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      Kinetic Flowers Grow from a Deteriorated Landscape in an Otherworldly Installation by Casey Curran

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      Art

      #flowers
      #installation
      #kinetic sculpture
      #video

      March 26, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      [embedded content]
      In Parable of Gravity, artist Casey Curran (previously) assembles a vast garden of delicate kinetic blossoms amidst an expanse of deterioration. The sweeping landscape, which is on view at Seattle’s MadArt through April 17, positions Curran’s pulsing plant forms atop 20 towers of wooden scaffolding that line the gallery space. Coated in a thick layer of mud, the tallest structures scale eight feet at the outer edge of the installation, where a human-like figure appears to hover in the air. The anonymous body is covered in the flowers, which are made from laser-cut polyester drawing papers and powered by cranks and small motors.
      Through the maze of garden plots at the other end of the space hangs a hollow, aluminum asteroid—which is modeled after 951 Gaspra, the first rocky mass humans were able to observe in detail thanks to a 1991 viewing by the Galileo spacecraft. Titled “Anchor of Janus,” the imposing sculpture references both the Roman god and the intricate motifs on Gothic cathedrals and provides a foreboding, catastrophic lens to the otherwise burgeoning garden.
      In a statement, Curran explains the confluence of the manufactured and organic themes:
      This mythological, architectural, and astronomical convergence considers not only the scientific and spiritual aspects of our connection to the natural world, but also our cultural legacy and the ways in which past technological advancements continue to impact our lives and experiences today. Further, the reference to Janus recognizes the dual nature of human progress, with all of the positive and negative implications it carries.
      Watch the video above to watch the installation take shape, and follow Curran on Instagram and Vimeo to stay up-to-date with his latest projects.

      Full installation view: “Kinetic Towers” and “Anchor of Janus,” Dur-alar, MDF, aluminum, dirt, paper, and glue. Photo by James Harnois. All images © Casey Curran, shared with permission

      “We Spoke Like This to Remember.” Photo by Adrian Garcia Rodriguez 
      Detail of “Anchor of Janus.” Photo by James Harnois
      Full installation view: “Kinetic Towers” and “Anchor of Janus,” Dur-alar, MDF, aluminum, dirt, paper, and glue. Photo by James Harnois
      Detail of “We Spoke Like This to Remember”
      “Kinetic Towers” and “We Spoke Like This to Remember.” Photo by James Harnois
      Photo by James Harnois
      Visitors walking through the kinetic towers. Photo by Adrian Garcia Rodriguez
      Curran installs “We Spoke Like This to Remember”

      #flowers
      #installation
      #kinetic sculpture
      #video

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      A Flurry of Feathers and Leaves Surround Spirited Birds in Fio Silva’s Vivid Murals

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      Art

      #birds
      #flowers
      #mural
      #public art
      #street art

      March 5, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Castelar, Buenos Aires. All images @ Fio Silva, shared with permission
      Fio Silva tucks clusters of oversized birds and botanicals into otherwise stark urban spaces, creating striking murals awash in puffs of feathers, petals, and leaves. The Buenos Aires-based artist focuses largely on movement, a thread that runs through both the vivid renderings of winged subjects as they appear to take flight or perch for just a moment. “It was that lack of stillness through work and searching for walls to paint that I found meaning in my time,” Silva tells Colossal.
      When working in color, the artist starts with blues, yellows, and reds before expanding the palette based on the “moods and to intensify, in some way, what I want to convey, if it is something rather clear, bright, or something… more subdued or desolate,” Silva says. “When I paint, I try to convey a certain force, that by seeing it or sharing it I can move someone, in whatever way.”
      Silva plans to complete a few murals in Argentina during the next few months and will travel to Europe during the summer, with an exhibition of smaller paintings slated for October in Paris. Keep up with the artist’s monumental public works on Instagram.

      Olivos, Buenos Aires
      General Roca, Rio Negro
      Olivos, Buenos Aires
      Left: Berlin, Germany. Right: Belsh, Albania
      General Roca, Rio Negro
      Patos, Albania
      Patos, Albania

      #birds
      #flowers
      #mural
      #public art
      #street art

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      Plants Embedded in Wax Sprout from Fragile Hands in Memory-Infused Works by Valerie Hammond

