Category Archives: Stuff We Like

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Regina Silveira: Tracks and Shadows

Shadow illusion installation, contemporary Brazilian art, cut vinyl, perspectiveCar tracks application, art installation, Octopus series, contemporary Brazilian art, cut vinyl, perspectiveShadow application, art installation, contemporary Brazilian art, cut vinyl, perspectiveCar tracks application, art installation, Octopus series, contemporary Brazilian art, cut vinyl, perspectiveClick to enlarge

Brazilian artist Regina Silveira was so ahead of her time. She’s been creating installations using plotter cut black vinyl adhesive years before blik came into existence! Her large-scale installations play with perspective, shadows, and space in general. Her Track Series (Derrapagem which translates as skid marks) go from floor, to walls to the most unlikeliest of façades. Her exaggerated shadow pieces are humorous and clever, often tricking the eye.

Below is a video of a set design with Silveira’s signature skewed perspective that has your mind doing as many flips as the dancers.

Photos courtesy of the artist, Alexander Gray Gallery, Rainer Hosch, and xpuesto’s flickr

via The Aldrich Contemporary Museum

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Espacio Cultural El Tanque: The Tank

The Tank, Cultural Space in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Oil tank converted to performance, exhibit spaceThe Tank, Cultural Space, Oil tank converted to performance, exhibit space, Canary IslandsThe Tank, Cultural Space in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Oil tank converted to performance, exhibit spaceClick to enlarge

Though they are celebrating their fifteenth anniversary this year, Espacio Cultural El Tanque de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, is news to me and, judging from my googling, might be news to many. Menis Arquitectos transformed the old oil tank, the last of its type in the formerly industrial landscape, into an ever-changing cultural space used to display art installations as well as a performance venue for concerts. 50 meters in diameter and 20 meters in height, the tank has a temple-like quality. An old train car is used as the entrance ramp adding to the drama of the space. That, combined with the impressive installations and lighting of the space make it a cool-looking destination for anyone heading to Tenerife.

Photos: Colin Kirby, omarnahas’s flickr, encarneviva’s flickr, georgepompidou’s flickr,  Hisao Suzuki, and Teresa Arozena
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Dancing Plague of 1518

Illustration, Prints, Dance Steps, niege borges, fun posters, pulp fictionIllustration, Prints, Dance Steps, niege borges, fun posters, Napoleon DynamiteIllustration, Prints, Dance Steps, niege borges, fun posters, Seinfeld, Singing in the rain, Little Miss SunshineClick to enlarge

This tumblr by Niege Borges made me smile. In memory of Frau Toffea — the woman who was the first of 400 people in 1518 to be afflicted with dance mania in Strasbourg, France, dancing for days without rest resulting in some deaths — Borges is creating prints illustrating dance steps from sequences throughout the history of film. The tumblr/series is called Dancing Plague of 1518. She’s welcoming suggestions, so feel free to head on over and add yours.

If you’d like a print of one of the dances, they’re available here.

via free york

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Superkilen and The Red Square in Copenhagen

Park, playground, copenhagen, colorful park, Red Square, multicultural, bike pathPark, playground, copenhagen, colorful park, Red Square, multicultural,Park, playground, copenhagen, colorful park, Red Square, multicultural, bike pathClick to enlarge

Superkilen, a multicultural section of Copenhagen in the northwest part of the city has recently finished its new Red Square; a park and playground that is actually painted all shades of red. To reflect the many cultures in the community, the park is furnished with elements such as benches, trees, signage, and other furnishings all imported from 57 different countries.

Designed by Superflex, BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and TOPOTEK1, the urban park occupies a long stretch containing a green and a black area in addition to the red zone. Each section facilitates different activities.

Very cool and fun.

Photos courtesy of the architects, classiccopenhagen’s flickr, and Drumstik1’s flickr

via a+t magazine

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Lauren Smith: Doubt and Confusion

contemporary art, installation, bed frame, marshmallows, humor, confusion, collabcubedcontemporary art, installation, bed frame, marshmallows, humor, confusion, collabcubedcontemporary art, installation, bed frame, marshmallows, humor, confusion, collabcubedClick to enlarge

New Jersey based artist Lauren Smith is a 2D/3D mixed media artist whose work is influenced by three years experience in historic preservation architecture. As Smith stated in an interview:

I try to create environments that make the viewer feel a sense of doubt and/or a moment of confusion.

