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    Laura Ellen Bacon Brings Somerset Willow ‘Into Being’ at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

    Detail of “Into Being.” All photos by India Hobson. Images courtesy of the artist and Yorkshire Sculpture Park, shared with permission

    Laura Ellen Bacon Brings Somerset Willow ‘Into Being’ at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

    April 7, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    From pliable lengths of sustainably sourced Somerset willow, Laura Ellen Bacon (previously) weaves elegant, meandering sculptures. Whether installed on a wall, streaming from windows, or curled up on a plinth, her works invite us to wander through installations that appear alive and moving.

    Bacon’s latest solo exhibition, Into Being, just opened at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. The Derbyshire-based artist created pieces for the park’s 18th-century chapel, centering around an eponymous piece that extends six meters into the nave and reaches three meters high. Mirroring shapes from nature like seed pods, burrows, and cocoons, the undulating form welcomes visitors to step inside a kind of gentle, organic embrace.

    The artist with “Into Being”

    Joining a continuum of artists like Andy Goldsworthy—who has four works permanently on display ay YSP—Nicola Turner, and Kate MccGwire who utilize natural materials to create enigmatic in situ installations, Bacon’s site-specific works respond directly to their surroundings. She constructed “Into Being” on location at YSP over the course of eight weeks, re-interpreting the space by “drawing” with willow. About 80 bundles of Dicky Meadow, a variety known for its slender and straight stem, wind their way through the gallery

    In Britain, people have been weaving with willow for upwards of 10,000 years, primarily using the material for creating baskets. The thin stems are soft, flexible, and lightweight, making them easy to handle and bend. Bacon has developed her own methods during the past two decades, experimenting with relationships between curves and lines, tightness and looseness, and knots and twists to create contemporary, abstract compositions.

    Branches that have naturally fallen from beech trees at YSP form part of the sculpture’s supporting structure, which, “through its material and form, conjures up a primal instinct to nest and reconnect with the natural world,” says a statement. When the installation is dismantled later this year, the material will be repurposed on the YSP grounds to create wildlife habitats.

    Into Being continues through September 7 in West Bretton, England. Find more on Bacon’s website and Instagram.

    “Contact”

    Detail of “Contact”

    “Into Being”

    Detail of “Into Being”

    Detail of “Into Being”

    “Confidant”

    Detail of “Into Being”

    Detail of “Into Being”

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    More Than 200,000 Rivets Secure the Ultra-Thin Aluminum Facets of ‘The Orb’ by Marc Fornes

    Photos by © Younes Bounhar / Doublespace Photography. All images © Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY, shared with permission

    More Than 200,000 Rivets Secure the Ultra-Thin Aluminum Facets of ‘The Orb’ by Marc Fornes

    April 2, 2025

    ArtDesign

    Kate Mothes

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    From geometric, white panels riveted together into an undulating sphere, Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY’s newest public installation invites visitors to immerse themselves in a luminous experience on Google’s Charleston East Campus in California.

    Designed as a physical embodiment of innovation and creativity, “The Orb” invites us into a 10-meter-tall, 26-meter-wide labyrinthine form made of ultra-thin aluminum. “Edged yet edgeless, surfaces curve, branch, split, rejoin, and split again,” the studio (previously) says. “This extreme curvature—achieved through cutting-edge computational design—enables the surfaces to be entirely self-supporting despite being just three millimeters thick.”

    “The Orb” comprises 6,441 individual components connected with more than 217,000 rivets. During the day, a pattern of holes speckles sunlight across the pavilion and onto the ground. At night, the structure is illuminated, casting deep shadows that contrast the bright details.

    Fornes’ mission, hybridizing elements of art and architecture, is to spark “the joy wandering, the joy of marveling.”

    Find more on THEVERYMANY website.

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    Filled with ‘Half-Pots,’ Adam Ledford’s Life-Size Room Drawings Reflect Timeless Routines

    Detail of “Don’t Worry About the Government.” All images courtesy of Adam Ledford, shared with permission

    Filled with ‘Half-Pots,’ Adam Ledford’s Life-Size Room Drawings Reflect Timeless Routines

    April 1, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    In Harold and the Purple Crayon, the young protagonist composes a fantasy reality using the deceptively simple power of line. Harold manifests numerous adventures with a single writing instrument, drawing himself into ever more exciting capers. For artist Adam Ledford, Crockett Johnson’s iconic 1955 children’s book provides one reference point for his approach to large-scale installations.

    Ledford dots life-size line drawings of domestic spaces with “half pots,” or reliefs of ceramic vessels, which reflect how everyday objects represent individuals’ values, experiences, and projection of identity. Canisters of coffee or cleaning solutions detail vintage packaging design, while other items like cooking utensils or decorative objects highlight personal taste and daily routines.

