Baptiste Debombourg’s Aerial
Description trendland
Baptiste Debombourg, of staple art fame, has just released his latest work: Aerial. “The mind is everything. The material is the servant of spiritual,” is the simple description of the site-specific installation now at the Abbey Brauweiler in Germany, which took 420 hours and two tons of glass to accomplish.
The French artist is known to document all the time and material spent creating each work, asking the rhetorical question, “What if I were the first artist to get paid by the hour?” This would be quite something for Baptiste, whose eye-catching works tend to be larger than life, both in galleries, outdoor sites, and in public spaces. A majority of his works (also seen here) focus on shattered glass and other elements, playing with the opposing ideas of construction and deconstruction.
“Destruction, like construction, is a human expression and a paradox of life because it is can be both good and evil. My personal point of view is that destruction is inevitably linked to repair.”
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Kenichi Kanazawa visualizes sound using rainbow-colored sand
Description spoon&tamago
Japanese artist Kenichi Kanazawa visualizes sound by manipulating multicolored sand atop a steel tabletop. The study of visible sound is apparently known as cymatics and, in this case, is demonstrated by a rubber mallet that creates vibrations, moving the grains of sand to create beautiful and colorful patterns.
Originally a sculptor by trade, Kanazawa began working with steel and sound in 1987 after collaborating with the late sound artist Hiroshi Yoshimura. Today, his work primarily involves elements like sound, vibration and heat: making the invisible, visible.
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Lifes of grass
Description originale
Soil, wheat seeds, structure from recycled metal, fabric. Photos © Matthieu Raffard.
Exhibited at the 2010 Crossing the Line FIAF Festival at Invisible Dog Gallery, Brooklyn, NY ; at the French Institute Alliance Française FGH Theater hall, NY ; at Brooklyn Utopias: Farm City at The Old Stone House Gallery, Brooklyn, NY and at the Anatomia Botanica exhibition at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art, Nashville.
The Lifes of Grass sculptures show the effects of transformation of the material as a metaphor of the transformation of the body. Time sculpts the forms, makes them change and then decay. In Egyptian Mythology, Osiris is the God of renewal, the one who eternally comes back to life. He is also the personification of the fertile land and the natural cycles: death and rebirth, dryness and fertility. The natural world, ingested as food becomes a component of human being. Through these anthropomorphic and organic sculptures made of soil and wheat grass seeds, I strive to show that food, it’s origin, it’s transport, has an impact on us beyond it’s taste. The power inside it affects every organ of our body. Observing nature and being aware of what and how we eat makes us more sensitive to food cycles in the world - of abundance, of famine - and allows us to be physically, intellectually and spiritually connected to a global reality.
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Yasuaki Onishi
Description emptykingdom
The conceptual body-scape is a theory… convoluted through form and formation. Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi’s series ‘Reverse of Volume’ establishes this intricate premise which is about to premiere at the Rice Gallery in Houston, Texas. “I am interested in the visible and the invisible thing. Through my art work, I get information from the space and leave clues on the space. Form, color and movement is changed to the simple element, like points, lines and lights.” -Yasuaki Onishi
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Crumbling Staircase Made of Salt
Description mymodernmet
Earlier this month, we were awestruck by Japanese artist Motoi Yamamoto’s incredibly detailed salt maze floor installations and continue to be mesmerized by the art he creates with his medium of choice. As Alice first explained, “Salt has a special place in the death rituals of Japan, and is often handed out to people at the end of funerals, so they can sprinkle it on themselves to ward off evil.” While the material holds great personal significance for Yamamoto, who had to come to terms with the tragic death of his sister at a young age, this piece reflects on the devastating effects of earthquakes.
The sculptural salt staircase known as Utsusemi is an amazing body of work that has been presented several times in Japan and even made its way to P.S.1 in New York. It is more than a simple stationary piece. The work, though sculptural in its structure, has an interactive element to it. Blocks of salt are stacked atop each other to form a narrow flight of stairs that crumble at the presence of a simulated earthquake. At once, the piece echoes architectural ruin as well as the pouring of salt for the lives lost in the aftermath of the natural disaster that is so prevalent in Japan.
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Beverly Semmes’ Surreal Installations
Description trendland
Artist Beverly Semmes has shown her work in museums all around the world. She first won attention with her monumental dresses and other large-scale clothing that powerfully invoked the female body and touched on gender and feminism. Semmes explores the power of clothing and its ability to influence and define who we are.
see more of her work here http://www.beverlysemmesstudio.com/
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Key Frames: Groupe LAPS
Description collabcubed
Key Frames is a light installation created by the French design/artist studio Groupe LAPS — six artists and designers with combined expertise and technical know-how who work in film development, light installations, and multimedia applications. Using LED light tubes, Key Frames consists of multiple static stick figures that, when paired with a dance soundtrack, flash on and off in a choreographed display that evokes movement. Totally fun.
Originally designed for the Fête des Lumieres 2011 in Lyon, France, Key Frames was just included as part of the iLight festival at Marina Bay in Singapore.
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Second story: vault of the secret coca-cola formula
Description designboom
the ‘vault of the second story’ experience presents the history behind coca cola’s secret formula
Composing twelve interactive installations and games, the ‘vault of the secret formula’ was created by US-based creative agency second story interactive studio, in collaboration with donna lawrence productions and gallagher & associates for coca-cola.
As visitors step through the huge vault door at the ‘world of coca-cola’ in atlanta, georgia (USA), they are transported into a tale about the most famous and mysterious trade secret in history—the secret formula of coca-cola. second story studio crafted a narrative experience to delight and surprise visitors and challenge their ideas about what is fiction and what is truth about the secret formula.
