Click to enlargeIn the past month I’ve come across a few works made of traffic cones, so I decided to explore more and see what else is out there. Here are some of my favorites; from installations and sculptures to traffic cone inspired graphic design.
Click to enlargeThe British company Architects of Air is based in Nottingham UK in a 4000 sq ft former textile workshop. There, since 1992, they spend 6 months out of the year creating luminariums and the other 6 months touring to several countries exhibiting them. “What is a luminarium?” you may be asking yourself right about now. Luminaria are monumental inflatable structures that contain a maze of winding tunnels and soaring domes displaying the beauty of light and color. There are six different designs each made up of about 20 elements zipped together on site to occupy a 1000 sq. meter area. The most recent design is Miracoco which was launched this past summer, 2011, but there were 4 other models that toured this summer as well.
They all look spectacular to me. Architects of Air have mounted these structures at 500 exhibits in 37 countries. Though I see on their timeline that they’ve had installations in New York in the 1990s, being that I missed those I vote for a summer 2012 NYC installation. Or maybe as part of next year’s Bring to Light Festival.
Click to enlargeSpanish street artist Nuria Mora (previous post) who we know more for her colorful large-scale abstract murals, also creates 3D street art. In the past several months Mora has been taking over public ad spaces (lit marquee-style ad boxes; do those have a name?) and inserting her origami paper sculptures that can be seen from both sides – as well as highlighted by light at night – on main thoroughfares in Madrid. I like everything about these: the idea of replacing ads with art; the origami pieces themselves; the way she blocks out the glass to create a window specific to her piece; and the happy quality of it all.
Though a different anti-ad street art approach, there is some connection to Graffiti Research Lab’s 2007 video screen intervention in NYC. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you check it out here.
But getting back to Nuria Mora, visit her site for much more of her lovely work.
Click to enlargeThe Dutch, three-person art collective We Make Carpets (previous post) recently made a paperboat carpet for a party hosted by Die Like Disco at Area 51 skate park in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Constructed of A5 size paper folded into little boats, the carpet seems to have had blue and red lights projected onto it, adding another dimension to the already impressive “carpet”.
Click on images for detail.Norwegian artist Nils Viga Hausken works in a variety of mediums, but in the past ten years much of his work has consisted of cross stitch on linen. This embroidery work deals with aspects of time and Nordic tradition. Some pieces play off of Nordic china patterns, while others are strictly type, in what seem to be political and humorous statements, but I can’t be sure since they’re in Norwegian or Danish. And then there are the Legos! The universal language of Lego. The digitized-looking pieces are embroidered to pixelated perfection, and, well, they’re just kind of fun.
The QR code series have curious names that make me wonder if they are actually scannable.
Viga Hausken also has an 18-piece cross stitch work titled No Time, showing the transformation of a butterfly into a QR code.
Spanning roughly 42 meters, this bicycle and pedestrian bridge called ‘The Twist’ bridge for its contorted and sculptural lines, connects the Holy-Zuid district and the Broekpolder over Vlaardingse Vaart in The Netherlands. Designed by West 8 Architects with structural engineers ABT, the bright red bridge makes for a lovely and striking surprise in the natural green setting.
And if you like this bridge you might also enjoy West 8’s three previous red undulating Bridges Borneo-Sporenburg.
Click to enlargeI saw a couple of Kees Goudzwaard’s paintings a few years ago and absolutely loved them. The Dutch artist who lives and works in Belgium, creates oil paintings that look like taped pieces of paper, but in fact are smooth surfaced paintings of taped pieces of paper. Not only is the trickery of it all fun, but the paintings themselves are beautiful. The seemingly overlapping layers are so skillfully reproduced – with subtle differences in color recreating the translucency of the layers – that you can’t help but stare in disbelief. The result: a lovely (and surprising) combination of abstract and realistic painting with a textural quality conveyed on a smooth canvas. Here’s a bit on his process:
In case you didn’t notice, I’m a fan.
You can see many more of Kees Goudzwaard’s paintings on his website.
The anonymous Spanish art collective Luzinterruptus like to use light as a raw material and the dark as their canvas to carry out urban interventions in public spaces and draw attention to problems in the city that often go unnoticed by people as well as the authorities.
Their most recent intervention, Walking in the Rain, took place on October 26th, the first day of rain after a completely dry summer in Madrid. In celebration of the rain and, thus, cleaner more breathable air, Luzinterruptus placed 50 illuminated rainboots in Parque del Oeste for a 10-hour period as encouragement to others to put on their own boots and walk happily through the rain.
You may also want to take a look at their two other recent interventions: Under Nuclear Threat and Public Art that you Fancy Touching.
Click to enlargeKnown for his massive scale silhouettes on city walls, Spanish street artist Sam3 has works in cities from Madrid to Lisbon, Cologne to Buenos Aires and even San Francisco, to name a few. I especially love the inverted silhouettes — I can’t believe there isn’t more of that in other street artists’ work. Also, the way he integrates the building façade in many of these (see third photo from top) is so clever and effective.
