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    A 79-Foot Labyrinth Crocheted by Ernesto Neto Hangs from the Ceiling of a Houston Museum

    
    Art

    #crochet
    #installation
    #site-specific
    #thread

    June 15, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “SunForceOceanLife” (2021), 30 x 79 x 55 feet. All images © Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, shared with permission
    Brazillian artist Ernesto Neto (previously) is known for his enormous, fiber-based installations that plunge viewers into a multi-sensory landscape of organic elements: people are encouraged to walk through canals of stretched yarn and grasp the structural weavings, while spicy scents like turmeric and cumin are often diffused throughout the room.
    Similarly immersive and imposing, Neto’s latest work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is one of his largest to date. “SunForceOceanLife” is a hand-crocheted, walkable maze of yellow, orange, and green threads that stretch 79 feet across the gallery and spiral 12 feet in the air. The pliable installation centers around “fire, the vital energy that enables life on this planet,” the artist says, sharing that each polymer string utilized is burned at the end to further infuse the piece with sacred, meditative rituals. “I hope that the experience of this work will feel like a chant made in gratitude to the gigantic ball of fire we call the sun, a gesture of thanks for the energy, truth, and power that it shares with us as it touches our land, our oceans, and our life,” he writes.
    Plastic balls also fill the pathway and shift underfoot, which forces those passing through the suspended structure to intentionally maintain their balance. Neto explains:
    It directly engages the body as does a joyful dance or meditation, inviting us to relax, breathe, and uncouple our body from our conscious mind. The sensation of floating, the body cradled by the crocheted fruits of our labor, brings to mind a hammock: the quintessential indigenous invention that uplifts us and connects us to the wisdom and traditions of our ancestors.
    “SunForceOceanLife” is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through September 26, 2021. You can see more of Neto’s interactive, site-specific projects at Galerie Max Hetzler. (via designboom)

    #crochet
    #installation
    #site-specific
    #thread

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    Nine Massive Waves of Deadwood Surge Across a Forest Floor Near Hamburg

    
    Art
    Photography

    #COVID-19
    #installation
    #land art
    #waves
    #wood

    June 8, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    All images © Jörg Gläscher, shared with permission
    As the fear of a second wave of COVID-19 swept through Germany in the fall of 2020, photographer and artist Jörg Gläscher decided to channel his own worry into a project that felt similarly vast and domineering. “I was working (with the idea of) the pure power of nature, the all-destroying force, which brings one of the richest countries in the world to a completely still stand,” he tells Colossal. “A wave is a periodic oscillation or a unique disturbance the state of a system.”
    Between November 2020 and March 2021, Gläscher spent his days in a secluded location near Hamburg, where he gathered deadwood and constructed nine massive crests—the largest of which spans four meters high and nine meters wide—that overwhelm the forest floor in undulating layers of branches and twigs. Each iteration, which he photographed and then promptly destroyed in order to reuse the materials, overwhelms the existing landscape with pools of the formerly thriving matter.
    Gläscher’s installations are part of a larger diaristic project he began at the beginning of the pandemic. Since then, he published a few magazines to present the works that range from photography to sculpture in one place, which you purchase along with prints in his shop. Find more of his multi-media projects on his site and Instagram. (via This Isn’t Happiness)

    #COVID-19
    #installation
    #land art
    #waves
    #wood

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    Sci-Fi-Esque ‘Portals’ on the Streets of Vilnius and Lublin Connect Passersby in Real-Time

    
    Art
    Design

    #cameras
    #installation
    #public art

    June 3, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    Vilnius. All images © Portal, shared with permission
    Prior to hopping on the train for their morning commutes, Vilnius residents can greet pals passing through a main square in Lublin, Poland, despite being 376 miles apart. Thanks to “Portal,” a sleek pair of screens installed in the city centers, passersby have the opportunity to wave hello and socialize with their counterparts just as if they were standing in front of each other on the street. Dubbed “a visual bridge,” the futuristic installation resembles large, round orbs embedded with screens and cameras that transmit views of the two locations in real-time.
    “Portal” is the culmination of five years of research and design, and the project to expand to cities around the world, with two more eye-like devices coming to Reyjavik and London soon.

    Lublin
    Vilnius
    Lublin
    Lublin
    Lublin
    Lublin

    #cameras
    #installation
    #public art

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    Color-Changing Canopies Glow with LED Lights in a Fantastical Meadow in San Francisco

    
    Art

    #installation
    #LED lights
    #light
    #trees

    May 24, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Entwined Meadow” at Golden Gate Park. All images © Charles Gadeken, shared with permission. Photo by Allen Mort
    Charles Gadeken’s “Entwined Meadow” converted an outdoor greenspace at Golden Gate Park into an enchanted grove of color-changing light. Branching 30 feet across in thick canopies, three metal trees and scattered shrubbery populated the whimsical garden that merged nature and technology to create an otherworldly environment. Thousands of flickering LED cubes topped the plant forms, which stood as high as 20 feet, casting Park Meadow in a kaleidoscopic glow.
    “Entwined Meadow” recently closed at the San Francisco space, although Gadeken says the installation might make another appearance at the location in the future. See more views of the illuminated project, in addition to an archive of the Bay Area artist’s light-based works, on Instagram.

