached to a bicycle which illuminates by pedaling the bike); ‘Death Row’ (thirteen doorways with colored neon lights inside repeated or reflected to give an endless appearance); and ‘Bed’ (the circular sculpture with half the word ‘bed’ in neon and reflected to create the full letters as well as repeated to create an infinite tunnel effect.)
This past March, Ivan Navarro had a show at the Paul Kasmin gallery in NYC called “Heaven or Las Vegas” where the light structures were based on the footprint of famous skyscrapers, including the twin towers creating a moving negative effect as infinite holes in the floor. (See video of exhibit below.)
There is an underlying social and political commentary present in Navarro’s work – from capital punishment, and homelessness, to the reign of Pinochet, torture, and more – that makes these sculptures as meaningful as they are beautiful.
Ivan Navarro currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Jerzy Goliszewski is a Polish artist living and working in Warsaw. His body of work is comprised of installations, paintings, drawings and graphics. His focus is on making complex structures using simple and natural materials.
From top to bottom: We’re Going Out, Jerzy Goliszewski’s newest work made for the closing of a gallery in Warsaw. Using simple means (semi-transparent vinyl and rear projection) Goliszewski created this revolving door style, computerized-looking effect without a computer. To see it in action watch the video.The photo that follows is of the artist in front of the gallery with the artwork in the window. Kai, another installation, takes its cue from the classic fairy tale “The Snow Queen.” Kai was inspired by structures, such as the crumbling sheet of ice, the cracked ground and the cracked mirror which broke into pieces distorting the world, in the story. Next image down is from Lac Bleu 02, a wooden installation made of thousands of bits of wood and, lastly, Dynamo, another wooden installation representing force and power in its name and at the same time the block’s transparency removes the stability and exposes its fragility like a house of cards.
You can see more of Jerzy Goliszewski’s work on his website, as well as his flickr set of installations.
Click to enlargeJames Turrell’s latest Skyspace, Within Without at the National Gallery of Australia, is one of his largest and most elaborate so far. The Skyspace is entered via a long walkway towards a grass-covered pyramid surrounded by water. Inside, at the center of the pyramid is a domed structure open to the sky, which in turn is surrounded and highlighted by shimmering turquoise water. As in other of Turrell’s Skyspaces, Within Without is most dramatic at dawn and dusk, when there are more changes in light and movement in the sky which are then intensified within the domed space.
You can read more about the exhibit here and see more photos at screenstreet’s and chaoite’s photostreams.
Click to enlarge.The Spanish artist Jacinto Moros, who we had the good fortune of befriending during his years in NYC, takes wood and makes it dance. His ability to bend and curl the material into beautiful sculptures that, while static, are full of movement, is really amazing.
Though a fan of all of his work, I especially like how his Movimientos Liquidos (Liquid Movements) piece worked in its space, this being the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. As if abstract flowers or trees fitting in perfectly, yet uniquely, into the park landscape. (Top three images.)
His Architecture Series, designed in wood and cast in stainless steel, is inspired by well-known structures, captured using a continuous line to render the buildings as sculpture. (See stainless steel sculptures in photos, clockwise from top left image are: Guggenheim, Bilbao; Guggenheim, NYC; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Pompidou Centre, Paris.) The series is open-ended with more buildings to follow.
Moros has also designed some products in his curved wood method, including lamps and jewelry.
You can see more of Jacinto Moros’s work on his website, as well as at the Victor Lope Gallery, and OA Madrid online shop.
Click to enlargeReally like these architecture photographs of train platforms and hallways by German photographer Holger Schilling. From the symmetry to the lighting, very cool effect.
via salvatorres
Click to enlargeWith its two main offices in Sydney and Stuttgart, LAVA – Laboratory for Visionary Architecture – functions as a think tank generating inventive architecture that “bridges the gap between the dream and the real world.” Founded as recently as 2007 by Chris Bosse and Tobias Wallisser, LAVA has already produced an impressive body of work. Using nontraditional methodologies and advanced technology, LAVA’s structures and city planning are part of a new and cutting edge, as well as sustainable, generation of architecture. Here are just three of their projects:
Top to bottom – The Green Void, a tensile fabric installation in the central atrium of the Sydney Customs House.
The Water Cube or National Aquatics Center in Beijing, originally designed for the 2008 Olympics has since been converted into a water park.
Digital Origami, an installation created in a masterclass taught by Chris Bosse at the University of Technology Sydney. Made from 3500 recycled cardboard molecules of only two different shpaes.
You can see more of LAVA’s amazing work at their website as well as on Chris Bosse’s flickr.
Bernardi Roig’s white sculptures—casts of real people—are typically blinded or encumbered by light. Obsessed with death, immortality, and human desire, Roig’s solitary men are a bit disturbing and sad, but intriguing at the same time.
Italian artist Carlo Bernardini has been working with optic fiber since 1996. He creates light sculptures or, more precisely, spatial drawings using optical fibers and in a sense sculpts the darkness, reconfiguring the space with his light architecture.
He currently has an exhibit at MACRO in Rome called The Corner’s Revenge appearing in the elevator shafts of the building, on different floors, in his trademark style of spatial light drawing.
Bernardini’s work has also appeared at the Milan Trienniale, the Naples Quadriennale, as well as at the Palazzo Bertalazone in Torino, and Domaquarèe, Berlin, just to name a few in the past couple of years.
You can see more of Carlo Bernardini’s work at his site, as well as here, and in these two flickr photostreams: here and here.
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