You can see more of Sam3’s work on his site, blog, and this flickr pool.
Click to enlargeDoroDesign, an Italian design firm founded by Dario Olivero and Stefano Ollino, aims to work with creative minds from a variety of cultures and backgrounds and make their visions reality in all design mediums from graphic to interior. Their Zero Collection represents the essence of the firm:
With just three cuts and two folds on a sheet of aluminum, the Zero Chair is a beautiful example of simple and minimalist design. The chaise longue and coat rack follow the same cut-out simplicity with beautiful lines. The product photos aren’t too shabby, either.
via behance
These photos of the hundreds of submerged vehicles at the flooded Honda Factory in Ayutthaya Province in Thailand are incredible. I didn’t know what it was until I read the caption. Apparently clean-up is underway as the flood waters begin to recede.
via design you trust
Click to enlargeAn anxious feeling infiltrates my chest a bit when looking at Dutch artist Marjan Teeuwen’s photographs, and yet I find it hard not to be pulled in. These crammed spaces that evoke a sense of claustrophobia and obsession are so jam-packed with objects that in some cases ceilings, floors and walls are hardly recognizable. Some of the photos have the objects set up by function, others by texture and color, but all have them packed in creating an oppressive and confined feeling. The photo series have titles like Archives and Destroyed House, that is if the free translator I used translated correctly.
Kind of crazy, but kind of cool, also.
You can see more of Teeuwen’s work here and here.
via cokkie snoei
Romanian artist Vlad Berte creates stone sculptures of everyday objects. His aim is to highlight what we tend to overlook yet influences us on a daily basis. He puts these objects front and center — in stone, no less.
How fun would it be to have those socks or shirt placed next to a statue in the Greek and Roman sculpture court at the Met?
via artnet
Click to enlargeJust when you think books are on their way out, the University of Chicago builds a new library that can hold 3.5 million volumes and deliver your requested book within minutes. The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, named after the couple who donated $25 million to the university, was designed by architect Helmut Jahn and completed last May. Both the top and bottom of the library are quite spectacular. The domed, 700-glass-panel reading room measuring around 8,000 square feet, pops up from the lawn, while underground, extending 50 feet deep, is a hi-tech automated storage and retrieval system that uses five mechanized robotic cranes, in conjunction with bar codes on the books, to retrieve any title quickly from the 24,000 metal bins used to store the books in optimal preservation conditions.
It’s all very impressive and the structural volumes, from the 120 foot x 240 foot clear span dome on top to the nearly 1,000,000 cubic feet of subterranean storage space, are challenges that were successfully tackled and executed by Halvorson and Partners Structural Engineers.
Thanks to tipster Elaine!
This past summer when we visited Istanbul, we popped into a gallery on a stroll down Istiklal Street, mostly because we recognized Ivan Navarro’s piece from the window. The show was Matter-Light 2 at the Borusan Muzik Evi. But this introduction is just to set the stage for the delightful surprise that ensued. While looking around the spare gallery at the various interesting light sculptures in the exhibit, suddenly, almost comically, and completely unexpectedly, a light bulb dipped down quickly and swiftly from the ceiling. And then another; and another. The artist behind this amusing curiosity is Swedish artist Christian Partos. The piece, titled E.L.O. (I am assuming a clever reference to, and/or appropriation of the name, the Electric Light Orchestra) consists of a roomful of light bulbs essentially dancing in the gallery. This is a permanent installation at the Borusan Music House (that’s the translation).
Seeing the stills really doesn’t do it justice, so here are two videos.
You can see more of Christian Partos’ work here, including his installation for a subway station in Malmö, Sweden.
Click to enlargeCalifornia artist Mary Button Durell creates paper sculptures using only tracing paper and wheat paste. They have been compared to cellular membranes and described as biomorphic abstractions; definitely organic in shape and feel. Though many of the works look as though built on a wire frame, that is not the case. The process involves extensive hand-building by the artist.
In addition, the translucent quality of the paper adds another dimension to the pieces.
You can see more of Mary Button Durell’s beautiful work on her site.
This app made me laugh. The Magritte Your World iPhone App is the creation of the Dorothy collective in Manchester, England, England. It was released to coincide with the René Magritte exhibit that ended last month at the Tate Liverpool.
Available here.
Click to enlargeThis has been making the rounds on facebook but I just came upon a whole set of images from the artist. The amazing Lego Army 3-D chalk drawing is by Dutch artist Leon Keer and the artist collective Planet Street Painting created for the Sarasota 2011 Chalk Festival in Florida. The drawing, based on the famous terracotta sculpture army of Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang, measures 30 x 40 feet and is drawn in such a way to fool the eye with depth and perception.
Apparently, there is a link between an 8-foot-tall Lego man that washed up overnight on October 25th at Siesta Key beach and Leon Keer’s drawing. Clever publicity stunt or coincidence? Either way, a very impressive feat.
CollabCubed 