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      Arresting Sculptural Reliefs by Artist Anne Samat Layer Everyday Objects with Meticulously Woven Threads

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      Art

      #beads
      #family
      #fiber art
      #identity
      #sculpture
      #thread

      November 18, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 131.5 x 141.75 x 11.75 inches. Installation view of Asia Society Triennial: “We Do Not Dream Alone” at Asia Society Museum, New York. Photograph by Bruce M. White. All images courtesy of Asia Society, shared with permission
      In her fiber-based reliefs, Malaysian artist Anne Samat disrupts classic woven patterns with unusual objects: toy soldiers, rakes, and plastic swords are intertwined in the multi-color threads that fan outward and billow down onto the floor. Comprised of a trio of wall hangings and a free-standing sculpture, “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” meticulously juxtaposes beadwork and traditional South Asian weaving techniques with common items, a project that questions the boundaries of craft and art.
      Each section is incredibly complex and infused with references to Samat’s family, identity, and experiences with loss. The largest work, for example, features five sections, with the innermost piece paying homage to her late brother who recently died after a long illness. Flanking the central portion are two stately pillars with pink and blue details that represent her mother and father. The outermost layers that sprawl from floor to ceiling evoke the artist herself and her sister, who are the only two living members of her family. Even the title is derived from advice Samat received from her father before he died.
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” is on view through February 7, 2021, as part of the Asia Society Triennial.

      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 98 x 48 x 7 inches
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 131.5 x 141.75 x 11.75 inches.
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 98 x 48 x 7 inches
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 98 x 48 x 7 inches (left) and 131.5 x 141.75 x 11.75 inches (center)
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 131.5 x 141.75 x 11.75 inches
      “Follow Your Heart Wholeheartedly” (2020), rattan sticks, yarn, rakes, washers, plastic swords, toy soldiers, beads, metal and plastic ornaments, 131.5 x 141.75 x 11.75 inches (center) and 105 x 48 x 7 inches (right)

      #beads
      #family
      #fiber art
      #identity
      #sculpture
      #thread

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      Illuminated Figures Consider the Relationship Between the Body and Soul

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      Art

      #anatomy
      #light
      #metal
      #sculpture

      November 17, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Vessel of the Universe (Sisidlan ng Kalawakan)” (2020), soldered metal, glass, LED strips, and electrical fittings, 64.5 x 47 x 12 inches. All images © Joshua Limon Palisoc, shared with permission
      Joshua Limon Palisoc draws on the tenets of Filipino Psychology to inform his life-sized figures that radiate from the inside. Using mesh-like forms of soldered metal, the artist conveys the idea that the physical body is simply a vessel for the soul. LED lights nestled within the anatomical sculptures emit a warm glow through the seams, blurring the boundary between inner and outer selves.
      The illuminated forms shown here are part of Ephemeral Vessels, Palisoc’s first solo show on view through November 29 at Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo, Philippines. Composed of upright and seated figures, the collection focuses on personality and conscience (loob), the body (labas), and reason (lalim), ideas that the artist gleans from the particular branch of psychology originally helmed by Virgilio Enriquez.
      Palisco, who shares insight into his techniques on Instagram, describes his process as ritualistic, noting that each artwork he solders together holds a part of himself that asks viewers to avoid “existing in this world passively.” Instead, he writes, “we should stir and affect others through our own genuine ways.”

      “Vessel of the Universe (Sisidlan ng Kalawakan)” (2020), soldered metal, glass, LED strips, and electrical fittings, 64.5 x 47 x 12 inches
      “Conversations with the Flame (Pakikipagtalastasan sa Ningas)” (2020), soldered metal, LED bulb, and electrical fittings, 64.5 x 60 x 14 inches
      “Conversations with the Flame (Pakikipagtalastasan sa Ningas)” (2020), soldered metal, LED bulb, and electrical fittings, 64.5 x 60 x 14 inches
      “Whisper from a Spark (Bulong ng Alipato)” (2020), soldered metal, LED bulb and electrical fitting, 64.5 x 33 x 10 inches
      “Accepting Transcendence (Pagtanggap sa Lagablab)” (2020), soldered metal, LED bulb, and electrical fittings, 60.5 x 46 x 19 inches
      “The Soul’s Journey (Paglalayag ng Kalooban)” (2020), soldered metal and glass, 71 x 64 x 72 inches

      #anatomy
      #light
      #metal
      #sculpture

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      Symmetrical Typewriter Sculptures by Artist Jeremy Mayer Merge the Organic and Manufactured

