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Posts Tagged ‘Sculptures’

Secrets Beneath Cities: Sculptures Inspired by Nintendo Games

12 Mar

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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“The underworld is more fun,” says Luke O’Sullivan, the artist who painstakingly crafts stunning cityscape sculptures with intricate subterranean sections inspired by the seemingly never-ending underground worlds in early Nintendo games like Super Mario Bros. Working primarily in wood and salvaged materials, O’Sullivan creates surreal multi-level spaces with platforms , trapdoors, buckets and ladders. It’s easy to imagine Mario jumping from one area to the next inside, popping out of tunnels, racking up mushrooms and avoiding goombas.

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“My work is about the intersection of built environments and subterranean systems,” says O’Sullivan in his artist statement. “Through the application of screen-printed drawings on wood, metal and other flat surfaces, I create architecturally based sculptures. Often inspired by dystopian and science fiction films, I combine recognizable architectural forms and impossible buildings to create diorama-esque works.”

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The largest piece he’s completed, “Industry, Entropy,” measures ten feet long and took over three years to complete. The artist describes it as a “milestone piece.” This one is wider than it is tall, but others are like individual islands of towering structures that rise high above the surface and plunge deep below it.

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Working in a restrained color palette, O’Sullivan keeps the above-ground sections of the cities relatively two-dimensional, hinting that the more detailed and literally well-rounded world beneath it is what’s really important. These subterranean areas seem full of secret functions, each one brimming with mysteries and begging to be explored. If only we could shrink ourselves down to climb around in them ourselves. See more on Instagram.

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3D Four Letter Words: Robert Indiana’s LOVE Sculptures

15 Feb

[ By Steve in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Looking for love in all the right places? Replicas of artist Robert Indiana’s iconic Pop Art “LOVE” sculpture have spread to the 4 corners of the globe.

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Robert Indiana (formerly Robert Clark) first expressed the essential iconography of “LOVE” in 1958 but it wasn’t until 1964 that the image garnered wide public notice, via a Christmas card commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. One of the first three-dimensional LOVE sculptures has stood, since 1970, in front of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

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Like many metal artworks designed to stand out in the open, the IMA’s LOVE sculpture is made from Cor-ten steel, an alloy that weathers to a rich, slightly iridescent, purplish-brown patina after years of seasonal changes. The sculpture measures 12′ x 12′ x 6′ and has recently undergone a structural and aesthetic restoration.

I LOVE New York

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There are currently around 50 LOVE sculptures installed in public and private spaces worldwide. Some are better-known than others, mainly due to their proximity to pedestrian traffic. One of the first NYC LOVE sculptures was installed at 59th Street and 5th Avenue in 1971, while perhaps the most prominent NYC LOVE sculpture stands at the corner of 6th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan. Kudos to Flickr users Chee917 and Robert Wright (wrightrkuk), who snapped the sculpture in 2012.

LOVE Is Blue

Vancouver LOVE sculpture

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Most of the world’s LOVE sculptures have red painted facades with blue or blue & green sides to match Indiana’s original MOMA card and popular USPS stamp. This isn’t a must, however, as Indiana famously neglected to properly copyright the work. This bright blue representation outside 1445 West Georgia Street in Vancouver, Canada (later moved) shares its blue & green color scheme with another LOVE sculpture located at the Park Mall in Singapore.

Reflections of LOVE

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Photographer Wassily from nl brings us the striking scene above. Featuring a large LOVE sculpture set into the reflecting pool outside the Langen Foundation’s main building in Neuss-Holzheim, Germany, the photo dates from 2005 shortly after the building opened.

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Sound Sculptures: Music Translated Into Transforming Objects

03 Dec

[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]

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An experiment in intentional synesthesia, this combination of sculpture, music and technology enables us to actually see the physical form of individual songs. ‘Reify’ is a collaborative project that creates a new way to experience music, transforming it into a tangible object that transforms before our eyes. So-called ‘totems’ are made to visually represent an artist’s song, and encoded with music and interactive visual experiences that can be viewed on a smartphone or tablet.

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Musicians, sculptors and app designers got together to build a platform that lets artists express their music in physical form. Each totem is a sculptural object in its own right, entirely unique in shape, 3D-printed from plastic or cast in bronze. Simply gazing upon these visual translations of sound is cool enough, but then comes the app that truly brings them to life.

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Load up the Stylus app, point your mobile device at the totem and you’ll be treated to an interactive visual experience that plays along with the song. “Each experience is unique in style and content,” say the designers. “Some are game-like. Some are conceptual explorations. Others are both… and neither. All are direct expressions of the artist’s creative vision.”

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While a Kickstarter campaign held in July didn’t raise enough funds to move forward with the project, it’s a really cool look into how various forms of creative expression will continue to evolve along with technology, and the potential for more crossover. Check out another cool project exploring what music looks like in 3D.

