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      Loose Threads Dangle from Bizarrely Expressive Portraits Sewn by Yoon Ji Seon

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      Art
      Photography
      #fiber art
      #humor
      #portraits
      #sewing
      #threadNovember 30, 2021Grace Ebert“Rag face #21004” (2021), sewing on fabric and photography, 112 x 73 centimeters. All images © Yoon Ji Seon, courtesy of CRAIC AM, shared with permissionThe cheeky, uncanny works that comprise Yoon Ji Seon’s ongoing Rag Face series bring the knotted, twisting, and generally convoluted entanglements of a subject’s psyche to the forefront. Her photographic portraits are printed on roughly cut pieces of canvases and then overlaid with rows of tight stitches and loose strings that drip from an eye or loop across a face. Adding color and depth, the threads “can be seen or felt like internal conflicts, external stimuli, umbilical cord, blood vessels, sagging skin, hair, or time as a point of each viewer,” the artist says.Zany and outlandish in expression, the portraits are a playful mix of confusion and jest that Yoon derives from traditional Korean comedies, called madangnori. Those performances consider “the suffering and reality of the people through humor and satire while arousing the excitement of onlookers,” she says, explaining further:I think what I’m doing these days is to make (an) ‘image’ of these comedies. What I want to pursue through my work is ‘humor’ in the end, but this humor does not bloom in happiness. During intense, painful, and chaotic lives, humor can be like a comma, to relax and recharge.Because the sewn works are unique on either side, they produce mirrored images that are a distorted version of their counterpart, bolstering the strange, surreal affect of each piece.The Rag Face series now spans decades of the Daejeon City, South Korea-based artist’s practice, and you can browse dozens of those pieces on her site. (via Lustik)“Rag face #16020” (2016), sewing on fabric and photography, 141 x 97 centimeters“Rag face #21003” (2021), sewing on fabric and photography, 94 x 68 centimeters“Rag face #21004” (2021), sewing on fabric and photography, 112 x 73 centimeters“Rag face #16015” (2016), sewing on fabric and photography, 47 x 26 centimeters“Rag face #17010” (2017), sewing on fabric and photography, 128 x 97 centimeters“Rag face #19003” (2019), sewing on fabric and photography, 146 x 119 centimeters“Rag face #21002” (2021), sewing on fabric and photography, 170 x 118 centimeters“Rag face #17010” (2017), sewing on fabric and photography, 128 x 97 centimeters
      #fiber art
      #humor
      #portraits
      #sewing
      #threadDo stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, help support our interview series, gain access to partner discounts, and much more. Join now! Share this story  More

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      Cleverly Collaged Portraits Layer Vintage Ads and Magazine Spreads into Dramatic Daydreams

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      Art

      #collage
      #found photographs
      #humor
      #paper
      #vintage

      November 18, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Did You Ever Really Love Me.” All images © Shane Wheatcroft, shared with permission
      With a flair for spectacle and clandestine activities, the perfectly coiffed characters of Shane Wheatcroft’s collages face a deluge of intrigue and drama. The Kent-based artist snips vintage ads and editorial spreads that become the musings of professionally photographed subjects: a woman replays an excruciating party scene, a businessman envisions a wholesome family gathering, and quite a few protagonists imagine scenarios they likely keep covert.
      Having worked with the medium for the last five years, Wheatcroft boasts a body of work that includes a broad array of collages, from bold typographic sayings to cheeky compositions that use ad slogans and outmoded headlines to poke fun at social conventions. Surreal and witty, the new portraits feature imagery from periodicals published between 1945 and 1975. They’re spurred by “being a big fan of John Stezaker and buying old movie annuals that had stunning publicity shots of film stars on plain backgrounds. The recent series I’m making is really my attempt to reflect everyday dramas and scenarios through the medium of collage,” he says.  “They’re kind of like a hybrid of Dalí’s portrait of Mae West and Coronation Street.”
      The main portrait sets the tone for the piece, Wheatcroft tells Colossal, with the background image, furniture, and figures pasted on top. These additional elements compose an abstract representation of a face and generally feature a single eye peering through a television set or frame on the wall. “I’ll often have a song or personal experience in my head that’ll become the theme of the piece,” the artist says. “I can spend hours searching for an image of the right-sized chair or person that will fit. It’s a bit like making a jigsaw puzzle and hunting for the missing pieces.”
      Represented by Lilford Gallery in Canterbury, Wheatcroft has been sharing a variety of flat collages and 3D diorama-style pieces—see these layered works up close on Instagram—and he also has a few pieces available for purchase on Artfinder. (via Kottke)

