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Zim&Zou’s ’80s-Inspired Paper Cassettes and Boombox Radiate with Color

by Aurelia Butler 28 July 2025, 13:40

All images courtesy of Zim&Zou, shared with permission

Zim&Zou’s ’80s-Inspired Paper Cassettes and Boombox Radiate with Color

July 28, 2025

ArtCraftDesign

Kate Mothes

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From layered pieces of paper, Zim&Zou recently created a series of patterned cassette tapes and a vibrant portable stereo. Known for their elaborate, large-scale installations, the artists scaled down in size—but not color—for this playful throwback.

Zim&Zou have recently collaborated with the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris to design an interactive family play area, and a workshop invites visitors to compose a water lily out of paper in reference to Claude Monet’s expansive Water Lilies paintings, which feature in the museum’s collection. See more on Zim&Zou’s website, Behance, and Instagram.

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Among Andalusian Vineyards, a Vivid Carpet Creates a Space for Gathering
by Aurelia Butler 25 July 2025, 19:27
All images courtesy of Javier de Riba, shared with permission
Among Andalusian Vineyards, a Vivid Carpet Creates a Space for Gathering
July 25, 2025
ArtDesign
Grace Ebert
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Nestled among the vineyards of Andalusia, a bold intervention creates a space for gathering in the small village of Montemayor. “Pasera” is the latest addition to Javier de Riba’s ongoing Floors series, a project focused on reclaiming small plots of land as communal sites.
“Pasera” refers to the fields where grapes shrivel up into raisins, producing the exceptionally sweet Pedro Ximénez-style dessert sherry typical throughout the region. Mimicking a patterned carpet, de Riba’s mural is a vibrant motif of burgundy and soft yellow, a nod to the fruits that surround it.
The local community held a breakfast to inaugurate the new work, which the artist notes is an important part of instilling pride and ownership over the space. “As the feeling of home is a feeling that is created, and it fades if not taken care of, now it depends on its use and care to ensure that this meeting place remains alive,” he adds.
De Riba offers prints and picnic blankets featuring his unique motifs in his shop. Find much more on his website and Instagram.
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Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action
by Aurelia Butler 16 July 2025, 16:29
“ORIGIN.” All images courtesy of Thijs Biersteker, shared with permission
Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action
July 16, 2025
ArtClimateDesignFoodNatureScience
Kate Mothes
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An unassuming cacao tree in Indonesia has made a unique connection to a high-tech artwork in China. Thanks to multimedia digital artist Thijs Biersteker, “ORIGIN” is a sculpture — a “digital twin” — that reflects the elemental experiences of the tropical tree through pulses of light.
“When it rains in Indonesia, you see the sap flow through the sculpture in real time,” the artist says. “When the air quality shifts, the flows respond. During a heatwave, the tree visibly struggles. This real-time installation reveals just how fragile the cacao supply chain has become.”
A majority of cacao, the primary ingredient in chocolate, is cultivated in places that are also the most vulnerable to the effects of the climate crisis. Extreme weather, habitat destruction, and other issues also mean that global food resiliency is increasingly threatened.
For Biersteker, data provides unique insights into changes on the ground, and through a recent collaboration with the Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Research Institute (ICCRI), he devised a way to literally illuminate environmental impacts.
The artist is particularly interested in the relationship between data and nature, especially our scientific understanding of climate change and how it affects biodiversity, food, and habitats. Hooking up sensors to a specimen at ICCRI’s research site in Java, Bierksteker created a translucent, sculptural mirror of the tree, which is currently installed at Zaishui Art Museum in the city of Rizhao, Shandong Province.
Another work, “WITHER,” in collaboration with UNICEF, comprises a tropical installation with flickering leaves representing rainforest loss. Each flicker symbolizes 128 square meters of deforestation, based on data from Amazon rainforest watch groups. And “ECONTINUUM,” a collaboration with Stefano Mancuso, invites us into a kind of “conversation” occurring between tree roots in a twinkling digital composition. The work nods to recent scientific discoveries that suggest trees communicate with one another via their intricate subterranean systems to provide or request nutrients or warn others of dangers like disease or infestations.
“WITHER”
For “ORIGIN,” the live cacao tree in Java transmits information, its digital copy animating with fluctuating light. “This mirrors the role of the institutions behind it: making the invisible visible and reconnecting people with the systems that feed them,” Biersteker says in a statement. “It is where data begins to speak to the imagination and where data-driven art becomes a new language for change.”
Explore more on Bierksteker’s website and Instagram. If you enjoy pieces that explore the intersection of data and nature, you’ll also like Marshmallow Laser Feast’s “Of the Oak” installation at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Details of cacao tree in Java and “ORIGIN”
