RSS
 

Posts Tagged ‘Eerie’

Ghost Ship: Wire Mesh Sails Make an Eerie Sight in Italy’s Bay of Sapri

24 Aug

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

A ghostly ship sails through the Bay of Sapri in Southern Italy, just translucent enough for onlookers to doubt whether they’re imagining it, its silhouette obscured by a jumble of rectilinear columns. The latest wire mesh masterwork by artist Edoardo Tresoldi, ‘Locus’ is a collaboration with Italian musician IOSONOUNCANE, bringing sculpture and music together in a public performance enjoyed by a crowd gathered on the nearby shore.

The musician debuted his unreleased composition during the installation, presented as part of Sapri’s Derive Festival, an experimental art, music and poetry project curated by Antonio Oriente. The combination of the ship’s visuals, the lighting, the music and the setting truly made it a one-of-a-kind experience, with the sounds amplified by the water.

“Sapri Bay become sone of the characterizing elements of the event, acquiring a temporal and performative dimension,” states the Derive website (translated from Italian. “Collaboration blends different contemporary languages, redefining the relationship between audience and artist in a kind of hic et nunc [here and now] unrepeatable.”

Edoardo Tresoldi is known for his eerily beautiful wire compositions, which are typically architectural in nature, recreating entire classical and historic structures like echoes of churches that fell into ruins centuries ago and palatial interior installations augmented by flying birds.

Share on Facebook





[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Ghost Ship: Wire Mesh Sails Make an Eerie Sight in Italy’s Bay of Sapri

Posted in Creativity

 

Abandoned Montage: VFX Film Technique Adapted to Eerie Art Series

14 Jan

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

abandoned-interiors-main

Photographs of abandoned houses and dreary, overgrown landscapes are layered with hand-painted elements on glass panels in a technique called ‘matte painting’, one of the original VFX techniques used in filmmaking. Disparate imagery comes together in a way that doesn’t quite make sense, placing entire forests inside the darkened parlor of a deteriorating mansion or pairing wallpaper-like landscape scenes with real greenery inside a partially collapsed room.

abandone-interiors-2

abandoned-interiors-3

Artist Suzanne Moxhay, based in London, utilizes this early 20th century filmmaking technique – which was also used in more recent motion pictures like Star Wars, Mary Poppins, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Birds – as the basis for each of her unsettling scenes. On live-action sets, paintings on glass would be integrated with the camera to become part of the scene.

abandoned-interiors-4

abandoned-interiors-main

abandoned-inteirors-5

Instead of creating hers in situ, Moxhay draws from an archive of collected images and her own photography, building up the images in her studio using cutout fragments of the source material, which she makes into tiny stage sets on glass panels. Then, she takes a photo of the result, finally manipulating them digitally to remove them even further from their original context and make them into something entirely new.

abandoned-interiors-6

abandoned-interiors-8

“In my recent work I have been exploring concepts of spatial containment in montages built from fragments of photographed and painted interiors,” says Moxhay. “Architectures are disrupted by analogous elements – contradictory light sources, faulty perspective, paradoxes of scale. Light casts shadows in the wrong direction, walls fail to meet in corners, an area of the image can be seen either as an enclosing wall or dark overcast sky.”

Share on Facebook





[ By SA Rogers in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Abandoned Montage: VFX Film Technique Adapted to Eerie Art Series

Posted in Creativity

 

Kid Stuffed: 10 More Eerie Abandoned Orphanages

28 Nov

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

more-abandoned-orphanages-2a

Little orphans any? Not so much these days thanks to fostering and improved economies, the result being many former orphanages have been left eerily abandoned.

more-abandoned-orphanages-2b

more-abandoned-orphanages-2c

While many orphanages were built from scratch back in the day, others (mainly in the UK) occupied vacant country homes sold by latter-day aristocrats laid low by falling incomes and rising tax rates. Such was the case of the now-abandoned Bramham Children’s Home in West Yorkshire, England.

more-abandoned-orphanages-2e

more-abandoned-orphanages-2d

more-abandoned-orphanages-2f

Dating from 1806, the building was owned by the Ramsden family until 1947 when they sold the rambling pile to the West Riding County Council Children’s Department for the princely sum of £8,000 (roughly $ 10,000 at the time)… about £350,000 ($ 435,000) in today’s money. In its new incarnation as the Bramham Children’s Home, the orphanage only housed 35 children in 1970 cared for by about 16 staff. Not too shabby! By the early 1980s the orphanage had closed yet the building still stands, as photo-documented by Imgur user LeeRielly in August of 2016.