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      Art

      #metal
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #typewriters

      November 16, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Untitled II” (2020), typewriter parts and aluminum, 65 x 65 x 12 inches
      “There’s nothing unnatural about mechanical components,” Jeremy Mayer says. For decades, the artist has harbored a fascination with the repetitive, complex patterns of single-cell organisms and the delicately rendered illustrations of Ernst Haeckel, an attraction that manifests in his latest sculptures.
      Spanning up to 65 inches, Mayer’s metal artworks are comprised of old typewriter parts mounted around a laser-cut aluminum frame with only the original screws, nuts, pins, and springs holding the mirrorlike pieces together. Formed around a central, circular element, the multi-unit assemblages splay outward. Each of the six points—which evoke starfish, despite having one extra arm—often resemble trilobites, pincers, and other creatures and organic elements, merging the manufactured and natural.
      “The form and function are based upon our knowledge of the living world around us. I’m interested in making the machine look like a living thing, drawing inspiration from the relationships that the early designers of the typewriter had with nature,” he says.

      “Untitled I” (2020), typewriter parts and aluminum, 60 x 60 x10 inches
      Mayer purchases between 10 and 15 typewriters each year, which he sources from repair shops, thrift stores, and yard sales around the San Francisco Bay Area. “The more broken the better,” he writes. In the past, he’s gravitated toward the smaller components of the metal machines to assemble birds, skulls, and other figurative sculptures. After transporting the bulky leftovers from studio to studio for years, he gathered enough duplicate parts to construct the symmetrical sculptures.
      The ongoing series was born out of a residency at Mumbai-based manufacturer Godrej & Boyce, during which Mayer was asked to create works from leftover typewriters. During his six months, he built mandala-like sculptures and a 13-foot-tall kinetic lotus that explored the connections between industry and biological forms.
      Mayer finished the first sculpture of this most recent series at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdowns and almost has completed five since. He has plans for ten in total, and you can follow their progress on Instagram.

      “Untitled III” (2020), typewriter parts and aluminum, 60 x 60 x 14 inches
      “Untitled III” (2020) (detail), typewriter parts and aluminum, 60 x 60 x 14 inches
      “Untitled I” (2020) (detail), typewriter parts and aluminum, 60 x 60 x10 inches
      “Untitled II” (detail) with Cleo Mayer
      Studio with “Untitled IV” in progress

      #metal
      #nature
      #sculpture
      #typewriters

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      Shaped Using Precisely Cut Maps, Nikki Rosato’s Busts and Portraits Connect Place, Memory, and Identity

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      Art

      #maps
      #paper
      #sculpture

      November 13, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Nikki Rosato, shared with permission
      Through mesh busts and delicate portraits, Nikki Rosato visualizes the connections between place and identity. The Washington, D.C.-based artist carves out the multi-colored highways and back roads from common maps, leaving the distances and spatial markings intact. She then shapes the cut paper into figurative sculptures and 2D artworks that vary in density and color depending on the original city or region.
      Rosat utilizes the precise markings of cartography to highlight the complex, inner-workings of memory and belonging. “As we move through life, the places we inhabit and the people that we meet alter and shape us into the person that we are in the present day. I am interested in the idea that a place I visited as a child has affected the outcome of the person that I am today,” she says.
      In a note to Colossal, the artist shares that she shifted her practice after her grandmother died in 2018. “I’ve taken the last few years to do a lot of research into my strong matriarchal lineage (my great grandmother literally walked hundreds of miles on foot with a 2-year-old to escape Lithuania in the early 1900s and then built our family in a small town in Pennsylvania),” she says, adding that her current projects consider the trajectory of these two figures’ lives.
      Some of Rosato’s intricate works are available from Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, and you can follow her pieces on Artsy.

      #maps
      #paper
      #sculpture

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      Artist Nari Ward Has Spent Decades Revitalizing Found Objects to Elucidate Counter Narratives

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      Art

      #found objects
      #installation
      #sculpture
      #social commentary

      November 13, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “We the People” (2011), shoelaces, 96 x 324 inches. All images courtesy Nari Ward and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London
      Jamaica-born artist Nari Ward bases his practice in found objects and their inherent mutability. The Harlem-based artist has scoured New York City’s streets for 25 years gathering house keys escaped from a ring, discarded glass bottles, and clothing tossed season-to-season. Through sculptures and large-scale installations, the scavenged objects find new meaning, whether explicitly scribing a phrase from the United States Constitution or creating more subtle historical connections.
      While commenting broadly on themes of race, poverty, and rampant consumerism, Ward is cognizant of the varied meanings burned wooden bats or shoelaces hold for different populations. No matter the medium, many of his works are site-specific in form and fluid in context, allowing the narratives to take new shapes as they travel from community to community.
      His 1993 installation “Amazing Grace,” for example, originally was presented in Harlem in response to the AIDS crisis. The artist gathered lengths of fire hose and approximately 300 baby strollers to line the space’s perimeter, with some piled in a central area, as well. In New York City, houseless populations sometimes use the childcare item to carry their belongings, imbuing the objects with a specific message within that milieu. When “Amazing Grace” later traveled around Europe, the strollers were interpreted anew.

