For the last few years, Volvo has set up an art display in the Zurich, Switzerland central train station called the Volvo Art Session, allowing select artists – both established and up-and-coming – to create temporary exhibits with one of Volvo's products acting as the centerpiece. This year, six artists from across Europe converged in Zurich to turn a 2014 Volvo XC60 into a work of art.
Each started with a blank white canvas, creating a massive display in what Volvo says is one of the busiest covered public places in Europe, and after each was done, it was all erased for the next artists to come in and do his or her thing. While some made the XC60 a focal point in the art, others made the crossover seemingly disappear. [...]
A few months ago we wrote about a couple of Stephen Shaheen's humorous yet strange sculptures that adorn lightbulb heads. We get such a kick out of his work, we've decided to feature a few more of the Brooklyn-based sculptor's collection. The one that stands out the most is aptly titled Let's Put Our Heads Together (above). It features three blue men bent over with their heads collectively in the middle. They appear to be trying to help each other with their plugs and perhaps pointing at something on the ground. [...]
When using new technologies and materials to preserve, extend, or otherwise replace existing architecture one is always faced with the question of how invasive the intervention will be. It is of particular interest because there are so many factors apart from the architect's own language that need to be considered: the state of the decrepit structure, the types of contemporary materials used, and the ideas the architect wishes to express with the melding of the two worlds. Spanish architect Ferran Vizoso recently completed the restoration of the town church in Corbera d’Ebre near Tarragona, Spain, whose roof structure was entirely non-existent. [...]
Splitscreen: A Love Story from James W Griffiths [...]
Magda Sayeg is a pioneer of the popular crafty street art known as yarn bombing, a combination of knitting and crochet as removable urban graffiti.
Back in February we posted a call for entries for The Modern Craft Project, presented by Ketel One® Vodka in partnership with Wallpaper* magazine. They were looking for modern craftspeople who push the limits of traditional craft, true innovators who could also represent Ketel One’s tradition of making high-quality products. The winners would receive a portion of the Ketel One® Legacy fund to use to refine their skills and take their work to a new level. [...]
The illusionary work of Dutch artist Ramon Bruin, aka JJK Airbrush, will leave you wondering what's real and what's just a clever illustration. The artist's skilled hand crafts imaginary three-dimensional worlds on two-dimensional platforms adorned with props like pencils and other art supplies used to create each image. Although, it can be confusing at times to decipher whether the props themselves are drawings. [...]
Portland artist Eric Franklin (previously) just completed three new works, a trio of neon glass skulls lit internally by ionized neon, krypton, and mercury. The structure of each human skull is deviously complex, made from a network of glass tubes that have to be perfectly sealed to create the vacuum necessary to light them, a process that leaves the figures somewhat misshapen and admittedly a bit creepy. A completely amazing sort of creepy. All three artworks are currently available for acquisition through Chris Forney over at Artworks Gallery. [...]
Human beings carry within them nostalgia of a primordial happiness from ancient times. The notion of a return to these origins of happiness is often associated with Nature. Our intention is to encourage inhabitants to participate in fun, uncommon events taking place within the urban landscape: an inflatable bridge equipped with giant trampolines rises above the Seine, a pavilion erected in a London park, a museum traversed by a roller coaster.
These projects offer, in the heart of the city, new forms of Elysian Fields, given over not to the Champs-Élysées of shopping and strictly urban activities, but rather to fundamental human practices, which liberate strong emotions calling on all our senses. [...]