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      Art

      #encaustic
      #flowers
      #hands
      #memory
      #plants
      #wax

      March 2, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Valerie Hammond, shared with permission
      In Valerie Hammond’s series of wax drawings, protection is two-fold: the artist (previously) encases dried flowers and ferns in a thin layer of wax, preserving their fragile tissues long after they’ve been plucked from the ground. In outlining a pair of hands, she also secures a memory, or rather, “the essence of a gesture and the fleeting moment in which it was made.”
      Centered on limbs lying flat on Japanese paper, the ongoing series dates back to the 1990s, when Hammond made the first tracing “partly in response to the death of a dear friend, whose beautiful hands I often found myself remembering.” She continued by working with family and friends, mainly women and children, to delineate their wrists, palms, and fingers. Today, the series features dozens of works that are comprised of either hands tethered to the dried botanics, which sprout outward in wispy tendrils, or others overlayed with thread and glass beads.
      Although the delicate pieces began as a simple trace, Hammond shares that she soon began to overlay the original drawing with pressed florals, creating encaustic assemblages that “echoed the body’s bones, veins, and circulatory systems.” She continued to experiment with the series by introducing various techniques, including printmaking, Xerox transfers, and finally Photoshop inversions, that distorted the original rendering and shifted her practice. Hammond explains:
      The works suddenly inhabited a space I had been searching for, straddling the indefinable boundary between presence and absence, material and immaterial, consciousness and the unconscious. For me, they became emblematic not only of the people whose hands I had traced but of my own evolving artistic process—testimony to the passing of time and the quiet dissolution of memory.
      Hammond’s work recently was included in a group show at Leila Heller Gallery. Her practice spans multiple mediums including collage, drawing, and sculpture, all of which you can explore on her site and Instagram.

      #encaustic
      #flowers
      #hands
      #memory
      #plants
      #wax

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      Lush Florals Sprout from Corsets and Dresses in Enchanting Paintings by Artist Amy Laskin

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      Art

      #fashion
      #flowers
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants

      February 2, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Blouse an Skirt!,” oil on linen, 40 x 50 inches. All images © Amy Laskin, shared with permission
      Through ethereal oil paintings, artist Amy Laskin juxtaposes decorative fashions and organic beauty. Thick bunches of hydrangeas, lilies, and wispy ferns spring from elaborate, beaded dresses and corsets, which swell into fully formed garments and shroud the works with an unearthly and enchanting aura. Each piece is figurative but non-representational, a decision Laskin shares stems from the idea that “nature is anonymous. She needs no name. She is everything.” 
      The artist’s studio is located in the Blue Mountains in Jamaica, the place she’s drawn inspiration from since moving to the island as a Peace Corps volunteer years ago. You can find more of Laskin’s work that’s brimming with the flora native to the region on her site and Artsy.

      “Grand Stand,” oil on linen, 19.5 X 15.5 inches
      “Haute Couture and Mother Nature Marry,” oil on board, 24 X 21 inches
      Left: “Up Rooted,” oil on linen, 17 X 14 inches. Right: “Rooted in Her Story,” oil on linen, 17 X 14 inches
      “Flora and Furbelow,” oil on linen, 45.5 X 45.5 inches
      Left: “Red and Green,” oil on linen, 12 x 12 inches. Right: “Flora’s Duppy,” oil on linen, 40 x 30 inches
      “Bodice and Botany,” oil on linen, 40 X 50 inches

      #fashion
      #flowers
      #oil painting
      #painting
      #plants

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      A Technicolor Flower Bed Sprouts From a 70-Foot-Tall Water Tower in Arkansas

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      Art

      #flowers
      #murals
      #public art
      #site-specific

      January 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Justkids, shared with permission
      A drab water tower in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, is overrun with a 70-foot-tall garden of technicolor flowers and vines thanks to artists Darren and Emmelene Mate, aka DabsMyla. The Australian wife and husband are known for their hand-painted psychedelic dreamscapes, which envelop the otherwise utilitarian tank with oversized flora. Titled “Magical Unity,” the circular mural features plants native to the region, along with a fuzzy bumblebee mid-pollination, all rendered in the duo’s playful style.
      DabsMyla completed the public project in just one week, which they describe:

      Color plays a big role in our work and how we create. For this piece, we wanted to produce an uplifting feeling through flowers and running a rainbow of hues from the bottom to the top. This is a really large work, and we hope that it will positively impact the community and bring happiness to everyone who passes by it.

      The transformative artwork is the latest commissioned by the women-led curators of Justkids (previously) and OZ Art, which have been collaborating to revitalize areas around Arkansas in recent years. Shop pins and stickers of DabsMyla’s quirky characters in their shop, and check out more of the couple’s work on Instagram.