      “Tough Room”
      Left: “Parents Outgrown.” Right: “The Merry Widow”
      “You Are My Sunshine”
      “RGB”
      Left: “Private Eye.” Right: “Notice Me”
      “The Gables”

      #collage
      #found photographs
      #humor
      #paper
      #vintage

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      No Dogs Allowed: More than 70 Artists Present a Show of Cat Art in L.A.

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      Art
      Photography

      #cats
      #collage
      #humor
      #painting
      #paper
      #sculpture

      October 7, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Alexandra Dillon. All images courtesy of Cat Art Show, shared with permission
      More than 70 artists feature cats as their muse for a feline-centric group exhibition that scratches well beyond the tropes associated with the frisky creatures. Now in its fourth iteration, the Cat Art Show features sculptures, paintings, collages, and a variety of other works by artists from 16 countries—Ravi Zupa (previously), Lola Dupré (previously), and Aniela Sobieski (previously) are among them—that capture the feisty antics, adorable wide-eyed stares, and stealthy adventures of both domestic and wild breeds. The exhibition is the project of curator and journalist Susan Michals, who also wrote the 2019 book compiling hundreds of photos by cat-enthusiast and photographer Walter Chandoha.
      If you’re in Los Angeles, stop by The Golden Pagoda between October 14 and 24 to see the quirky, spirited works in person, and check out the available pieces on Instagram. As with previous shows, 10 percent of all sales will be donated to cat care, with this year’s funds going to Kitt Crusaders, Faces of Castelar, and Milo’s Sanctuary.

      Vanessa Stockard
      Endre Penovac
      Anna Sokolova
      Lavar Munroe
      Angela Lizon
      Michael Caines
      Lola Dupré
      Holly Frean

      #cats
      #collage
      #humor
      #painting
      #paper
      #sculpture

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      Quippy Interventions by Michael Pederson Are Camouflaged as Legitimate Street Signs

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      Art

      #humor
      #miniature
      #signs
      #urban intervention

      September 15, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Michael Pederson
      Working as Miguel Marquez Outside, artist Michael Pederson (previously) installs signage around urban areas that at first glance, might appear as an average city-issued nameplate or placard. His clever interventions mimic official warnings and notices in design and placement, disguising their witty messages and unusual purposes. In some of his more recent pieces, Pederson dubs a sagging bench the “Endless Waiting Area,” marks a grassy runway as a pigeon terminal, and installs a miniature wonderland down a drainage tube. Although the artist primarily works in Australia, you can find his unexpected projects in cities around the world, which you can see more of on Instagram.

      #humor
      #miniature
      #signs
      #urban intervention

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      Artist Thierry Mandon Lives in Suspended Domestic Scenes Within the Ghost Rooms of Severed Buildings

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      Art

      #humor
      #performance art
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #video

      September 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Tableau vivant” (2007-2008). All images © Thierry Mandon, shared with permission
      Multidisciplinary artist Thierry Mandon casts himself as the subject of his satirical works as he reads in a bed hazardously suspended feet above the ground or sips a glass of wine at a halved dining table. The humorous and discomforting pieces, titled “Inside–Outside” and “Tableau vivant,” respectively, unveil a series of slow, solitary activities that, once outdoors, become a performative spectacle rather than a mundane moment. They speak to Mandon’s “search for harmony and for a stable unity between humans and their environment,” he says, as he literally slices and adheres domestic objects to a building’s facade.
      “Each video portrays a character that, as a kind of archetype of the individual, is confronted by his human condition, his limits, his power, and helplessness,” Mandon writes to Colossal. “These themes are rendered by works where two elements, two worlds are exposed in a precarious balance.”
      Mandon lives and works in Ardèche, France, and you can find a larger collection of his works on his site and Vimeo.