    Detail of “Don’t Worry About the Government”

    “I am the person visiting your house, who is eyeing up all the tchotchkes, asking about your tea kettle, and picking up and looking at the bottom of your tableware,” Ledford tells Colossal. He credits his love for pottery for providing the lens through which he also learned America’s historical timeline, describing how “the objects help set a mental stage for the abstract process of thinking about the past.”

    In Ledford’s expansive installations, which range from multiple walls to single architectural features, black-and-white outlines represent kitchen cabinets, countertops, or fireplaces—locations where containers and vessels are collected, stored, or displayed. “Theater,” for example, is a replica of his own kitchen. The artist says, “The drawn environments are a stage setting for the objects to play and star.”

    Ledford’s work is currently on view in Dinner Table, on view through May 29 at The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington. Find more on the artist’s website and Instagram. You might also enjoy the hand-drawn installations of Anastasia Parmson and Shantell Martin.

    “Theater”

    Detail of “Theater”

    Detail of “Theater”

    “Don’t Worry About the Government”

    Detail of “Don’t Worry About the Government”

    “A Room with a View”

    Detail of “A Room with a View”

    Detail of “Don’t Worry About the Government”

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    In ‘Electric Garden,’ Ricky Boscarino Leads a Tour of His Whimsical Handbuilt Home

    © 2024 Stockton University

    In ‘Electric Garden,’ Ricky Boscarino Leads a Tour of His Whimsical Handbuilt Home

    March 24, 2025

    ArtFilm

    Kate Mothes

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    In December 1988, artist Ricky Boscarino was on the hunt for real estate. Not just any property would do, though. “It was really my boyhood ambition to built my dream house, where literally all my dreams could come true,” he says in the short documentary “Electric Garden.” Little did he know that over the course of the next four decades, a dilapidated hunting cabin would transform into a veritable way of life.

    Luna Parc emerged on a wooded six-acre parcel in northwestern New Jersey and has been in progress continually since 1989. “Family lore is that we were carpenters for many, many generations,” Boscarino says. “My whole life became about making things with metal, wood, glass, fabric, concrete.”

    With numerous additions and labyrinthine levels, Luna Parc includes a kind of living museum, where Boscarino adds new work all the time, plus studios devoted to various mediums, living spaces, and an expansive sculpture garden. At 5,000 square feet, the self-described “madcap” artist’s vibrant, elaborately ornamented home evokes a fairytale dwelling or a whimsical, Tim Burton-esque construction.

    Boscarino continues to add new details to Luna Parc, whether electrifying a concrete sculpture garden with colored lights or adding new works to the museum. The house occasionally opens to the public during the summer months, and you can learn more and plan your visit on Boscarino’s website. Watch the documentary in full on Vimeo.

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    Through Knotted Installations, Windy Chien Reinterprets the Hitching Post

    All images © Windy Chien, shared with permission

    Through Knotted Installations, Windy Chien Reinterprets the Hitching Post

    March 14, 2025

    ArtCraft

    Jackie Andres

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    Since the 1800s, hitching posts have shaped a history anchored in utility and community. Scattered throughout towns and outside common areas, the sturdy objects offered a secure point to tie down horses, especially during social events or gatherings. San Francisco-based artist Windy Chien reinterprets this functional object in her ongoing Hitching Post series.

    Interdependent forms are particularly fascinating to Chien. “If the object around which the hitch is tied were to be removed, the hitch collapses and loses its integrity,” she says. Just as the presence of the knot relies on another element to remain intact, social spaces and gatherings rely on collective presence.

    Having received commissions for the projects since 2019, Chien creates unique pieces for a wide range of communal areas, such as airports, offices, houses, and ranches. Cutting wooden supports to various lengths and fastening rope by wrapping and knotting, the flowing and geometric compositions stretch across walls and exterior facades.

    Combining motifs from her Circuit Board series with other techniques, Chien recently completed a large installation in a Los Angeles office stairwell comprised of four works, each spanning 20 feet wide in a gradient of six hues. In April, the artist is looking forward to Ruth Asawa’s retrospective at San Francisco MOMA, where she will be showing several works alongside the exhibition. Find more on her website and Instagram.

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    Rui Sasaki Encases Spectral Flowers in Intimate Glass Assemblages

    “Residue” (2018). Photo by Ryohei Yanagihara. All images courtesy of Rui Sasaki, shared with permission

    Rui Sasaki Encases Spectral Flowers in Intimate Glass Assemblages

    March 10, 2025

    ArtNature

    Kate Mothes

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    “What is essential is invisible to the eye,” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his 1943 novella The Little Prince, a sentiment that drives Rui Sasaki’s work. From what the artist (previously) describes as a “mysterious and ambiguous material,” botanicals appear to float in frozen cubes of water.