Detail of “ORIGIN”
Detail of “ECONTINUUM”
Detail of “ORIGIN”
Detail of “ORIGIN”
“WITHER”
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A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens
by Aurelia Butler 15 July 2025, 20:45
Taylor Cullity Lethlean with Paul Thompson, Australian Garden, Cranbourne Gardens, Victoria, Australia (2006 and 2012). Photo by John Gollings
A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens
July 15, 2025
ArtBooksDesignNature
Grace Ebert
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From the humble backyard plot to the royal Water Theatre Grove at Versailles, gardens have long been a source of sustenance, beauty, and spiritual communion. A forthcoming book from Phaidon sprouts from this history as it celebrates how these sites of joy and grandeur endure throughout the ages.
The Contemporary Garden travels to 300 green spaces across 40 countries, surveying the everlasting link between horticulture, nature, and aesthetics. Included in its 300-plus pages are private and public spaces in a wide array of styles, from wild plots in urban centers to impeccably trimmed topiaries to designs that prize water features as much as foliage.
While the book peers into some gardens only accessible to a few, many of its pages highlight well-trodden areas open to the public, like New York’s elevated Little Island, designed by Heatherwick Studio. Perhaps unsurprisingly, several spaces also double as outdoor galleries—including the High Line in Manhattan—or are artworks themselves. In the latter category is Gabriel Orozco’s The Orozco Garden, which bridges sculpture and horticulture through intricately laid brickwork and overgrown grasses at South London Gallery.
Bridging natural sciences with art and design, The Contemporary Garden showcases how, even in this increasingly digital age, green spaces continue to be one of humanity’s perennial fascinations.
Slated for release in late September, The Contemporary Garden is available for pre-order in the Colossal Shop.
Kim Wilkie for the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, Orpheus, Boughton House, Kettering, Northamptonshire, England, 2009. Photo by Kim Wilkie
Louis Benech and Jean-Michel Othoniel, Water Theatre Grove, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France (2015). Photo © EPV/Thomas Garnier
Dominique and Benoît Delomez, Jardin intérieur à ciel ouvert, Athis-de-l’Orne, Normandy, France, (2000–11). Photo courtesy of Benoît and Dominique Delomez
Erik Dhont, Bonemhoeve, Damme, West Flanders, Belgium, (2005). Photo © Jean-Pierre Gabriel
Gabriel Orozco, The Orozco Garden, South London Gallery, London, England, (2016). Photo by Andy Stagg
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Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry
by Aurelia Butler 9 July 2025, 14:32
Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints. Photos by Robin Zahler. All images courtesy of the artists and the National Festival of Making, shared with permission
Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry
July 9, 2025
ArtCraftDesign
Kate Mothes
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Every year, in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, a vibrant festival erupts with creativity in a celebration of art, craft, and industry. This year marked the seventh edition of the National Festival of Making, organized along the theme of “Art in Manufacturing.” Acclaimed artists and designers teamed up with industry leaders to create works using a variety of materials, from Morag Myerscough’s collaboration with Crown Paints for a vibrant new mural to Liaqat Rasul’s partnership with textile producer Herbert Parkinson for an optical installation.
Locality played a central role in the festival, as artists were paired with manufacturers in Lancashire. Matter at hand, the design practice of Lewis Jones, teamed up with Darwen Terracotta and Faience, which focuses on traditional glazed earthenware for home products and restoration (faience is a type of tin-glazed pottery).
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope”
Matter at hand created a large-scale installation titled “Poured Earth,” which takes an architectural approach to materials in the northern transept of Blackburn Cathedral. The piece invites visitors to walk through an archway of wooden crates and around cast elements in various shapes and sizes, emphasizing the timelessness and continuity of earthen building materials and styles.
Morag Myerscough transformed a corner building into a characteristically vivid, geometric floral mural with complementary garden boxes and a water tank. Rasul’s piece, a multifaceted textile assemblage suspended in the Blackburn Cathedral crypt, features a friendly face made of independent elements that merge into a full visage when viewed from the front.
Titled “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope,” the piece was created from scraps salvaged from Herbert Parkinson’s factory floor in addition to the artist’s own archive. Rasul tenderly embroidered the Urdu, Hindu, and Welsh words for “hope” amid various found elements like cord and safety pins.
The National Festival of Making features a program of more than 100 workshops, performances, artist talks, markets, and more across more than 20 Blackburn venues. Emphasizing the power of collaboration, cross-disciplinary exploration, and community, the festival aims to empower people of all ages to lean into curiosity and get making.
Rasul and Lewis’s work will be on view through July 12, with Myerscough’s mural intended for long-term display. Find more on the festival’s website.