Freinetschool Kasteel De Wip

more-abandoned-orphanages-3b

more-abandoned-orphanages-3a

more-abandoned-orphanages-3c

The Freinetschool Kasteel De Wip, located in Wezemaal, Belgium operated for well over a century: from 1880 through 2008 to be exact. At the time of its closing due to dangerous structural decay, the building housed 54 live-in students divided into 3 preschool classes and 6 primary school classes.

more-abandoned-orphanages-3f

more-abandoned-orphanages-3e

more-abandoned-orphanages-3d

For the past 8-odd years, this exquisite little “castle” has continued to deteriorate with camera-toting explorers such as urbex.nl having to deal with rotten floors, the state of which worsened between visits in 2011 and 2014.

Silverlands

more-abandoned-orphanages-1a

more-abandoned-orphanages-1b

more-abandoned-orphanages-1c

Silverlands, located in Chertsey, Surry, UK can trace its roots back to 1814 when a local brewer invested his prodigious profits in a grand country home. In 1938, The Actor’s Orphanage backed by none other than Noël Coward took over the home but by 1958 the cost of urgent structural repairs had made the orphanage economically non-viable.

more-abandoned-orphanages-1e

more-abandoned-orphanages-1f

more-abandoned-orphanages-1d

In the late 1990s, local governmental authorities floated a proposal to re-establish Silverlands as a live-in clinic for pedophiles. Local residents opposed to the plan mounted a candlelight vigil (presumably they were fresh out of torches and pitchforks) and got the council to change their minds. Photographers Stacey Louise and Tim Barber visited the still-magnificent remains of Silverlands in early 2015, returning with a visual record of its former opulence.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Kid Stuffed 10 More Eerie Abandoned Orphanages

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Kid Stuffed: 10 More Eerie Abandoned Orphanages

Posted in Creativity

 

Baroque and Broken: Eerie Paintings in Abandoned Places

24 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

ted pim 1

Shuffling through ancient paint chips, dead leaves and empty bottles in an abandoned and dilapidated building, you turn a corner and register a human figure emerging from the darkness in a haze of flesh tones and pale fabric. It might take a moment to realize that it’s not a real person, but rather a painting in the style of the old masters, rendered right there on the gritty wall like an heirloom left behind when the place was vacated.

ted pim 2

ted pim 3

Working under an assumed name, Belfast artist Ted Pim has spent the last ten years traveling the world, creating these eerie works inside abandoned buildings. He spends days alone completing each work armed with no more than his paints, industrial torches and a camera.

ted pim 4

Ted Pim 5

Aside from anyone who might have stumbled upon them unknowingly, no one has seen these works prior to Pim publishing the photos on his website and on Instagram in June 2015. The artist documented each painting and kept the images in a folder all these years. Private collectors in London and New York City recently purchased all of his completed works on canvas, and more are coming in winter 2015.

ted pim 6

“I was drawn to abandoned buildings as I liked the contrast of painting detailed, Baroque-inspired pieces inside dark, neglected structures,” Pim tells WebUrbanist. “These buildings provided me with the perfect atmosphere to create my pieces, with the end result often reflecting my surroundings- haunting, dark figures.”

ted pim 7

“The paintings usually take a few days, and I never return to the building. All my images were taken on an old analog camera and printed and scanned (the reason for fingerprints on some of the images.)”

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Art & Photography & Video. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Baroque and Broken: Eerie Paintings in Abandoned Places

Posted in Creativity

 

Stopping Shopping: Eleven Eerie Abandoned Supermarkets

16 Mar

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned supermarkets Foodland 1a
Aisle be back… NOT! These closed and abandoned supermarkets give us a preview of the coming apocalypse – zombie or otherwise – when shopping simply stops.

abandoned supermarkets Foodland 1b

Once bustling, busy and brightly lit, abandoned supermarkets evoke a certain type of grim dreariness tinged with decay so palpable one can smell it… or is that just the foetid aroma of a packaged meat section needing a cleaning it’ll never get?

abandoned supermarkets Foodland 1c

abandoned supermarkets Foodland 1d

Credit Flickr user Wampa-One for choosing an ominously overcast day in November of 2011 to capture this abandoned and label-scarred Foodland store in St Louis, MO, and for returning almost a year later as it was being demolished.