    Photo by Jason Chinn
    Photo by Jonathan Condit
    Photo by Jason Chinn

    #installation
    #LED lights
    #light
    #trees

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    An Expansive Exhibition Pairs Two Indigenous Artists to Explore the Power of Socially Engaged Artmaking

    
    Art

    #animals
    #collaborative
    #found objects
    #installation
    #portraits
    #sculpture

    May 21, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Each/Other,” (2021) about 700 bandannas, approximately 16 x 9 feet, a collaboration between Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger
    A monumental patchwork wolf, warriors sparring with a fang-bearing snake, and an abstract woolen tapestry made of restored blankets comprise Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, which opens this weekend at the Denver Art Museum. The expansive exhibition—featuring 26 mixed-media sculptures, installations, and wall hangings—joins two of the leading Indigenous artists working today in a manner that distinguishes both the connective threads and nuances within their bodies of work.
    Situated at the center of the space is the 16-foot creature the pair created together by fashioning about 700 patterned bandannas submitted by an international crew around a steel armature. The collaborative installation, titled “Each/Other,” physically tethers Watt’s and Luger’s individual artworks while drawing on the socially engaged aspects inherent to both of their practices.

    Cannupa Hanska Luger, “Every One” (2018), ceramic, social collaboration, 12 x 15 x 3 feet. Image courtesy of Marie Walsh Sharpe Gallery of Contemporary Art at Ent Center for the Arts, UCCS, Colorado Springs, Colorado
    Based in New Mexico, Luger is a multi-media artist of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, and European descent whose projects often speak to contemporary life within Indigenous communities. For example, his 2018 piece “Every One” strings together 4,096 ceramic beads into a pixelated portrait of a young figure. Each individual orb represents one of the women, girls, and queer and trans folks who have been murdered or gone missing in Canada.
    Watt, who is a member of the Seneca Nation and has Scottish and German heritage, utilizes everyday objects steeped in historical narratives and collective memory. Whether presented through leaning, stacked towers or smaller wall hangings, the Portland-based artist primarily works with materials gathered from the community, like blankets stitched in sewing circles.
    Following the end of its run in Denver on August 22, Each/Other will visit the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta from September 25 to December 12, 2021, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem from January 29 to May 8, 2022. Find out more about Luger and Watt on their sites.

    Marie Watt (Seneca), “Butterfly” (2015), reclaimed wool blankets, satin binding, thread, cotton twill tape, and tin jingles, 94 x 126 inches. Image © Marie Watt
    Cannupa Hanska Luger, “This Is Not A Snake” (2017-2020), ceramic, fiber, steel, oil drums, concertina wire, ammunition cans, trash, found objects, 78 x 36 x 600 inches. “The One Who Checks & The One Who Balances” (2018), ceramic, riot gear, afghan, wool surplus industrial felt, beadwork by Kathy Elkwoman Whitman; 6-1/2 feet x 12 inches x 8 inches (each, approximate). Image © Cannupa Hanska Luger, courtesy of the Heard Museum, Craig Smith
    Marie Watt “Companion Species (Radiant)” (2017), crystal and western maple base, 8 x 27 x 16 inches. Image © Marie Watt and Kevin McConnell. Made in collaboration with Jeff Mack, Glassblower, and Corning Museum of Glass Hot Glass Team in Partnership with the Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York
    Cannupa Hanska Luger “Mirror Shield Project” (2016), drone operation/performance organization by Rory Wakemup., at Oceti Sakowin camp, Standing Rock, North Dakota

    #animals
    #collaborative
    #found objects
    #installation
    #portraits
    #sculpture

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    Thousands of Discs Are Suspended in Immense Cloud-Like Formations in Jacob Hashimoto’s Installations

