Towering work in a brown paper wrapper

March 8, 2010 at 10:54 am
Filed under Design education, Exhibit Design, Green Related, Materials, Placemaking, Public Art

A ten-meter tower made entirely of recyclable cardboard, brought to the Carton Plein! exhibit in a small delivery truck, and erected in nine hours with no scaffolding.  Oh, and it’s student work. — A.M.

Secrets of New York

March 4, 2010 at 9:25 am
Filed under Architecture, Arts and Crafts, Placemaking, Public Art

One of the backlit collages Chris Rubino created for the Distrikt Hotel

Cafe mural (left) and typographic work at the Distrikt Hotel

Let there be Art (please)

March 1, 2010 at 10:07 am
Filed under Arts and Crafts, City Happenings, Public Art

Artwork: Kenneth Anger

In a town where image is everything, the ongoing battles among local government, residents, and billboard companies over what constitutes commercial signage and art are no surprise. As the various interests continue to duke it out in Los Angeles, a local arts center is having its say.

“How Many Billboards? Art in Stead” is a large-scale urban exhibition that proposes, simply, that in a highly mediated environment like LA, art “should occupy a visible position in the cacophony.” With its exhibition of 21 contemporary artworks on billboards, the MAK Center for Art and Architecture attempts to show how art can provide a needed respite from commercial images.

The show, in the works since 2006, was made possibly by donations from major billboard companies and by thought-provoking work from commissioned artists. It’s up through the end of March. — P.M.K.

Artwork: James Welling

Artwork: Kerri Tribe

Follies

February 6, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Filed under Architecture, Public Art, Social Issues

“In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration. The Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 led to the building of several follies. The society of the day held that reward without labour was misguided. However, to hire the needy for work on useful projects would deprive existing workers of their jobs. Thus, construction projects termed “famine follies” came to be built. These include: roads in the middle of nowhere, between two seemingly random points; screen and estate walls; piers in the middle of bogs; etc.”Conolly’s folly in Ireland is…”built within Castletown Estate (containing Castletown House), which contains two follies, both commissioned by Katherine Conolly, the philanthropic widow of Speaker William Conolly to provide employment for hundreds of the poor of Celbridge when the famine of 1740-41 was at its worst. The Obelisk was built in 1740 after a particularly severe winter. As a folly, it could be seen from the back of Castletown some 2.5 miles (4 km) away.” — A.M.

Love Letters

February 6, 2010 at 11:15 am
Filed under City Happenings, Placemaking, Public Art, Street Art

Steve Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is covering the City of Brotherly Love in love letters — just in time for Valentine’s Day?  Some of the murals will be seen in Burma Shave progression from one of the train lines. — A.M.

Sensorama

January 20, 2010 at 10:40 am
Filed under Human Interaction, Public Art

“‘Sensorama‘ is a winter-making machine by polish design studio centrala. The interactive installation was presented in the heat of summer during the blue festival in jaffa, old harbour, israel. It provided a sensory trip for participants, carrying them away for a moment, to poland’s hardest winter of the 20th century in 1979. The machine reproduced all the sensations generated by a frosty winter, such as images, temperature, smell, sound and the level of air quality. By putting their heads inside ‘Sensorama’ three persons, strangers to one another, simultaneously experienced a reality completely alien to them.” — K.E.

Mirror, Mirror

December 22, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Filed under Exhibit Design, Lighting, Public Art, Uncategorized

The Victoria & Albert’s new digital design exhibition (Decode: Digital Design Sensations) includes a site-specific installation by London-based designer Jason Bruges. Mirror, Mirror—an exploration of narcissism—is set in the V&A’s John Madesjki Garden pond. An arrangement of white dot digital matrices seem to float on the pond, lighting up as visitors approach and, via cameras mounted inside, capture activity and reflect it back to viewers. The animated images are mirrored again in the surface of the pond, creating reflections ad infinitum.

Bruges’ cross-disciplinary studio of architects and lighting, interaction, and industrial designers create works that “sit between the worlds of architecture, site-specific installations art, and interaction design.” Other projects include the 2007 Wind To Light project, which visualized the power of wind by using 500 mini turbines to generate the power to illuminate hundreds of tiny firefly-like LEDs. Smaller-scale projects include a 2007 lighting installation for Greenpeace and Get a Word In (2009), a permanent public art piece at Cambridge Regional College that allows students to share their messages, stories, opinions, and poetry on a custom double-sided scrolling screen. –P.M.K.

Refuse Probes Project

December 5, 2009 at 9:23 am
Filed under Exhibit Design, Green Related, Placemaking, Politics, Public Art, Social Issues

“At this year’s Shenzhen Hong Kong Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism (SZHKB), LOT-EK  will be presenting their Refuse Probes Project. It is a physical and social device that visually questions the relationship between the artificial/manmade and the natural. The concept looks to the local waste of shenzhen’s manufacturing landscape. Using this refuse LOT-EK has produced vertical units, stacks which are a visual representation aspects of packing, shipping transformation and the movement and trade of goods within the area. They are cut and extracted out of the ground to reveal the layers of refuse accumulated under the top soil of the land.” — A.M.

What makes a hero?

November 10, 2009 at 11:17 am
Filed under Public Art

With wars waging and news of soldier and civilian deaths reported 24/7, the word “hero” is bandied about often lately. A new public art installation at The Guards Chapel, Household Division of the British Army,  asks, “What is heroism, really?” and examines some of our preconceived notions about it. 

Artist-in-residence Martin Firrell interviewed British Army soldiers, then created his high-impact piece using text and moving images projected on the facade of The Guards Chapel. It was installed in time for Britain’s Remembrance Day. –P.M.K.

Homage in graffiti

November 2, 2009 at 10:29 am
Filed under Public Art

The graffiti at 5 rue de Verneuil was tracked over five years in homage to Serge Gainsbourg, who lived behind the wall until his death about 20 years ago.  If a proposed museum at the site becomes a reality, this clip will reveal the inscriptions left there. — A.M.

Serge Gainsbourg – animation des graffitis sur 5 ans du mur rue de Verneuil from Arnaud Jourdain on Vimeo.