Blue On Blue

abandoned supermarkets 9a

abandoned supermarkets 9b

Still abandoned but what a remarkable contrast from that doomed Foodland! Formerly a Vietnamese supermarket in San Jose, CA’s Japantown, this seafoam green & white supermarket once offered shoppers an eclectic range of SEAFOOD, GROCERY, GROCERY and ORIENTAL FOOD. Flickr users Travis Wise (Photographing Travis) and Paul George (snowcrash98), respectively, bring us the above images snapped on different blue-skied days in 2014.

Unfree Market

abandoned supermarkets GDR 3a

abandoned supermarkets GDR 3b

Mr. Gorbachev tore down that wall but unaccountably left this Stalinist supermarket standing – go figure. Snazzy blue stripes notwithstanding, the former supermarket from the former East Germany no doubt offered shoppers a typical variety of Warsaw Pact specialties such as cinderblock-sized bars of soap, left boots, and rendered horse-hoof jello.

abandoned supermarkets GDR 3c

abandoned supermarkets GDR 3d

Shopper also enjoyed free parking for their two-stroke Trabants, a bonus in a land where “free” was a four-letter word. Credit Flickr user Patrick Scholl (.patrick.) for visiting this abandoned DDR supermarket in January of 2013, camera in hand.

Terminal ACME

abandoned supermarkets Egg Harbor City 4c

abandoned supermarkets Egg Harbor City 4b

abandoned supermarkets Egg Harbor City 4a

New Jersey doesn’t get much bleaker than this seriously abandoned ACME supermarket in Egg Harbor City – and that’s saying something. Flickr user Kevin Jarrett (kjarrett) visited the decrepit and decaying market situated off US Route 30 on December 14th of 2014, and came back with the above images of retail despair.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Stopping Shopping Eleven Eerie Abandoned Supermarkets

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Stopping Shopping: Eleven Eerie Abandoned Supermarkets

Posted in Creativity

 

Shafted: 10 Eerie Unused & Abandoned Mine Winding Towers

02 Mar

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1
When coal mines get the shaft, only abandoned winding towers remain to mark the places where Earth’s underground bounty was winched to the surface.

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1c

Coal and metal ores are finite resources, the extraction of which requires a huge investment in machinery and infrastructure. When a site’s prime resource runs out, however, it often isn’t economically viable to move the massive infrastructure to a new location.

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1a

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1b

Such was the case at the Winterslag coal mine in northeastern Belgium, which opened in 1917 and closed in 1988. Flickr user Geoffrey Alfano (Geoffrey Vlassaks) visited the complex in June of 2011, subsequently posting a host of evocative HDR images.

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1d

abandoned mine winding tower Belgium 1e

The mine’s quarry, slag dumps, factory buildings and matching pair of winding towers have all been “recultivated” and preserved in recent years, with additional construction resulting in a unique tourist attraction: the C-MINE cultural center.

Super Yooper

abandoned mine winding tower Michigan 2a

abandoned mine winding tower Michigan 2b

Old iron mines need love (and winding towers) too. The Cliffs Shaft Mine complex (now a museum) in Ishpeming on Michigan’s rugged Upper Peninsula operated from 1868 through 1967, and in 1992 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The abandoned mine’s oldest winding towers date from 1919 and were built in the Egyptian Revival style. Like many actual ancient Egyptian monuments, this 97-foot tall tower still looks impressive today.

Polish Precedent

abandoned mine winding tower Poland 3a

abandoned mine winding tower Poland 3b

abandoned mine winding tower Poland 3c

Flickr user Rafal Nalepa (Rafal N.) visited the Prezydent coal mine in Chorzów, Poland back in October of 2010 and came back with a wealth of striking images of this former Silesian coal mine and its surprisingly stylish winding tower.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Shafted 10 Eerie Unused Abandoned Mine Winding Towers

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Shafted: 10 Eerie Unused & Abandoned Mine Winding Towers

Posted in Creativity

 

Chapter 11: Eleven Eerie Closed & Abandoned Libraries

02 Feb

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Better dead than read? Though the librarians’ shushing days are long past, you still won’t find many places quieter than these 11 abandoned libraries.

abandoned library 33b

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

abandoned library 33d

abandoned library 33e

When the Soviet Union finally fell, it fell hard… just like the uncountable number of books, pamphlets and manuals at this abandoned scientific and technical library somewhere in Russia. While a case may be made for tech manuals being out of date and thus superfluous, there’s still something to be said about the terrible waste of knowledge almost completely covering the former library’s floors. The above images were taken in March of 2008 by jst-ru.