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth”
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)
Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope” (detail)
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)
Detail of a mural by Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints
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Site-Specific Textiles by Rachel B. Hayes Radiate Within Vast Landscapes and Sunlit Interiors
by Aurelia Butler 7 July 2025, 17:29
Mirror Lake, Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico, 2015. All images courtesy of Rachel B. Hayes, shared with permission
Site-Specific Textiles by Rachel B. Hayes Radiate Within Vast Landscapes and Sunlit Interiors
July 7, 2025
ArtCraftDesign
Kate Mothes
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From myriad swaths of vivid, translucent fabric, Rachel B. Hayes conjures striking installations that transform our experiences of both interior spaces and expansive natural landscapes. The Tulsa-based artist suspends large-scale patchwork compositions in spaces ranging from barns and greenhouses to open fields and lakes, experimenting with scale, color, pattern, light, and movement in joyful installations.
Hayes’ works have been exhibited extensively around the U.S. and Europe, often stretched like quilted sun sails over courtyards. Her recent piece “Horizon Drift,” in collaboration with Black Cube in Denver, comprises a series of overlapping triangular elements that cast colorful shadows onto the pavement, similar to “A Moment in Time” in Capri.
“Horizon Drift” (2024) Denver, Colorado. Photo by Third Dune, courtesy of Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum
Usually installed for just a few weeks or months, Hayes’ installations temporarily merge with their surroundings, a nod to Jeanne-Claude and Christo’s monumentally ambitious fabric interventions. Richly patchworked or woven, the pieces also emphasize a joyful experience of light, breeze, and time-honored American quilting practices.
Hayes always enjoys looking back at earlier works and in situ experiments to inform new pieces. “I still get so much inspiration and energy from my temporary experiments…I keep coming back to my favorite sites that I know like the back of my hand but also learn and see new things every time I visit,” she says. She often returns to various sites in South Dakota, Missouri, and New Mexico to document work multiple times. The light, weather, and changes in the landscape always “read” differently, and she thinks of many of these pieces as part of a “long vision” within her practice.
Sometimes, Hayes’ works remain installed for a while longer, and she has embraced becoming something of a “fabric engineer.” Several long-term projects will likely be installed outdoors for at least five years, challenging the artist to select materials that will be both visually effective and endure the elements. “It is truly exhilarating to try and find ways to make my outdoor experiments last for longer periods of time,” she says.
Light, especially sunlight, plays a significant role in Hayes’ compositions and site selection, particularly indoors where architecture and prescribed routes influence how people move around and can view the work. “I am usually chasing the sun to see where it peeks through the space and plays with reflections and color-casted shadows, so it’s really important that I make the appropriate choice for the site,” she says. While the artist uses software like Photoshop or Procreate to compose the overall pattern, she primarily focuses on the physicality of the material and its unique interactions with different places.
Installation at Foreland, Catskill, New York. Photo by Adam T. Deen
Hayes’ installations are on view in Patterned by Nature at the Chicago Botanic Garden throughout the summer. You can also see her work in Soft Structures through August 8 at Jane Lombard Gallery in New York City and Body’s First Architecture through August 10 at Ely Center of Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut.
Her semi-permanent exhibitions can be seen at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, and The Gathering Place in Tulsa. And if you find yourself in West Texas, Hayes’ flag is currently flown outside Ballroom Marfa during the gallery’s opening hours. Explore more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
You might also enjoy Wally Dion’s translucent quilts that honor Indigenous traditions.
Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, Massachusetts, 2023
“Garden Loom” (2015), Roswell, New Mexico
Menlo Park, California
“A Moment in Time” (2022), Capri, Italy. Photo by Istanbul’74
Detail of installation at Mirror Lake, Bottomless Lakes State Park, New Mexico, 2015
“Cloud Report” (2021), South Dakota
South Dakota
Fairfield, Iowa
Flint Hills, Kansas
Greenwood, Missouri
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Candy-Colored Sculptures by Poh Sin Studio Ornament Aquatic Life
by Aurelia Butler 17 June 2025, 15:59
Detail of “Lacebud.” All images courtesy of Poh Sin Studio, shared with permission
Candy-Colored Sculptures by Poh Sin Studio Ornament Aquatic Life
June 17, 2025
ArtDesignNature
Grace Ebert
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In Specimen Garden, Pamela Poh Sin Tan translates the ambiguous ecologies of her large-scale public works into freestanding sculptures. Tan, who works under Poh Sin Studio, frequently fuses principles of art and design, and for this series of coral-inspired forms, she embellishes sand-coated laser-cut steel with small chalcedony stone beads.