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Magic Circle: Laser-Cut Paper Sculptures Inspired by Nature

01 Dec

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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An artist known for spending untold hours painstakingly hand-cutting tiny paper sculptures inspired by diatoms, bacteria, viruses, coral and other natural structures has augmented his process with the precision of lasers. Rogan Brown submerges himself in careful study of the tiniest of living things, such as the microbes and pathogens mimicked in his series ‘Outbreak.’ With ‘Magic Circle,’ Brown places collections of these cut-outs into a large circular display measuring about 40 inches across.

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In his paper cuts, Brown “explores the boundaries between observational study and artistic interpretation, existing somewhere between scientific accuracy and pure, unbridled imagination.” While previous works have focused mostly on one type of microscopic organisms at a time, ‘Magic Circle’ brings a variety of them together in one piece.

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“This piece is part of a new series of works that mixes hand and laser cutting to create an incredibly detailed and varied visual texture making multiple references: coral, bacteria, pathogens, diatoms, etc… each motif is however completely fictive and imagined; it is this interplay between the imagination and the ‘real’ world that fascinates me, reality is transformed and estranged through the creative process which paradoxically makes the finished work more real and unique.”

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‘Magic Circle’ will be on display at Miami’s Aqua Art Fair, December 2nd through 6th. See more impressively intricate paper cuts in a range of styles, from dizzyingly complex patterns to tapestries that span several stories of a gallery.

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Drawing with Wire: Scribbled Sculptures Make Sketches 3D

07 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Scribbled sketches seem to leap off the page and hover in mid-air, filling out in three dimensions, in this impressive series of sculptures made from bent wire. Artist David Oliveira captures the essence of his subjects, whether they’re people or mountain lions, by studying their anatomy and translating their sense of vitality and movement into minimalist life-sized forms.

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Oliveira sees his works as existing on some other plane, like an abstracted echo of the physical bodies that exist in our reality. Twisting, looping and curving black wires, he sketches in air, and the resulting sculptures look as if they’ve been peeled off a piece of paper, enlarged and skewed like skeletons that were hidden inside each subject all along.

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As viewers, we look at these gestural impressions of living creatures and our minds fill in the blanks, suggesting to us what the real-life subjects must have looked like, how they must have moved. The sculptures are particularly effective when they’re hung from the ceiling in transparent thread, seeming to float.

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Art Made Flesh: 35 Sculptures Rendered in Human Skin & Hair

16 Jul

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Do these fleshy works of art manipulating human body parts into unnatural shapes make you uncomfortable? That’s probably just what the artist was going for. It’s difficult for us, as humans, to look upon images of our own flesh with emotional detachment, seeing it as we would the meat of other animals, or even as an organic medium for art and architecture. Don’t worry – most of these are not made of actual humans, but rather silicone, polymer clay and wax. Read on for a tent modeled on human intestines, a pillow made of human skin and the world’s grossest pair of stiletto heels.

Jonathan Payne
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Jonathan Payne calls these deeply repulsive sculptures ‘FLESHLETTES,’ and that name says a lot. They’re basically lumps of human viscera, teeth, eyes and hair put together into little miniature packages. You probably never wanted to see a nipple with teeth, but here one is, nonetheless.

Andrea Hasler
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A tent made of flesh, a giant lump of what looks like human fat serenely overlooking a cliff, and a series of disgusting handbags are among the organic works of Swiss artist Andrea Hasler, who aims to humanize objects with ‘emotional surfaces.’ The tent was modeled upon human intestines and is made of polystyrene and wax as well as leather and real blood.

Felix Deac

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Romanian artist Felix Deac creates amorphous blobs of flesh replete with veins, moles, wrinkles and hair. While some might look like deformed human body parts, most are just abstract shapes reminiscent of nightmarish tumors that have taken on a life of their own.

Patricia Piccinini

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Patricia Piccinini’s work is so shockingly realistic, photographs of it are often passed around the internet as clickbait, with people wondering ‘what the heck am I looking at?’ The controversial Australian artist creates sculptures of fantastical creatures with extremely human-like skin and hair.

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Art Made Flesh 35 Sculptures Rendered In Human Skin Hair

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Electronic Autopsy: 24 Sculptures Made of Computer Parts

29 Apr

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Art made of salvaged circuit boards and other computer parts put what is normally hidden on full display in a sort of autopsy of our consumerist society, highlighting how quickly the things we create become obsolete. Is our obsession with technology a sign of our achievements as a species, or a festering problem threatening to overtake the natural world? These artists are all working with unwanted components, but have different takes on the issue of electronic waste.

Computer Bugs by Julie Alice Chappell

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Pesky metaphorical computer bugs are made literal when artist Julie Alice Chappell transforms reclaimed circuit boards from electronics into little winged insects. The project started when Chappell discovered a box of tiny electronic components at a ‘craft bank’ in Portsmouth, England, instantly seeing the bodies and legs of bugs. Chappell hopes her work will raise awareness about the problem of electronic waste.

Technological Mandalas by Leonardo Ulian

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Circuitry and microchips come together into intricately arranged, perfectly symmetrical mandalas in the work of London-based artist Leonardo Ulian. “With the Technological Mandala series I combined the suggestive and spiritual meaning of the Indian Mandalas with something that has been perceived as far from that sphere of influence, technology,” says Ulian. “The search of perfection as necessity within the electronics industry has stimulated my curiosity to produce this series of pieces in order toe locate that specific need. I wanted to show what has been hidden from the eyes of the consumer, representing electronic circuits as extraordinary objects where the perfection of the design can become almost something ethereal.”