      [embedded content]
      “Inside–Outside” (2015)
      “Tableau vivant” (2007-2008)
      “Inside–Outside” (2015)
      “Inside–Outside” (2015)
      

      #humor
      #performance art
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #video

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      ‘A Great British Spraycation’: New Works by Banksy Cheekily Interpret Summer Vacation

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      Art

      #humor
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

      August 16, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Banksy
      In what’s dubbed A Great British Spraycation, ten new artworks by Banksy (previously) recently popped up across coastal towns in England in witty interpretations of quintessential summertime fun. A short film posted to Instagram shows the anonymous artist driving around Norfolk and Suffolk in an aging camper as he paints his signature stenciled murals of children imagining an adventure at sea, the metal claw of an arcade game descending over a bench, and a couple dancing atop of a bus stop.
      A Great British Spraycation satirizes the idea of “staycations,” a necessary alternative to traditional holidays in the wake of COVID-19 and restrictions placed on international travel following Brexit. Coincidentally or perhaps intentionally, three of the cities the artist worked in—Great Yarmouth, Gorleston, and Lowestoft—are competing to become the next UK City of Culture in 2025.
      This glimpse into Banksy’s process follows a wave of similarly revealing footage from the artist, who’s increasingly documented his works-in-progress, like in  “Create Escape” or in another video of his trademark rats causing havoc on the London Underground.

      #humor
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

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      Asparagus, Cucumbers, and Cabbage Leaves Take a Fresh Twist on the Iconic Hermès Birkin Bag

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      Art
      Design
      Food

      #fashion
      #humor
      #vegetables

      June 8, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Ben Denzer, shared with permission
      Ben Denzer cultivates what could be the next trend in sustainable fashion with a green redesign of the classic Hermés Birkin bag. The artist and designer whipped up these vegetable versions of the iconic, high-end accessory by arranging asparagus stalks, cucumber slices, and cabbage leaves into a trio you’d be more likely to find in the produce aisle than a luxury shop.
      Denzer is known for his playful food pairings, including books bound with cheese slices and condiment packets and an entire account dedicated to matching his favorite reads with ice cream. Find more of his quirky designs on his site, and check out his Instagram for the apple and banana bags that didn’t make the cut. You also might enjoy Nicole McLaughlin’s edible attire. (via The Morning News)

      #fashion
      #humor
      #vegetables

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      David Shrigley Designs a Collection of Phone Cases and Tech Accessories with His Signature Witty Illustrations

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      Art
      Design
      Illustration

      #humor
      #satire
      #technology

      May 14, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images courtesy of Casetify
      David Shrigley’s famously dry sense of humor and satirical quips grace a new collection of phone cases and other accessories. The British artist (previously) is collaborating with Casetify on a forthcoming line—it includes a dozen iPhone cases, plus Apple Watch bands, AirPods covers, stands, chargers, in addition to sleek laptop sleeves and bags—featuring his signature bold drawings alongside reminders to “be nice” and “work hard, play hard, eat a huge pizza.” One illustration, the pastel wolf, is even designed to howl a custom phrase.
      As part of the collaboration, 100 limited-edition black mirror cases printed with a multi-color “There are no rules” will be released through a lottery, which you can enter starting next week on Casetify’s site. The rest of the designs go on sale on May 25. (via It’s Nice That)

      #humor
      #satire
      #technology

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