Here, in two very different types of works, one an installation the other drawings, she does just that. Above, her installation titled Under the Bed is made with a wooden bed frame enclosing a ‘mattress’ of skewered marshmallows. Maybe not a lot of doubt here, but definitely some confusion.

Below, her ink drawings on typical architect canary-yellow tracing paper are part of a series titled NYC: An Honest Lie.

Typically, people associate architectural drawings with the documentation of truth and precise representation. My work challenges this association by using the vernacular of architectural drawings to create “lies” about buildings. I will slightly misrepresent buildings by either idealizing them and/or intentionally distorting them. I aim to provoke the audience to question not only the validity of what they are seeing, but also their own perspectives towards their external environment.

In addition, Smith uses varnish to mount the tracing paper drawings onto canvas, adding to the ‘lie’ by disguising them as paintings. I love all of this work. It’s smart, full of humor, plus, I’ve always found those canary-yellow rolls of tracing paper an odd choice for architects – the color, the curling aspect from being rolled – so the choice of that material alone makes me chuckle. If you look closely at the first two images below (one a detail, the other an installation view) the drawing is a detailed diagram titled 14th St./6th Ave Subway Gum Conditions Survey. Many of the other drawings are of buildings around Union Square, right here in NYC, so maybe my familiarity with the neighborhood adds to the appeal as well.

NYC, Drawings, Union Square, Architectural style drawings, contemporary art

via 1Op Collective

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Roadsworth: Dead Hearts

Street art, hearts, dead hearts, valentine's day, graffiti, photography, Roadsworth, MontrealStreet art, hearts, dead hearts, valentine's day, graffiti, photography, Roadsworth, MontrealStreet art, hearts, dead hearts, valentine's day, graffiti, photography, Roadsworth, MontrealClick to enlarge

Street artist Roadsworth started painting the streets of Montreal about ten years ago in protest of car culture and to promote bicycle use. This series of works is titled Dead Hearts…maybe not the most romantic title for a Valentine’s Day post, but that’s what we’re doing, so, let’s just go with it.

You can see more of Roadworth’s hearts as well as much more of his clever work on his website.

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Giles Walker: Animated Sculptures

animated sculpture, robots, sculptures made from scrap, Rotterdam Art Fair 2012, collabcubedanimated sculpture, robots, sculptures made from scrap, Rotterdam Art Fair 2012, collabcubedanimated sculpture, sculpture made of scrap, junk, robots, rotterdam art fair 2012, collabcubedgiles walker, kinetic sculpture, robots, contemporary sculpture, animated sculpture

Click to enlarge

For over the past twenty years English sculptor Giles Walker has been working with robots, creating kinetic sculptures from materials found in scrap yards. A member of the guerilla-art group The Mutoid Waste Company, Walker’s robots are a creative intervention into our throw-away capitalist culture as well as a commentary on the surveillance practices or our time.

All of these pieces are just great, but the DJ and Pole Dancers’ Peepshow with their surveillance-camera heads, in addition to excellent hip and pelvic movements, might be my favorites. The telephone-headed drunks are (at least in some cases) programmed to interact with the public using presence sensors.

Walker’s robots have been exhibited all over the world, most recently this past week at the RAW Art Fair, part of the Rotterdam Art Fair 2012.

Photos courtesy of the artist; LookforArt; Epicfu; maggie jones’ flickr; and de_buurman’s flickr.
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The James Turrell Museum in Argentina

James Turrell, Light installations, contemporary art, Estancia Colomé, Hess CollectionJames Turrell, Light installations, contemporary art, Estancia Colomé, Hess CollectionJames Turrell, Light installations, contemporary art, Estancia Colomé, Hess CollectionClick to enlarge

Well, this is certainly news to me. Definitely will be placed on a must-see list next time I visit my relatives in Argentina. The James Turrell Museum opened a couple of years ago within Estancia Colomé and its winery in northern Argentina, near Salta. The museum belongs to the Hess Art Collection and is fully devoted to Turrell’s work; all light and space. Fifty years worth of work are exhibited in nine rooms within a 1,700-meter space.

A winery and a James Turrell museum in one location? Sounds like a nice combination, to me.