“Inspired by the ethereal elegance of natural systems—coral, roots, jellyfish, diatoms—these works reflect my fascination with the subtle, intelligent structures of the natural world,” she says.
“Fanora”
Drawing on the ornamentation traditions of her Chinese-Malaysian heritage, the artist fuses contemporary techniques with timeless themes of fragility, strength, and beauty. “Each piece feels like a living fragment of a surreal coral garden—plant-like in posture, reef-like in texture, and jewel-like in detail,” she says. “Together, they form a quiet ecosystem of imagined species suspended between nature and artifice.”
Keep up with Poh Sin Studio on its website and Instagram.
“Melona”
“Lacebud”
Detail of “Melona”
Detail of “Fanora”
“Aurelia”
Detail of “Aurelia”
Detail of “Fanora”
“Ploomp”
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‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons
by Aurelia Butler 16 June 2025, 13:39
“Inside Information: Boombox.” All images © Dorothy, shared with permission
‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons
June 16, 2025
ArtDesignHistoryIllustration
Kate Mothes
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Taking diagrams to a new level, U.K.-based studio collective Dorothy creates prints that celebrate information—charts, maps, alphabets, color wheels, and blueprints. The team has also plunged into the world of cutaway drawings, which are popular for visualizing otherwise opaque, multilayered objects in the manufacturing world.
Cutaway diagrams have actually been around for centuries, with the form originating in the 15th-century notebooks of Italian Renaissance engineer Mariano “Taccola” de Jacopo. Dorothy’s twist on the 3D graphic form, a series titled Inside Information, is a celebration of pop culture and modern technology, from Apple computers and sneakers to boomboxes and theremins.
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
Each object teems with figures and motifs that have been instrumental in the item’s history and culture, like trailblazing rappers and hip-hop artists who wander stereo box innards in “Inside Information: Boombox” as if it’s a building. The same goes for the Moog, which highlights flashpoints in its development and musical icons like David Byrne and Led Zeppelin who have contributed to its popularity—along with its namesake, of course, Robert Moog.
Prints are available for purchase on Dorothy’s website, and you can follow updates and releases on Instagram.
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
Detail of “Inside Information: Boombox”
“Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
Detail of “Inside Information: Claravox – Special Edition for Moog Music”
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Paper-Thin Porcelain Works by Mark Goudy Balance on Folds Inspired by Origami
by Aurelia Butler 10 June 2025, 13:16
All images courtesy of Mark Goudy, shared with permission
Paper-Thin Porcelain Works by Mark Goudy Balance on Folds Inspired by Origami
June 10, 2025
ArtCraftDesign
Kate Mothes
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From delicately folded paper, Berkeley-based ceramicist Mark Goudy draws inspiration for an ongoing series, Origami. He describes his work as “minimal forms with hidden complexity,” building on a love for simple yet elegant forms that reflect nature’s inherent geometries.
In meticulous sculptures that merge form and function, Goudy pulls from his experience as a 3D graphics hardware design engineer. Using algorithmic 3D software, he creates objects that nod to the art of Japanese paper folding. “Many of these forms are designed to balance on the folds—when set on a flat surface, they rock back and forth, naturally settling into their inherent point of equilibrium,” he says.
Goudy’s thin, translucent, slipcast pieces are made from black or white porcelain, which he occasionally colors by painting metallic salt watercolors directly onto the surface after they have been bisque fired. Salt soaks up and redistributes the pigment, which is further influenced by the texture and permeability of the material.
“As the metal salts soak into the porous clay body, they move and interact with each other,” the artist says. “And during the drying process, they naturally gradate and concentrate on the edges, highlighting the folds and ridges of my forms.”
Using only three metal salt pigments: gold, cobalt, and chromium, Goudy achieves various shades of red, blue, and green. “I am especially drawn to cobalt blue, a reference to the ineffable blue of water and distance,” he says. “I think of these objects as containers for light and atmosphere.”
Goudy’s work will be on view in the 63rd Faenza Prize for the International Biennial of Contemporary Ceramic Art in Faenza, Italy, from June 28 to November 30. See more of the artist’s work on his website and Instagram.
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Design

Latest story

Zim&Zou’s ’80s-Inspired Paper Cassettes and Boombox Radiate with Color

More stories

Among Andalusian Vineyards, a Vivid Carpet Creates a Space for Gathering

Thijs Biersteker’s Digital Sculptures Translate Climate Data into Urgent Calls to Action

A New Book Cultivates a Rich Survey of 300 Magnificent Gardens

Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry

Site-Specific Textiles by Rachel B. Hayes Radiate Within Vast Landscapes and Sunlit Interiors

Candy-Colored Sculptures by Poh Sin Studio Ornament Aquatic Life

‘Inside Information’ Cutaway Diagrams by Dorothy Dig Into the Makings of Pop Culture Icons

Paper-Thin Porcelain Works by Mark Goudy Balance on Folds Inspired by Origami

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