Stitched Panorama

Our valiant photo-documentarian returned to the abandoned library in February of 2011 only to witness an unbelievable sight: every last trashed book had been removed and the floors swept so clean they could practically be eaten off of! Who could have done this and what happened to all of those books? Somehow one doubts the literature was salvaged and donated to other libraries; instead we’re guessing someone in the neighborhood enjoyed a warmer winter than usual.

Outta Cass

abandoned library 1c

abandoned library 1a

Cass Technical High School in Detroit, Michigan opened in 1917, and twenty-five years later the eight-story brick & limestone edifice was the largest high school in the state with 4,200 students attending. Among the school’s more noteworthy alumni are singer Diana Ross and musician Jack White, both of whom no doubt visited the school’s well-stocked library to research their projects.

abandoned library 1d

abandoned library 1b

In 2005, however, Cass Tech moved to a new building leaving quite a lot behind in the old one. Are those metal detectors just inside the library’s doors? These incredible “Now and Then” images from Detroiturbex superimpose the Cass’s vibrant past onto its sorry present.

It’s Miller Time!

abandoned library 4a

abandoned library 4b

abandoned library 4c

“The Miller Avenue Library in Oakland has been abandoned for a few years, it seems”, according to Flickr user aaron.michels, who captured the above images on May 22nd of 2008. One clue alluding to the time of its abandonment is the discarded library card of a presumed twenty-something born in 1955. Pornstache FTW!

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Chapter 11 Eleven Eerie Closed Abandoned Libraries

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Chapter 11: Eleven Eerie Closed & Abandoned Libraries

Posted in Creativity

 

Big Miss Steak: 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

08 Sep

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 1
As the disconnect between the meat we eat and the places it’s processed grows, so does the number of urban and suburban abandoned meat packing plants.

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 2

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 3

Take the former Swift and Company meat packing plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The plant first opened in March of 1904 but by the 1950s, the consequences of local droughts and the reduced importance of the historic Fort Worth Stockyards saw the Swifts plant enter a long period of decline – it finally closed in 1971.

abandoned Swifts meat packing plant Fort Worth Texas 4

Even closure and abandonment couldn’t reverse the Fort Worth Swifts meat packing plant‘s spiral into decay. In the 1970s, two major fires reduced most of the plant’s buildings to ruins leaving only the firm’s administrative offices still salvageable: in the 1980s the building housed an Old Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. More recently, one of the plant’s buildings acted as a very believable prison in the TV series Prison Break. Kudos to Flickr user Noel Kerns for capturing the Swift plant’s eerie afterlife in 2008 and 2009.

Forst To Close

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 1

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 2

abandoned Old Forst meat packing plant Kingston NY 3

Flickr user richie 59 fired up the wayback machine to post these two images of the decrepit red brick Old Forst meat packing plant in Kingston, New York. The first two photos date from early 1982 while the third was snapped in 1985. As for Old Forst, it was demolished in 2006 when developers planned to build a 7-story hotel (which ended up not being built).

Hello, Neuhoff

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 1

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 2

abandoned Neuhoff meat packing plant Nashville TN 3

The former Neuhoff Meat Packing plant is located in northern Nashville, Tennessee, just six blocks from the State Capitol building… one imagines summer legislative sessions must have been unbearable when the wind rose. The plant closed in 1979 after decades of operation on a site that hosted a slaughterhouse for some time before the Neuhoffs even arrived. The abandoned meat packing plant is at long last being cleaned up, however, as the main buildings are being re-purposed as a mixed-use development focused on arts and ecology. A tip of the hat to Flickr user Eva Wood who snapped these striking scenes of neglect and decay in October of 2008.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Big Miss Steak 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Big Miss Steak: 10 Eerie Abandoned Meat Packing Plants

Posted in Creativity

 

Cracked Mirrors: 12 More Eerie Abandoned Observatories

26 May

[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

abandoned observatories_main
These twelve abandoned observatories tell no universal tales; their heavenly visions now fatally fogged as their expansive domes lie locked and shuttered.