Ornate Rug Made from Computer Parts by Federico Uribe

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You won’t be getting too comfortable on this particular rug by Federico Uribe, which consists of thousands of tiny, sharp electronic components. The mixed-media piece, which mimics the patterns on traditional Persian carpets, measures 22 by 12 feet. Uribe specializes in making art from unwanted ‘waste’ objects as well as everyday items found in the home.

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Electronic Autopsy 24 Sculptures Made Of Computer Parts

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More Map Art: 27 Cool Cartographic Sculptures & Drawings

05 Jan

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Rivers become veins in detailed portraits, mirrored city blocks resemble modernized Persian rugs and urban topographies emerge from rolls of tape in these map-based works of art. Some create the images of cities, countries and continents from unexpected materials, like Manhattan rendered in a 2.5-ton block of marble, while others use complex aerial imagery and cartography as an unexpected medium for drawings and sculpture.

Google Maps as Persian Rugs by David Thomas Smith

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Images composited from Google Maps screencaps are reconstructed piece-by-piece into mirrored images inspired by Persian rugs in ‘Anthropocene,’ a series by David Thomas Smith. The Dublin-based artist chooses locations that are centers of global capitalism, including Dubai, the Beijing International Airport, and industrial sites like the Delta Coal Port in Vancouver, British Columbia. “This collision between the old and the new, fact and fiction, surveillance and invisibility, is part of a strategy to reflect on the global order of things,” says the artist.

Manhattan in 2.5 Tons of Marble

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Japanese sculptor Yutaka Sone did, in fact, use Google Maps and aerial photographs to render an accurate replication of Manhattan in this whopping 2.5-ton block of white marble. But most of his inspiration actually came from a series of helicopter rides in which he got a feel for the city, ultimately carving it as if it were an elevated plateau. The details of the sculpture are so accurate, residents of the city can locate their own buildings by counting the blocks.

Topographical Tape Maps by Takahiro Iwasaki

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Best-known for his intricate thread sculptures, Japanese artist Takahiro Iwasaki has also created topographical maps carefully sliced into fat rolls of gray and blue electrical tape. The landscape replicated on the gray roll is Victoria Peak, a mountain located on the western half of Hong Kong Island.

Map Portraits by Ed Fairburn

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Ed Fairburn uses paper maps as canvases for incredibly detailed portraits, rendering human features as topographical landscapes on top of street maps, star charts, railroad blueprints and other types of maps. The portraits seem to blend seamlessly with the landscape features, with rivers and roads running through them like veins.

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More Map Art

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Vacant Buddha: Intricate Paper Sculptures Seem to Disappear

22 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Deceptively solid-looking when seen from either side, the delicacy of these paper sculptures is revealed if you simply shift your position to view them straight on. Korean artist Ho Yoon Shin coats strips of paper with urethane and attaches them to each other with paper joints to create Buddhas, replicas of famous sculptures and other human figures.

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The translucency of the sculptures is a commentary on what Shin sees as the vacancy of modern society, relating social and political conditions in Korea to Buddhism’s philosophy of emptiness.

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“I am interested in social phenomena and approached the essence of it,” says Shin. “I realized that the closer I approached it, I realized there is no essence. I think it is already intrinsic in me or in you, being judged and evaluated by the inherent values in our things. Therefore, if examined in that viewpoint, I begin to understand why the power group of Korea has wanted to split all kinds of social systems – the right and the left, social classes divided on its economic structure, dominance and subordination, etc.”

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“In the end, it’s a story about the situation and a point where we fill a surface that doesn’t exist… and console and satisfy ourselves.”

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In addition to his human figures, Shin’s paper work includes large-scale installations of highly detailed, curtain-like sheets of paper, including ‘Imegrated Flowers,’ which filled an entire hallway at the Kobe Biennale.

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So Metal: Intricate Sculptures Made of Nothing but Nails

20 Nov

[ By Steph in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Most people use nails just to hang art on the wall, but Maine-based sculptor John Bisbee collects thousands of them to craft incredibly intricate sculptures into spiked balls, undulating waves, tree-like structures and towering geometric stacks.

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Bisbee got the idea after entering an abandoned house looking for found objects to use in his art, and finding a bucket full of old nails. “I kicked the bucket and it flipped over,” he told NPR, “and the nails had cohered, oxidized – they’d rusted into the bucket shape. And it was just such an obvious thing of beauty – it was so clearly above anything I had ever envisioned making myself. And I sat down on the bed, and I knew that I needed to get some nails.”

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Since then, Bisbee has created dozens of sculptures using nothing but nails in a free-flowing process that the artist improvises, getting them “into my hands and out into space.”

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It was only recently, after spending years welding and bending the nails into shapes, that Bisbee realized there’s something really obvious he can do with them as well: hit them with a hammer. From this revelation has come lots of wall-based art made with a pneumatic power hammer.

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