More Turrell here and here

Photos: Welcome Argentina; Wallpaper; Florian Holzherr, WSJ

via welcome argentina

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Dan Collier: Typographic Links

Book design, Typography, embroidered hyperlinks, typographic facts, Talk to Me, MoMABook design, Typography, embroidered hyperlinks, typographic facts, Talk to Me, MoMABook design, Typography, embroidered hyperlinks, typographic facts, Talk to Me, MoMAI saw Dan Collier’s Typographic Links —hand-sewn book—this past summer at the MoMA’s Talk to Me exhibit. This one-off book maps interesting links and connections throughout the world of typography using red threads as three-dimensional ‘hyperlinks’ to guide the reader through the pages. Collier, a London based graphic designer that works with large international brands is currently working on a second edition. If you have an interesting typographic fact or connection, you can contribute it here.

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Kyle Jenkins: Intuitive Abstraction

Paintings. colorful works on paper and paintings, contemporary abstract art, SydneyPaintings. colorful works on paper and paintings, contemporary abstract art, SydneyPaintings. colorful works on paper and paintings, contemporary abstract art, SydneyClick to enlarge

Yep, I really love these. All that color and geometry makes me happy. Australian artist Kyle Jenkins, based in Sydney, paints, sculpts, makes collages and more, but here we have some of his acrylic paintings and works on paper. His work is concerned with aspects of intuitive abstraction which incorporates hard edge and organic abstraction. Through the use of basic elements such as lines, color, form and surface, Jenkins explores the construction and deconstruction of the work; what it looks like and how it was made in addition to the displacement of space.

I like them all! Hard edge or organic form; paper to wall mural.

via minus space

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Glow by We Make Carpets

art installation, light installation, glow in the dark carpet, Glow Festival, Eindhovenart installation, light installation, glow in the dark carpet, Glow Festival, EindhovenWe Make Carpets, art installation, light installation, Glow Festival, EindhovenClick to enlarge

We Make Carpets (previously here and here) the Dutch collective that creates contemporary interpretations of the centuries-old medium, recently put together a Glow Carpet for the Glow Festival in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Consisting of 750 kilogram glow-in-the-dark pebble stones, the carpet was charged with bright light for five minutes every ten so that when the lights were turned off, the luminescent carpet, well…glowed!

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Escalator Photos

photography, escalators, cool images, stairs, escalator photos, flickrphotography, escalators, cool images, stairs, escalator photos, flickrphotography, escalators, cool images, stairs, escalator photos, flickrRecently, I’ve come across several interesting photos of escalators and after doing a search found a whole group on flickr. It was hard to select just a few photos (who knew there could be so many great shots of escalators?), but I went for a variety of angles and styles.

All names are linked to their source. From top to bottom and left to right:
Oliver Huizinga
Julie Daniels
The Relevant Authorities
Quaisi
John Fullard
Jill Fehrenbacher for Inhabitat
Siraphornbooks
Alexandre Moreau
b_juhasz
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Tiger & Turtle – Magic Mountain

walkable rollercoaster, interactive sculpture, Heike Mutter, Ulrich Genth, Duisberg, Germanywalkable rollercoaster, interactive sculpture, Heike Mutter, Ulrich Genth, Duisberg, Germanywalkable rollercoaster, interactive sculpture, Heike Mutter, Ulrich Genth, Duisberg, GermanyThis seems to have made the rounds a couple of months back, but I hadn’t seen it till now. Tiger and Turtle – Magic Mountain is a site-specific, large-scale, walkable rollercoaster designed by Heike Mutter and Ulrich Genth positioned at the highest peak of the Heinrich-Hildebrand-Höhe in Duisburg, Germany. Visitors are invited to walk up the zinc-plated steel sculpture, which soars to 21 meters at its highest point, and, add to that the height of the artificial mountain that it sits upon, and a person gets a view of the Rhine from 45 meters above the landscape. Unfortunately, for the more adventurous types, you can’t actually climb on the center loop past a certain point.

Mutter and Genthe collaborated with Arnold Walz who did the parametric 3-D planning and stairway system, as well as Prof. Micahel Staffa who did the planning of structural framework, and architects Sonja Becker and Rudiger Karzel of bk2a architecture.

The interactive sculpture is lit up by LEDs under the handrails at night, making it accessible in the dark as well. My kind of rollercoaster.