Odorheiu Secuiesc Observatory, Romania

Odorheiu Secuiesc Romania abandoned observatory(images via: Jakab Aron Csaba)

Vlad the Observer? The abandoned observatory in Odorheiu Secuiesc, Transylvania, Romania was abandoned before it was even operational. Construction began in 1889… make that 1989 (images can deceive) under the auspices of the autocratic Ceausescu regime which was rapidly nearing a violent end. By 1990, Romania had shrugged off communism and pre-approved projects like the observatory at Odorheiu Secuiesc found their funding cut off.

Truro Observatory, Cornwall, UK

abandoned observatory Truro Cornwall(images via: Belief In Ruins and UER)

Considering the reputation England has for inclement weather, was building an observatory in Cornwall really such a great idea? A group of amateur astronomers thought so, and in 2000 they demonstrated their confidence by volunteering time, materials and skills to build two domes with plans on paper for a third. The group was also confident local and regional governments would contribute funding to support the project, which in hindsight (and even foresight) was a huge mistake. By 2002 the project was deep in debt, all work stopped and vandalism began. A pity these so-called observers weren’t more, er, observant.

Lamont–Hussey Observatory, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Lamont-Hussey abandoned observatory  Bloemfontein South Africa(images via: U-M Astronomy and Joe Mynhardt)

The stately Lamont–Hussey Observatory located on naval Hill in the city of Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa, opened in 1928 and featured a 27-inch (0.69 m) refracting telescope. Conceived, built, owned and operated by the University of Michigan, the Lamont–Hussey Observatory closed in 1972 after its usefulness as an astronomical instrument had been superseded by numerous other such facilities.

Daniel S. Schanck Observatory, New Jersey, USA

Daniel S. Schanck Rutgers abandoned observatory(images via: Wikipedia/Tomwsulcer, AFAR and Rutgers Rarities Investigations)

Few abandoned buildings look as good as the Greek Revival-style Daniel S. Schanck Observatory, located on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Architect Willard Smith took inspiration from the Tower of the Winds in Athens, Greece when designing the octagonal observatory building, which opened in 1865. After the observatory closed in the 1960s, the building suffered from neglect and occasional vandalism before being cosmetically renovated by Wu & Associates, Inc in 2012.

Next Page – Click Below to Read More:
Cracked Mirrors 12 More Eerie Abandoned Observatories

Share on Facebook





[ By Steve in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Cracked Mirrors: 12 More Eerie Abandoned Observatories

Posted in Creativity

 

Empty Spaces: Photo Book Documents Eerie Urban Ruins

13 May

[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 1

Crumbling cathedrals, decaying theaters and half-destroyed camping cabins: urban explorer Johnny Joo has seen it all, and he doesn’t just document these abandoned places, he does so with an eye for spine-tingling drama. The 23-year-old photographer is releasing his collection of stunning images in book form with ‘Empty Spaces,’ available for pre-order for just a couple more days.

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 2

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 5

The 116-page, hard-cover photo book ‘Empty Spaces’ includes the photographer’s favorites from years of urban exploration. Pre-orders come hand-signed with a free gift; the book is also available in E-book form. Order it at Architectural Afterlife. 

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 3

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 4

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 6

The photographs take us on a visual tour of the abandoned Rust Belt. Some structures are so covered in moss and ivy, their former use is a mystery. Others, like bowling alleys and theaters, seem frozen in time, as if they’re just waiting for patrons to start filing back in.

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 7

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 8

Johnny Joo Abandoned Places Photography 9

Why were these places vacated? And why are they left to sit, uncared for? The remains of a person’s bedroom, bed still intact, covered in a layer of mold and dust. Walls surrounding with cracked complexions and vivid, yet transparent voices telling a story of time. Living through the history of abandonments as you explore what once was an entirely different scene; now transformed into a desolate, yet incredible, stimulating image of complex patterns and great detail. Through this book, we will take a journey through the rust belt to see the unseen and find the forgotten.”

Share on Facebook





[ By Steph in Abandoned Places & Architecture. ]

[ WebUrbanist | Archives | Galleries | Privacy | TOS ]


WebUrbanist

 
Comments Off on Empty Spaces: Photo Book Documents Eerie Urban Ruins

Posted in Creativity