    Sasaki employs glass to document and preserve the nature of the present. Works like “Subtle Intimacy” respond to places and experiences where she feels present. “It is vital for me to connect who I am and where I am, especially when I am in unfamiliar spaces,” the artist tells Colossal. She likens intimacy to nostalgia, exploring the depth of feeling associated with memories, comfort, and security.

    “Subtle Intimacy 2012-2023” (2023), glass, plants, LED, and aluminum, 253.5 x 310 x 332 centimeters. Collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Photo by Nik van der Giesen

    Sasaki traces her fascination with the medium to childhood, specifically to its visual similarities to the surfaces of ponds or lakes. “I was always wondering how I could make something out of water,” she says. “When I saw molten glass at a glassblowing studio during a summer family trip in Okinawa, I fell in love with it.”

    When Sasaki moved to the U.S. from Japan in 2007, she began incorporating plants into her work as a way to “recover my senses from my loss of intimacy and home in my mother country,” she says. When she returned to Japan five years later, she continued to hone her focus on botanicals.

    Enchanted by how plants can express experiences of her surroundings, Sasaki portrays individual botanicals in sculptures ranging in size from a few feet wide to room-size installations. She says:

    Collecting plants is the most important aspect of the work. I use all my five senses in gathering plants. That helps me to recall my past memories, especially in my childhood, and to connect my feelings of intimacy towards my country, Japan.

    Sasaki places collected specimens between two sheets of glass and fires the piece in a kiln. The plant turns to white ash, leaving the impression of petals, leaves, and veins. Air bubbles that naturally emerge in the heat are also preserved in what the artist likes to a time capsule. The original form of the plant no longer exists but its impression endures.

    Detail of “Subtle Intimacy 2012-2023″ (2023). Photo by Nik van der Giesen

    Dualities like presence and absence, fragility and strength, and transparency and opacity merge with Sasaki’s interest in “befriending” glass while reveling in the knowledge that she will never fully comprehend everything about it.

    If you’re in Denmark, you can see Sasaki’s sculptures at Glas from March 22 to September 28 in Ebeltoft. Her work will also be on view later this year at the Aichi Triennale 2025. Explore more on the artist’s website, and follow Instagram for updates.

    “Residue” (2018). Photo by Ryohei Yanagihara

    “Unforgettable Gardens” (2022). Photo courtesy of Art Court Gallery / Takeru Koroda

    “Subtle Intimacy 2012-2023” (2023), glass, plants, LED, and aluminum, 253.5 x 310 x 332 centimeters. Collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Photo by Nik van der Giesen

    Detail of “Subtle Intimacy / Utsuroi” (2024). Photo courtesy of National Crafts Museum (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) / Tomoya Nomura

    “Subtle Intimacy / Utsuroi” (2024). Photo courtesy of National Crafts Museum (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo) / Tomoya Nomura

    Detail of “Dormant Recollections” (2024). Photo courtesy of Northern Alps Art Festival

    Detail of “Unforgettable Reminiscences” (2022-2023), installation view at Bellustar One. Photo by Keizo Kioku, ©︎ Tokyu Kabuchiko Tower

    Detail of “Unforgettable Reminiscences” (2022-2023), installation view at Bellustar One. Photo by Keizo Kioku, ©︎ Tokyu Kabuchiko Tower

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    Folk Traditions, Quotidian Items, and Spiritual Symbolism Merge in Haegue Yang’s Sensory Sculptures

    “Sonic Intermediates – Triad Walker Trinity” (2020), powder-coated steel and handles, casters, nickel and brass-plated bells, metal rings, plastic twine, turbine vents, artificial plants, pine cones, and foam. Photo by Nick Ash. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

    Folk Traditions, Quotidian Items, and Spiritual Symbolism Merge in Haegue Yang’s Sensory Sculptures

    March 6, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    “Abstraction is not a…simplified way of thinking: it’s a leap—a leap into a dimension that cannot otherwise be understood,” says Haegue Yang, whose multimedia installations and sculptures explore a wide array of material associations, immersing the senses. Series such as Light Sculptures and Sonic Sculptures defy genres, often combining ready-made, mass-produced items with industrially created substances.

    At the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Yang’s solo exhibition Lost Lands and Sunken Fields engages viewers in a “dialectic of contrasts: light and dark, aerial and grounded, buoyant and heavy, spare and dense, interior and exterior,” a statement says. The show follows the artist’s first major survey in the U.K. at London’s Hayward Gallery, which embarked on a collage-forward celebration of work created during the past 20 years.

    “Frosted Scales Mermaid Queen – Mesmerizing Mesh #218” (2023), Hanji, washi, and origami paper on alu-dibond, framed, 24 3/8 x 24 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York

    Working between Seoul and Berlin, Yang hybridizes folk customs and craftsmanship, everyday items, and vernacular techniques in pieces that combine sculpture, installation, collage, text, video, wallpaper, and sound. “Sonic Intermediates – Triad Walker Trinity,” for example, coats steel frames in tiny bells, metal rings, plastic twine, and more, which evoke vaguely animalistic forms that move around on casters.