Photos by Thomas Mayer

via radiolab

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Remon de Jong: Tremor Laquearia

Dutch art installation, collapsing ceiling, tremor laquearia, remon de jong, collabcubedDutch art installation, collapsing ceiling, tremor laquearia, remon de jong, collabcubedDutch art installation, collapsing ceiling, tremor laquearia, remon de jong, collabcubedDutch artist Remon de Jong created this collapsing ceiling art installation titled Tremor Laquearia. Fixing time in the way a photograph does, the installation takes the familiar and turns it upside down.The chaos completely changes the perspective of the gallery space.

De Jong, who makes paintings, music, sculpture, and videos in addition to his installation work, often references the theme of man and his relationship with the environment.

Below you can see the creation of the installation in progress.

via lost painters

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Buff Diss: Taped Hands and more

Australian street art, Buff Diss, taped graffiti, taped hands, collabcubedAustralian street art, Buff Diss, taped graffiti, taped hands, collabcubedAustralian street artist, Buff Diss, taped graffiti, taped hands, collabcubedAustralian street artist, Buff Diss, taped graffiti, red stripe mural, londonClick to enlarge

Buff Diss, an Australian street artist from Melbourne, has been using tape instead of paint for the past six or seven years. Though he “tape paints” all kinds of images from abstract to skulls, there seems to be a strong hand theme. Diss cleverly integrates the elements and variations of the street to his advantage, at the same time adding humor to many of his pointing and pinching taped fingers.

The bottom three images are from one of his most recent works: a mural for Red Stripe in London.

Photos from Buff Diss’ flickr and blog.

via Brainstorming

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Eka Sharashidze: Wall People

Photo collages, panels, alu dibond, Wall People by Eka SharashidzePhoto collages, panels, alu dibond, Wall People by Eka SharashidzePhoto collages, panels, alu dibond, Wall People by Eka SharashidzePhoto collages, panels, alu dibond, Wall People by Eka SharashidzeArchitectural photo collage by Eka SharashidzeOriginally from Georgia, but now living and working in Berlin, Eka Sharashidze creates photo collages. Her series Wall People caught my eye. In these images, the panels almost look like paintings, (though that may not be the case in person) but, if I understand correctly (my Georgian and German are a bit rusty, as in I don’t speak either at all), Eka sets up her camera facing a big white wall and shoots the passersby collecting photographs of people going about their everyday business, from walking to biking, to standing and pointing. She then proceeds to take these images, often repeating many of them, (which makes for an interesting effect), other times placing the images sequentially illustrating the progression of time, and, finally, printing them onto aluminum panels. Sharashidze has some nice architectural photo collages as well.

via artreview

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Lael Marshall: Domestic Assemblages

Contemporary collages, sculptures, paintings using domestic cleaning materials.Contemporary collages, sculptures, paintings using domestic cleaning materials.Contemporary collages, sculptures, paintings using domestic cleaning materials.Contemporary collages, sculptures, paintings using domestic cleaning materials.Click to enlarge

New York City based artist Lael Marshall probably makes more trips to Kmart than the art supply store when making her art. Initially working out of her apartment, Marshall found that the domestic cleaning materials lying around started “creeping into” her work. The result? Mixed media collages, many of which are on vacuum cleaner bags; dish towel paintings; and soap sculptures, including a series of soap cameras.

Playful, fun, and sustainable!

Photos courtesy of the artist and Bric Arts
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Li Hongjun: Topographic Paper Sculptures

Amazing paper sculpture of heads, topographic, Chinese contemporary art, rotated headcool paper sculpture of heads, topographic, Chinese contemporary art, distorted headsAmazing paper sculpture of heads, topographic, Chinese contemporary art, rotated headAmazing paper sculpture of heads, topographic, Chinese contemporary art, rotated headClick to enlarge

Li Hongjun lives and works in Beijing, though originally from Shaanxi Province in China. His life has been split between peasant and artist, with a break in the 90s and then returning to his art at middle age in 2006.

His paper sculptures are almost like architectural or mathematical models with their topographic style. Using layers and layers of paper to create this topology, Hongjun utilizes negative and positive shapes, as well as rotation and skewing, resulting in a very impressive effect. He combines both eastern and western paper cutting methods to create his distortions.

via PIFO Gallery