    
    Art

    #installation
    #nature
    #site-specific

    May 10, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “The Sky” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci
    Artist Jacob Hashimoto (previously) hangs thousands of individual orbs in undulating, cloud-like masses that transform atriums and open spaces into monumental landscapes. His site-specific installations layer organic elements—some of the components are printed with waves, galactic dust particles, and other motifs suggestive of nature—in formations “that climb, wavelike, above the viewer, dwarfing them in almost a cathedral of humble little objects,” he says.
    The artist began creating such large-scale works in the 90s, and although they’ve evolved from simple “sculptures of the sky,” Hashimoto continues to draw on the connection between landscape and abstraction, a recurring theme that’s been increasingly informed by technology, virtual environments, and data mapping. An eclectic array of references like Japanese screens, Super Mario Bros, and the Digital Universe inform how the artist conceptualizes his compositions, in addition to the ways spatial coordinates are utilized in 3D environments. “Simply, if you build a cloud out of paper and wood and configure it in a strict x, y, z grid structure, the resulting sculpture or object or experience tells us something about how we see the world and allows us to meditate a moment on the digital/analog dialectic that is so much a part of every aspect of our lives,” he says.
    Hashimoto is currently based in Ossining, New York, and has a few upcoming solo shows, including one opening on June 4 at Makasiini Contemporary in Turku, Finland, and two others slated for fall at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago and London’s Ronchini Gallery. See more of his artworks on his site and Instagram, and read his recent interview with designboom for a deeper look at his practice.

    Detail of “The Sky” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci
    “The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci
    Detail of “The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci
    Detail of “The City” at Portland International Airport (2020), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, screenprints, and fiberglass rod, 40 x 30 x 18 feet. Photo by Mario Gallucci
    “This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance” at San Francisco International Airport (2019), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, stainless steel, acrylic, and Spectra, 9 x 39 x 9 feet. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission
    Detail of “This Infinite Gateway of Time and Circumstance” at San Francisco International Airport (2019), bamboo, resin, UV Prints, stainless steel, acrylic, and Spectra, 9 x 39 x 9 feet. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Arts Commission
    “In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust” in Willis Tower, Chicago, (2019), bamboo, resin, screen prints, acrylic, stainless steel and Spectra, 16 feet 5.75 inches x 42 feet x 18 feet 6 inches. Photo courtesy of EQ Office, by Ed Knigge
    Detail of “In the Heart of this Infinite Particle of Galactic Dust” in Willis Tower, Chicago, (2019), bamboo, resin, screen prints, acrylic, stainless steel and Spectra, 16 feet 5.75 inches x 42 feet x 18 feet 6 inches. Photo courtesy of EQ Office, by Ed Knigge

    #installation
    #nature
    #site-specific

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    A 15-Meter-Tall Squirrel Rests on Its Bushy Tail to Peer into a Chongqing Botanical Garden

    
    Art

    #animals
    #installation
    #public art
    #squirrel

    April 30, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Shiny Squirrel” (2021) in . All images courtesy of Studio Florentijn Hofman, shared with permission
    The oversized animal menagerie by Florentijn Hofman that includes a fox, octopus, and reclining bunny now has a new member. The Dutch artist recently completed a 15-meter-tall squirrel caught peeking into a botanical garden in Chongqing, China. Covered in 16,500 metal discs and propped up by its extraordinarily bushy tail, the cheerful creature waves at the visitors indoors and even flashes a peace sign with its paw.
    “Shiny Squirrel” was commissioned by Hongkong Land Chongqing and produced with Art Depot. Check out Hofman’s Instagram to see photos of the playful installation in progress.

    #animals
    #installation
    #public art
    #squirrel

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    Olafur Eliasson’s Newest Exhibition Floods Fondation Beyeler with a Bright Green Pond Filled with Plants

    
    Art

    #installation
    #nature
    #plants
    #water

    April 22, 2021
    Grace Ebert

    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    A flood of murky water overwhelms the stark white galleries of Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland. The new exhibition, simply titled “Life,” is the work of acclaimed Danish-Iceland artist Olafur Eliasson (previously), who set the Swiss institution awash in floating ferns, dwarf water lilies, shell flowers, red root floaters, and water caltrops.
    To install the sprawling project, Eliasson removed the windows on one side of the museum’s facade, which allows visitors and nearby wildlife to enter the space at any time of day or night. The open-air environment subjects the manufactured reservoir indoors to the naturally occurring elements outside the building, like the weather, daylight, humidity, and smells and sounds of nearby public gardens. At night, a combination of UV lights and a fluorescent dye called uranine radiate brilliant colors throughout the water.
    A prismatic livestream—Eliasson outfitted some of the cameras with apparatuses that mimic the sensory experiences of animals and insects—captures how the immersive space changes with each moment, especially as the surface reflects shadows and passersby. These interactions between human and non-human species foreground the project, which was inspired by anthropologist Natasha Myers who’s advocated for the advent of the “planthroposcene.” An alternative to the anthropocene, Myers’ concept is “rooted in the knowledge that plants are what made this planet liveable,” a statement says, clarifying that although the gallery is overrun with water, Eliasson’s goal is to evidence the interconnectivity inherent in nature.
    Fondation Beyeler is housing Eliasson’s “Life” through July. Find more of the artist’s monumental projects on his studio’s site and Instagram. (via Artnet)

    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Mark Niedermann, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson
    “Life” (2021), installation view at Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel. Photo by Pati Grabowicz, courtesy of the artist; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York / Los Angeles, © 2021 Olafur Eliasson

    #installation
    #nature
    #plants
    #water

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