    Time and geography collapse in an abstracted visual language that merges the modern and the pre-modern, art history and literature, and themes of displacement, migration, forced exile, and global diasporas. Her works “link various geopolitical contexts and histories in an attempt to understand and comment on our own time,” says a statement from kurimanzutto, which represents the artist.

    The gallery also presents a concurrent exhibition titled Arcane Abstractions, including two-dimensional collage works complemented by an archival display of pieces by Mexican artisans. Yang continues to investigate cultural heritage and ritualistic symbolism through materials as she forwards “a proposal to live our lives today with a holistic view of mobility and technology, respect for spirituality, as well as contemplation on the resilient adaptability of both nature and humans,” says a statement. 

    Arcane Abstractions continues through April 5 in Mexico City, and Lost Lands and Sunken Fields runs through April 27 in Dallas.

    “Airborne Paper Creatures – Flutterers” (2025), birch plywood, wood stain, stainless steel components, Hanji, washi, origami paper, marbled paper, honeycomb paper balls, beads, metal bells, plastic crown flowers, parandy, Punjabi earrings and ornaments, stainless steel chains, split rings, steel wire ropes, and swivels, 47 3/4 x 22 x 25 1/2 inches, 21 3/4 x 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, and 36 1/2 x 23 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches (three parts). Photo by Studio Haegue Yang. Image courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

    Detail of “Airborne Paper Creatures – Flutterers.” Image courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

    Installation view of ‘Haegue Yang: Leap Year’ (2024). Photo by Mark Blower. Image courtesy of the artist and the Hayward Gallery, London

    Installation view of ‘Haegue Yang: Leap Year’ (2024). Photo by Mark Blower. Image courtesy of the artist and the Hayward Gallery, London

    “Aztec Underwater Wanderer – Mesmerizing Mesh #214” (2023), Hanji and washi on alu-dibond, framed, 24 3/8 x 24 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York

    “Radial Tousled Epiphyte” (2025), birch plywood, wood stain, acrylic board, powder-coated stainless steel wall mount, stainless steel components, Hanji, and marbled paper, 54 3/4 x 54 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches. Photo by Studio Haegue Yang. Image courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

    Detail of “Radial Tousled Epiphyte.” Image courtesy of the Nasher Sculpture Center

    “Sonic Clotheshorse–Dressage #3” (2019), powder-coated aluminum frame, mesh and handles, casters, brass-and nickel- plated bells, split rings, 60 1/4 x 22 x 30 3/4 inches, and “Sonic Clotheshorse–Dressage #4” (2019), powder-coated aluminum frame, mesh and handles, casters, brass-and nickel-plated bells, and split rings, 50 1/4 x 19 1/4 x 33 3/4 inches. Installation view of ‘Haegue Yang: Emergence’ at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, 2020. Photo by Craig Boyko, AGO

    “Aqua-Respirating Soul Sheet – Mesmerizing Mesh #263” (2024), Hanji, washi, and origami paper on alu-dibond, framed, 24 3/8 x 24 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto, Mexico City / New York

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    Minimal Blades Flutter in the Breeze in a Shoreline Installation on China’s Chaishan Island

    Photo by Tian Fangfang. All images courtesy of GN Architects, shared with permission

    Minimal Blades Flutter in the Breeze in a Shoreline Installation on China’s Chaishan Island

    February 28, 2025

    ArtDesign

    Grace Ebert

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    On an abandoned pier on Chaishan Island’s shore, an elegant installation rocks in the wind. Completed in 2023 by GN Architects, “The Seaside Pavillion” rests on a coastal trail frequented by tourists and locals alike.

    The dynamic construction features dozens of elastic-wrapped blades that, when caught by a breeze, flit and flutter, echoing both the movement of the tide and creating a semi-shaded space for respite. “During the day, the leaves are closed,” the designers say in a statement. “In the morning and evening, when the tide starts to rise, the wings open and dance under the drive of the buoy, forming a romantic and magical scene.”

    Once a fishing community, Chaishan today is mainly a tourist destination. Only 100 elderly residents still live on the island as many have left for larger cities. “The Seaside Pavillion” was commissioned by the Zhoushan government’s “Hello, Island” initiative to attract more people to move to the sparsely populated area.

    While appearing delicate, the blades are designed to be resilient and to withstand typhoons. Fishing ropes provide their structure, while a rubber and steel armature creates a strong, hardy base. When a tropical cyclone threatens the island, caretakers can tie the blades down to prevent damage.

    You can find more from GN Architects, whose projects span installations, landscapes, interiors, and more, on its website. (via designboom)

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

    Photo by Liang Wenjun

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