Argentinean sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas creates enormous sculptural works that seem like remnants of a science fiction movie set, or bizarre moments from a surreal dream.
The awesome piece you see here is entitled My Family Dead (2009). Here a life-size blue whale, created by the artist, lies beached in the woods outside Ushuaia, Argentina. The stranded cetacean is pockmarked with tree stumps, which leaves the viewer wondering if it’s being slowly claimed by the forest or perhaps it’s a native resident. Beautiful and utterly awesome.
[via Colossal]
In his installation A Butterfly’s Eye View artist Eiji Watanabe eviscerates butterfly field guides, releasing the delicately cut insects and pinning them to the walls around the gutted textbooks. (via thisiscolossal)
(via cynthiahasatumblr)
The Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race is a surreal event. I spent all of yesterday afternoon watching enormous quirky creations dive into the Canton Waterfront and then later putter through the mud of Patterson Park.
Above is a competitor called “Go Ask Alice.”
I missed this again this year, despite a trip to Baltimore yesterday… need to put next year’s race on the calendar!
(via baltiamore)
Edward Munch’s iconic “The Scream” sells for $119.9 million: We’re with you, freaked-out screaming guy.
‘The Art of Video Games:’ still in beta
Hordes of young school children march up the steps to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC on a cloudless Friday morning. As they run around yelling and chasing one another, the security guard on duty echoes Ecclesiastes using only his eyes: there’s nothing new under the sun, he tells me. But I’m not terribly worried about the situation — surely these children are on their way up to see work from Annie Leibovitz or some other culturally suitable collection. But contrary to my natural assumption, they file into the elevators, and head straight up to grab controllers in The Art of Video Games exhibit. Things are starting to make sense to me, now: The Art of Video Games is all clearly a clever plot to lure children off of their couches and into a museum. Or, apparently, adults.
(via theatlantic)
I love performance art. And salads.
Make a Salad will be performed on the High Line in the Chelsea Market Passage, the semi-enclosed passageway on the High Line at West 16th Street. At 10:00 AM, the artists will begin preparing the salad ingredients on the upper-level of the passageway. (Salad ingredients will include enough locally-sourced escarole, romaine, frisée, carrots, cucumbers, onions, celery, and mushrooms for up to 1,000 people.) At 12:00 PM, the artists will toss the salad from the upper-level to the lower-level of the passageway, and then begin serving it to the audience at 12:15 PM. Make a Salad is free and open to the public. —High Line Art Performance: Alison Knowles, Make a Salad | The High Line (via Dorsey)
"What makes the Renaissance different? Renaissance paintings look more realistic, good. What else? There are more decapitations, absolutely. You feel slightly attracted to the naked men and women, OK. Fewer weird-looking Jesus babies. Good, good. And what about this? Slide. Remember this cave painting? Renaissance painters were far less concerned with skinny, stick-figure bird men who hold staffs and are either standing or laying down in the vicinity of bison; instead, they were more interested in religion, history, boobies, wee-wees, ca-ca’s, the Renaissance, and random people standing in the background."
— McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Advanced Amateur Art History. (via fdfaumders)
(via inmymimeseye)
Google celebrates Robert Doisneau’s 100th birthday with tho Google Doodle.
Airplane Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style
“To pass the time during long flights, artist Nina Katchadourian goes to the lavatory, adorns herself in tissue paper costume, and creates self-portrait photos in the style of Flemish Renaissance paintings.”
She’s obviously never heard about how fun and easy it is to use dental floss cutters to shape barf bags into entertaining 19th century Javanese shadow puppetry.
I guess everyone needs a hobby.
5,000 Books Pour Out of a Building in Spain - My Modern Metropolis
Artist Alicia Martin’s tornado of books shoot out a window like a burst of water from a giant hose. The Spain-based artist’s sculptural installation at Casa de America, Madrid depicts a cavalcade of books streaming out of the side of a building. The whirlwind of literature defies gravity and draws attention with its grandeur size. There have been three site-specific installations, thus far, of the massive sculptural works in this series known as Biografias, translated as Biographies, that each feature approximately 5,000 books sprawled out around and atop one another.
Martin’s giant book structures give life to the inanimate objects filled with knowledge. By constructing the curving towers with a rather free and disheveled exterior, while maintaining a sturdy core, the books’ loose pages are free to blow and rustle in the wind, allowing the piece to be further animated. Take a look at the short video, below, to see the piece in motion.
h/t Steph