‘We conceived of media and design strategies flowing from the two aspects of the secret formula: the secrecy and mystery surrounding it, and the fun that comes from simply enjoying the product. this concept fueled the design and development of twelve media experiences that help deliver the visitor toward the exhibit’s cinematic climax.’
See and read more about particular exhibitions of the show below, and at the ‘vault of the secret formula’ web portal!
a security monitor on the wall shows a live feed of the room. as visitors turn the corner, they see themselves captured
as part of the security system. but this security monitor is not what it seems.
suddenly, a mysterious figure, the man in the hat, appears and physically manipulates the camera. as he does, live video
overlays change the image: now it’s thermal, now it’s pixelated. this effect is performed using live compositing of a real-time
video feed.
“security” images from previous homes of the secret formula are “revealed”
visitors stop to watch for the man in the hat
real-time video compositing creates mysterious effects
on a touchscreen in a pullout drawer, visitors can explore the various homes of coca-cola
when they open a drawer, visitors are surprised to find a screen in which they are immersed in a 3D digital world with a mysterious character.
this part of the exhibit, which is reminiscent of late-nineteenth-century pharmacies and soda fountains, contains shelves
with artifacts and dozens of wooden drawers that can be opened and explored to find vintage documents, bottles, and other ephemera.
to the surprise of visitors who open this drawer, however, they find a screen on another security monitor. they see themselves
from an unusual angle, directly overhead. their image is scanned, and then amazingly they are transformed into 3D computer data.
suddenly, the mysterious man in the hat, walks through the scene. when visitors turn around, he’s not really there!
this unit utilizes a microsoft kinect depth-sensing camera, which turns visitors into data point clouds and immerses them
into the security theme. this motif returns again and again in the exhibit, helping to create a consistent storyline.
the formula file videos are motion graphics pieces that tell stories of the secret formula
on the reactive shadow walls, microsoft kinects are used to create virtual shadows, which visitors use to reveal information
the bubble-izers use kinect depth-sensing cameras to transform visitors into bubbles
live footage - in this interactive game, visitors try to create the perfect coca-cola taste blend
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Los Carpinteros Surrealist Sculptures
Description trendland
Large scale paintings, sculptures and installations are just a few of the creations seen here by Havana-based artist collective Los Carpinteros. Formed in 1994 at by Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés and Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez (with fellow Cuban Alexandre Arrechea until his departure in 2003), Los Carpinteros operate in the tradition of guild artisans and laborers, renouncing the idea of individual authorship in favor of group collaboration. Inspired by the materials, Los Carpinteros’ process investigates the way art is made. Mixing architecture, design and sculpture, the pieces are first conceived in drawings, then carefully executed in their studio with wood and hand tools, fabricated in way of a carpenter. The beguiling end result–handsome construction, unexpected contradictions, and a playful dose of humor.
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Thousands of Plastic Figures Hold Up the Floor
Description mymodernmet
One of the most exciting contemporary artists of our time, Korean Do Ho Suh, created this large sculptural installation that doesn’t look like much until you come closer. Glass plates rest on thousands of multicolored miniature plastic figures who are crowded together with their heads and arms turned skyward. Together, they are holding the weight of the individual visitor who steps onto the floor.
Currently showing at Lehmann Maupin’s pop-up gallery at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI), Floor is one of those installations that’s wonderfully thought-provoking. The figures represent the diverse and anonymous masses of people who support and/or resist the symbolic floor.
This installation can be seen, alongside works by artists Teresita Fernández, Ashley Bickerton, and Lee Bui, from now till February 11, 2012.
DO HO SUH
Floor, 1997-2000
Installation at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
PVC Figures, Glass Plates, Phenolic Sheets, Polyurethane Resin
40 parts each:
39.37 x 39.37 x 3.15 inches
100 x 100 x 8 cm
Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
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Recapturing Reality
Description illusionscene360
The outdoor art installations of Chris Engman. His work “takes the human condition as its central theme and examines the most fundamental of issues: the inexplicable fact of our existence, the ungraspable experience of time, and the illusive and unknowable nature of reality.” [1]
1. "Artist Statement." Chrisengman.com. Retrieved on March 11th, 2012. Photos © Chris Engman Link via Eric G.
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Cai Guo-Qiang
Description emptykingdom
Cai Guo-Qiang is a veteran installation artist from China, currently based out of New York. He’s studied stage design at the Shanghai Theater Academy, so naturally his work is presented in an epic, awe-inspiring setting. He crosses multiple mediums within art, including film, drawing, performance pieces and even painting with gunpowder.
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Forest of Beyond by Motoi Yamamoto
Description spoon-tamago
Currently on display through March 11 at the Hakone Open Air Museum is Motoi Yamamoto‘s sculpture, “Forest of Beyond.” The artist, who is well known for creating large-scale sculptures, especially mazes, out of salt, has created a massively intricate installation that resembles the far-reaching roots of a tree.
Yamamoto originally started working with salt after he lost his sister, who died from brain cancer. As a way to honor her and preserve her memory, Yamamoto chose salt – 1 of 5 elements in the Shinto tradition that symbolize purification.
On March 11 – the 1-year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami – Yamamoto has invited visitors to help him disassemble his installation. Proceedings will begin at 3:00pm and attendees will be asked to take the salt with them and return it to the sea, thereby completing the cycle. The artwork itself will disappear but the salt will go on and support many living organisms to come. If you are up to it, the artist has also asked for you to send in pictures of yourselves returning the salt to the sea.
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絵に描いたようなオアシス、ゴビ砂漠
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New work from Olly Moss.