      #flowers
      #murals
      #public art
      #site-specific

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      A Frozen Installation by Azuma Makoto Preserves a Vibrant Floral Arrangement in Ice

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      Art

      #flowers
      #ice
      #installation
      #plants
      #snow

      January 4, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Shiinoki/AMKK, shared with permission
      Japanese artist Azuma Makoto (previously) is known for shifting the contexts in which we typically view florals—think encasing bouquets in blocks of ice or suspending them in the stratosphere—through installations and designs that blur the boundaries between art and botany. Shown here is a 2018 project titled “Frozen Flowers” from Makoto’s In Bloom series. The undertaking brought the artist to Notsuke Peninsula in Hokkaido where he doused open blossoms and greenery in water. Positioned against the stark, snowy landscape, the resulting arrangement is frozen in its original splendor, allowing the vibrancy of the flowers to peek through the icicles.
      “The place where this installation was held in Hokkaido is also called the end of the world since blighted pine trees are usually spread out there and that place freezes over in winter,” says Makoto’s studio. “It was the series of how Azuma pursued unknown possibilities of flowers and how flowers express themselves under this condition.”
      More images and a short video of Makoto’s process are available on his site, and you can follow his latest works on Instagram. (via The Jealous Curator)

      #flowers
      #ice
      #installation
      #plants
      #snow

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      Dialogo: A Frenzied Short Film Translates Indiscernible Audio into Kinetic Sound Sculptures

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      Art

      #flowers
      #kinetic
      #language
      #neon
      #sculpture
      #senses
      #sound
      #video

      December 28, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      [embedded content]
      Juxtaposing natural elements and mechanics, “Dialogo” harnesses the frenetic, indiscernible components of language into a synesthetic experience. A mix of stop-motion and live-action, the short film features entirely hand-crafted sculptures by the Madrid-based design studio blo que. Each motorized work translates human utterings into movement, whether through an undulating tube of neon or oscillating florals, generating new associations in a conversation between the senses.
      To represent the original audio in a visual manner, blo que converts the speech waveforms into animation curves, which subsequently mobilizes the sculpture’s engines. “This is the voice of nature and order or the control of what cannot be controlled,” the studio says. “The passing of time in nature (freezing, rotting, etc.) is connected to the time of sound reproduction. This bond creates relationships between human emotions, language, and nature.”
      blo que details the lengthy creation process for the film on its site, and you can follow future projects that merge the tangible and digital on Vimeo and Instagram.

      #flowers
      #kinetic
      #language
      #neon
      #sculpture
      #senses
      #sound
      #video

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      Metaphorical Scenes Examine Mystery in Dreamy Paintings by Artist Duy Huynh

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      Art

      #acrylic
      #birds
      #flowers
      #painting
      #surreal

      November 9, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “ReciprociTea,” acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 x 2.5 inches. All images © Duy Huynh, shared with permission
      Vietnamese aritst Duy Huynh (previously) examines balance through nuanced scenes replete with ethereal, surreal elements: individual flowers ascend from a teapot, a chain winds around an artichoke heart, and figures float mid-air. Rendered in muted hues, the acrylic paintings are metaphorical and narrative-based, visualizing stories by connecting unsual symbols or positioning disparate objects together. The North Carolina-based artist gives the works witty names— “Thyme to Turnip the Beet” and “ReciprociTea,” for example—adding to their playful and whimsical natures.
      In a statement, Huynh writes that the core of his practice involves drawing connections “between two or more mysteries,” which he explains further:
      My characters often float (literally) somewhere between science and spirituality, memory and mythology, structure and spontaneity, ephemeral and eternal, humorous and profound, connectivity and non-attachment. The intent isn’t necessarily to provide enlightenment but to celebrate the quest itself.
      Huynh co-owns Lark & Key, where his elegant paintings are part of a group show that’s on view through November 28. Limited-edition prints and greeting cards of his works are available through the gallery, as well.

      “No More Clouded Hearts,” acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 x 2.5 inches
      Left: “Thyme to Turnip the Beet,” acrylic on wood, 12 x 12 x 1.75 inches. Right: “Wisdom Keepers,” acrylic on wood, paper on piano reads “press any key to continue,” 30 x 40 x 2.5 inches
      “Heart of Gold,” acrylic on wood, 12 x 12 x 2 inches
      Left: “A Matter of Pace, Space and Equanimitea,” acrylic on wood, 16 x 16 x 2.5 inches.  Right: “A Life More Aliferous,” acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 x 2.5 inches
      “New Dawn Rising,” acrylic on canvas, 34 x 34 x 2 inches

      #acrylic
      #birds
      #flowers
      #painting
      #surreal

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