Art... and stuff I dig: July 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Urban Activity

Binary Waves by LAb[au] from The Nonsense Society on Vimeo.

"fLUX binary waves" is a fantastic urban installation project by LAb[au] that measures the infrastructural and communicational flow in its surrounding area. Basically, the installation would take in all information including the amount of passerby, cars, electromagnetic fields from radio, mobile phone, etc through infrared sensors and project it back with its built in microprocessors. Thus, it will define the frequency and amplitude the rotation and display it as an interplay of kinetics, light (colors) and sounds. Everything is recorded in real time and sets each person as an element of the installation.

15 years consolidated

Installation images from Antony Gormley's solo exhibition at Kunthaus Bregenz, Austria 7/12 - 10/4, 2009. The four major installations showcases a compilation of the artist's best works over the last fifteen years. The exhibition brings together four key series from Gormley's ouvre: Allotment, Critical Mass, Clearing and Body & Fruit. Read more on the museum's website.

INSA x NIKE

IAM1 x INSA from Protein® TV on Vimeo.

Great concept! Animation done by urban artist INSA X Nike for her exhibition with Protein earlier this month. Check out her blog here.

Crash Landing

Nancy Rubins, an American artist who has bloomed throughout the years and exposed herself publicly with her enormous sculpture installations. Most of her work is commissioned by Public Art Fund and displayed temporarily at specific institutional locations including Lincoln Center in New York, MoCa Los Angeles, Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennale, and MoMa New York to name a few. In 2006, MCASD commissioned her to produce "Pleasure Points" as a permanent, large-scale work displayed on the west side of the building.

Rustic Look

Diana Al-Hadid creates these massive sculptures mimicking old and rustic memorabilia, instruments and even staircases. This Syrian artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and is represented by Perry Rubenstein Gallery.

Shifting Perception

In "Systematic Landscapes", her most recent exhibition to date, Maya Lin explores landscape as both form and content. Using natural materials, Maya Lin illustrates poetic ideas in such natural and simple forms. She investigates the characteristics of a sculpture; raising questions and exploring its malleable quality and ability to convey meaning. If you notice, her work mostly reflects back on our surroundings such as water and landscapes, without compromising their most distinct characteristics and organic contours.

We're excited about what she has planned next for her last memorial project, "What's Missing?" expected for September 2009. It will be a multi-site media installation, which includes multi-site video projects, an Internet site and a book. The purpose of this exhibition is to remind us and open our eyes to the threatened natural habitats and the significant increase in loss of species.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A piece of Ghana

Ghanaian sculptor, El Anatsui has made his mark in the art world showcasing his clay and wood installations that mimic traditional reliefs of Ghana. He has exhibited in established institutions such as British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and most recently, Belger Art Center in Kansas City.

Using a Phone Charger

New Piece by Judith Supine. Photo by Steven Duncan

Kinetic Sculpture

Kinetic art is art that contains moving parts and depends on motion to create a certain effect or convey a certain message. It is indeed a phenomenon that has originated and bloomed throughout Europe, but its existence dates back to ancient Egyptian era. What makes kinetic sculpture so special is the strong concept and the mechanics that puts the entire piece together. In fact, the mechanics bolstered by electricity or other methods of energy is what makes the sculptural piece come to life and incapsulates a unique quality. Each piece has its own personality and a different level of fluidity. One that comes to mind is Art+Com's Kinetic Sculpture created especially for BMW Museum in Germany. Check out other cool projects at Art+Com's website.

Viral Technology

Delicate Boundaries

As digital technologies become more embedded in everyday life, the line between the virtual and real is increasingly blurred. Delicate Boundaries imagines a space in which the worlds inside our digital devices can move into the physical world. Small bugs made of light, crawl out of the computer screen onto the human bodies that make contact with them. The system explores the subtle boundaries that exist between foreign systems and what it might mean to cross them.

This work was created with the support of Medialab Prado, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, and Hangar.

Down to the bone

Closing exactly on July 31st this week, Huang Yong Ping's installation, "Tower Snake", takes up an entire space at one of Gladstone Gallery's rooms. Towering high up, you are able to walk around and experience the structure in person. The gigantic piece was constructed solely out of bamboo, steel and aluminum; all the materials commonly used for scaffolding and construction in Asian countries. Needless to say, bamboos is one of the strongest and long lasting material for such heavy duty.

Axis of Power

David Sprigg's amazing installation in the Sharjah Biennale 9, United Arab Emirates, 2009, called "Axis of Power". The commissioned piece is made with white acrylic on layered transparent plastic film, aluminum tee bars, and springs.

Water Kiss

Sam3

Woven In

Dani Marti, "Under the Crescent Moon", for Wardle+Hassel and Lend Lease

Dani Marti, "Time is the fire in which we burn", for Hilton Hotel

Dani Marti, "Off My Noodle", for Newcastle City Council

Dani Marti's works consists of immaculate woven patterns of ropes, which dramatically suggests balance and composure. He also incorporates cables, pool noodles and other flexible material to create elaborate three dimensional paintings, sculptures, and installations. Using the free-flowing rope as a symbol, the artist meditates on the idea of friction within our daily lives (e.g. complicated relationships and debatable questions on power). At the end, it all reflects back on justifications of constraint and to an extent, its breaks down its direct influence on sociopolitical and philosophical concepts within society. Nevertheless, each of his abstract piece, be it a painting, sculpture or an installation will dominate the environment it is placed in and most importantly, create a more dynamic feel.

Numbness

Claire Morgan's installations are quite a vision. An artist of her time, Claire Morgan oversees nature and captures it in its most precious moments. Everything in life happens in sequence and the natural process we witness is far more complex than we think it is. In a single frame, just like a photograph would freeze time, she too, accentuates each element that comes to play; highlighting its exact function in that particular scene. She illustrates realistically what happens in life in a blink of an eye and puts forward every single detail that a normal eye would miss. I find her work very sophisticated, intimate and emotionally captivating. Her works is what some may say, influential and memorable for its intricacy. These two installations below, is by far my favorite.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sluice

Kate MccGwire's work asks questions about the very nature of beauty. She's intrigued by the possibility of envisaging beauty as something more complex than merely what delights the senses: beauty can be about a problem; it can be something that repels you or makes you question the status quo. The idea that it is a cultural phenomenon, susceptible to argument through the creative process, fascinates her.

Intensive Brushwork

Ian Francis' paintings are known to provide you a whole different experience; conveying stories that will leave you in awe. The intensity of his brushwork and the overlapping of colors, images and figures, more than anything make some sort of an illusion--like the kind of blur you go through when you first opening your eyes and trying to make sense of your environment. Each painting describes a different atmosphere and depicts a specific emotion, in a similar way as a movie slide.

Lights on!

Lights On is an audio visual performance created for opening of the new Ars Electronica museum in Linz, Austria, which has a facade that contains 1085 LED controllable windows. The windows' colors are changed in realtime with music that's broadcasted on speakers surrounding the building.

The performance is approximately 10 minutes long. The whole performance has been recorded in software and can be replayed in the future for events.

YesYesNo

Upcoming Exhibition: Ron Arad

Israeli-born artist Ron Arad has produced many successful design objects and spaces that is satisfactory in both form and function. As time moves on, the artist has managed to keep it interesting by incorporating modern technology that will literally make your jaw drop. Ron Arad will be glossing it up at the MoMa with his upcoming exhibition "No Discipline" scheduled to show 8/2 - 10/9, on the 6th floor. The exhibition will be his first major retrospective of Arad's work in the United States. Don't miss it.

Ron Arad is currently represented by Friedman Benda Gallery in New York.