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

    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

    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

    “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

    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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    Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage

    The Weston Collections Hall at V&A East
    Storehouse, including over 100 mini
    curated displays in the ends and sides of the storage racking. The
    space is anchored by six large-scale objects, including a building section from the now-demolished Robin Hood
    Gardens, a former residential estate in
    Poplar, east London. Photo by Hufton +
    Crow for V&A. All images courtesy of V&A, shared with permission

    Order an Object at the New V&A East Storehouse to Get Up-Close to 5,000 Years of Cultural Heritage

    June 3, 2025

    ArtDesignHistory

    Kate Mothes

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    What do the largest Picasso painting in the world, punky Vivienne Westwood apparel, pins for securing a 17th-century ruff, and a complete Frank Lloyd Wright interior have in common? That’ll be the U.K.’s Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V&A, the world’s largest collection of design and applied and decorative arts.

    In South Kensington, the palatial museum has awed visitors since 1852, and in recent decades, the institution has greatly expanded, with locations like the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, the Wedgwood Collection in Stoke-on-Trent, the ship-like V&A Dundee in Scotland, and the brand new V&A East Storehouse in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

    The largest Picasso work in the world, the 1924 front stage cloth for the Ballets Russes’ production, ‘Le Train Bleu,’ at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments. Pablo Picasso, “Le Train Bleu front stage cloth” (1924) © The estate of Pablo Picasso

    Spanning 5,000 years of human creativity through hundreds of thousands of objects requires a lot of space. Rather than hiding it all away in a dark warehouse, the new Storehouse takes over a portion of the former 2012 London Olympics Media Centre, providing a purpose-built home for more than 250,000 objects, 350,000 library books, and 1,000 archives from across the V&A’s diverse collections.

    The best part? You can visit! Storehouse hosts workshops, screenings, performances, and pop-up displays of special collections, along with the opportunity to observe conservators at work preserving a wide range of cultural heritage objects.

    Peruse more than 100 curated mini-displays throughout the building, and book in advance to get up-close and personal through the Order an Object experience. Pick any object in storage, and a member of the Collections Access team will assist you in interacting safely with everything from artworks to textiles to musical instruments.

    Plan your visit on the V&A website.

    The 17th-century Agra Colonnade, an extraordinary example of Mughal architecture from the bathhouse at the fort of Agra, visible through the Weston Collections Hall glass floor, and accessible via Object Encounters at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A

    View of Weston Collections Hall, which features more than 100 mini curated displays, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A

    Welcome area at V&A East Storehouse with pull-out framed textiles to explore. Photo by Kemka Ajoku for V&A

    Mesh roll-out storage racking at V&A East Storehouse. Available via Object Encounters visits. Photo by Hufton + Crow for V&A

    Multi-purpose conservation studio, visible from the Conservation Overlook at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

    View of the Weston Collections Hall at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

    Order an Object appointment at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by Bet Bettencourt forV&A Object pictured is Althea McNish, “Rubra” (1961), furnishing fabric

    View of a section of Robin Hood Gardens, a former residential estate in Poplar, east London, at V&A East Storehouse. Photo by David Parry/PA Media Assignments

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    Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

    William Morris Biscuit Set. All images courtesy of Ella Hawkins, shared with permission

    Dr. Ella Hawkins Reimagines Ancient Artifacts and Prized Objects as Edible Replicas

    May 31, 2025

    ArtDesignFoodIllustration

    Grace Ebert

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    Academic research is notoriously niche and often opaque, but Dr. Ella Hawkins has found a crowd-pleasing way to share her studies. The Birmingham-based artist and design historian translates her interests in Shakespeare performance, costume, and matieral culture into edible replicas.

    Hawkins bakes batches of cookies that she tops with royal icing. Decorating takes a scholarly turn, as she uses tiny paintbrushes and a mini projector to help trace imagery of William Morris’ ornate floral motifs or coastal scenes from English delftware. Rendering a design on a single cookie can take anywhere between two and four hours, depending on the complexity. Unsurprisingly, minuscule calligraphy and portraits are most demanding.

    Ancient Greek Pottery Sherds

    Hawkins first merged baking and her research about a decade ago while studying undergraduate costume design at the University of Warwick. She decided to bake cupcakes based on Shakespeare productions that her class examined. “It felt like a fun way to look back at all the different design styles we’d covered through the year,” she tells Colossal, adding:

    I carried on decorating cakes and cookies based on costume design through my PhD (mainly as goodies to give out during talks, or as gifts for designers that I interviewed), then branched out and spent lots of time doing cookie versions of other artefacts to keep busy during the pandemic.

    She has since published an academic book on the topic and is a senior lecturer at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. But she also continues to translate artifacts and prized objects held within museum collections into delicious canvases.

    There’s a set made in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage, a museum in the country house where John Milton finished his epic Paradise Lost. Anchored by a delicately crosshatched portrait evoking that of the frontispiece, the collection contains typographic titles and signs that appear straight from a 17th-century book.

    Delftware Tiles

    Hawkins ventures farther back in history to ancient Greece with a collection of pottery sherds inspired by objects within the Ashmolean Museum. With a bowed surface to mimic a vessel’s curvature, the irregular shapes feature fragments of various motifs and figures to which she applied a sgraffito technique, a Renaissance method of scratching a surface to reveal the layer below.

    The weathered appearance is the result of blotting a base of pale brown-grey before using a scribe tool to scratch and crack the royal icing coating the surface. She then lined these etchings with a mix of vodka and black food coloring to mimic dirt and wear. (It’s worth taking a look at this process video.)

    Other than a select few preserved for talks and events, Hawkins assures us that the rest of her cookies are eaten. Find more of her work on her website and Instagram.

    Medieval Tiles, inspired by The Tristram Tiles, Chertsey, Surrey, England (c. 1260s-70s)

    Milton’s Cottage Biscuit Set developed in collaboration with Milton’s Cottage

    Outlander Biscuit Set

    Elizabethan Gauntlet Biscuit Set

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    In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’

    All images courtesy of Marshmallow Laser Feast, courtesy of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, shared with permission

    In ‘Of the Oak,’ a Magnificent Tree at Kew Gardens Gets an Immersive ‘Digital Double’

    May 30, 2025

    ArtDesignNatureScience

    Kate Mothes

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    “We believe in the power of stories to tickle senses and shift perceptions,” says Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential artist collective merging art, extended reality (XR), and film into large-scale, immersive exhibitions.

    MLF’s latest work, Of the Oak, situates a monumental, six-meter-tall, double-sided video of the titular tree in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The piece focuses on the garden’s Lucombe oak, portraying a “digital double” using real-world data.

    Photo by Barney Steel

    MLF collaborated with researchers from Kew to create a vibrant, scientific rendering, blending advanced technologies with artistic imagery. The team stitched together thousands of images, used LiDAR to map the tree’s form with laser pulses, CT-scanned soil samples, employed ground-penetrating radar to trace the root system, and recorded a series of 24-hour soundtracks.

    “Of the Oak is a celebration for the oak tree as a living monument of vital ecological relationships and species interdependence,” MLF says. “It is an invitation to witness the oak as a keystone in the web of life, majestic and unassuming, stretching its branches skyward and its roots deep into the soil, embodying both quiet strength and boundless generosity.”

    Visitors can access a stunning digital field guide on their phones or via desktop from anywhere, featuring a series of meditations that “tune into the invisible bond between humans and trees.” The app also includes an interactive species guide highlighting the diverse range of birds, insects, fungi, and other inhabitants that rely on oak trees for survival.

    Of the Oak continues at Kew through September 28. Marshmallow Laser Feast is also currently presenting an immersive, seven-room exhibition titled YOU:MATTER at the National Science and Media Museum as part of Bradford 2025 U.K. City of Culture. See more projects on the collective’s website.

    Photo by Sandra Ciampon

    Photo by Barney Steel

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    Firebelly x Good Chaos: How an Ongoing Partnership Influenced a Joyful Identity

    Firebelly x Good Chaos: How an Ongoing Partnership Influenced a Joyful Identity

    May 29, 2025

    ArtDesignPartner

    Firebelly

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    Liz’s work instantly dazzled and lit up my design brain… My eyes followed the edges bouncing from color to color. The longer you looked, the more you were rewarded.Will Miller, Senior Director of Design at Firebelly

    Around the same time as Firebelly’s partnership with Colossal, the Chicago design studio was also developing a brand identity for Good Chaos, an impact organization committed to creating opportunities for artists. As part of its initial launch, Good Chaos was seeking a trio of local artists to design distinct logos for the organization and create interactive and joy-filled digital experiences on the Good Chaos website.

    In his research, Firebelly’s Senior Director of Design Will Miller came across Liz Flores’s work on Colossal and felt she fit the criteria perfectly for Good Chaos’ launch initiative. She was added to the artist shortlist and was ultimately selected by the Good Chaos team to participate. Read more about how her work came to goodchaos.com on Firebelly.

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