      “Amazing Grace” (1993), approximately 300 baby strollers and fires hoses, sound, dimensions variable. Installation view, New Museum, New York (2019)
      In a 2019 interview, Ward expanded on the inherent fluctuations within the symbols and objects he employs:
      History tells a particular story, and I’m trying to say: ‘Yeah there is a particular story, but there are many stories that aren’t visible within that one created narrative.’ I think that it’s about bringing mystery into the conversation more so than facts. So the whole idea is bringing this marker, image, or form to the forefront, but at the same time destabilizing it so that it acts as a placeholder for other possibilities or somebody else’s narrative.
      Ward is incredibly prolific, and in 2020 alone, his public artworks and installations have been shown in Hong Kong, Denver, New York City, Ghent, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. To explore the artist’s projects further, check out his site and pick up a copy of Phaidon’s 2019 book, Nari Ward: We the People, which accompanied the 2019 New Museum retrospective of his early works.

      “Spellbound” (2015), piano, used keys, Spanish moss, light, audio, and video elements, 52.5 x 60 x 28 inches. Photo by Max Yawney
      “Spellbound” (2015), piano, used keys, Spanish moss, light, audio, and video elements, 52.5 x 60 x 28 inches. Photo by Max Yawney
      “Geography: Bottle Messenger” (2002), bottles, letters, wire, and metal frame, 354.33 x 157.48 x 157.48 inches
      “We the People” (2011), (detail), shoelaces, 96 x 324 inches
      “Iron Heavens” (1995), oven pans, ironed sterilized cotton, and burnt wooden bats, 140 x 148 x 48 inches
      “Amazing Grace” (1993), approximately 300 baby strollers and fires hoses, sound, dimensions variable. Installation view, New Museum, New York (2019)
      “SoulSoil” (2011), earth, ceramic toilet fixtures, shoes, broom and mop handles, acrylic and polyurethane, approximately 236 x 236 x 236 inches. Photo by Agostino Osio
      “SoulSoil” (2011) (detail), earth, ceramic toilet fixtures, shoes, broom and mop handles, acrylic and polyurethane, approximately 236 x 236 x 236 inches. Photo by Agostino Osio
      “Mango Tourist” (2011), foam, battery canisters, Sprague Electric Company resistors and capacitors, and mango pits, 8 figures, each approximately 120 inches in height. In collaboration with MASS MoCA, North Adams, Massachusetts

      #found objects
      #installation
      #sculpture
      #social commentary

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      Stainless Steel Roots Sprawl Into Figurative Sculptures by Artist Sun-Hyuk Kim

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      Art

      #anatomy
      #metal
      #roots
      #sculpture

      November 10, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Sun-Hyuk Kim, shared with permission
      Just like a tree, the spindly branches that shape Sun-Hyuk Kim’s sculptures extend from a larger, sturdy limb—or in the South Korean artist’s case, neck or spine, too. Kim (previously) creates sprawling artworks that merge human anatomy and the root systems that crawl underneath the earth’s surface. Sometimes painted in neutral tones and others plated in gold, the sculptures are composed of stainless steel that trails out into figurative forms.
      Imbued with metaphor, the intricate works consider our existence and their inherent incompleteness, Kim says. The “pandemic in 2020 clearly shows how weak the existence of a human being is,” he writes. “The human force encountered in this era, which has achieved many civilizations and cutting-edge science, reminds us of the collapse of the Tower of Babel, which was built to become like God.”
      To follow Kim’s latest projects that explore the connection between people and the natural world, head to Instagram.

      #anatomy
      #metal
      #roots
      #sculpture

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    • 150 Shares159 Views

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      Playfulness and Imagination Inform the Textured Wooden Sculptures of Artist Efraïm Rodríguez

      by

      
      Art

      #childhood
      #sculpture
      #wood

      November 9, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “At line” (2020), linden wood and painted okume board, 115 x 55 x 43 centimeters. All images © Efraïm Rodríguez, shared with permission
      From fallen trees, planks, and old furniture, Efraïm Rodríguez carves vivid sculptures that evoke the imaginative and playful daydreams of childhood. The Barcelona-based artist highlights the texture of the organic material, creating life-sized figures donning garments of veneered wood or whose bodies mimic the toys they stack. Many depict toddlers or younger children in the midst of play, and even the older characters are infused with elements of sport and recreation, like “Anna” (shown below) who wears a dress studded with tees and holds a golf ball.
      Although the precisely sculpted figures often are based on his nieces, nephews, and other family members, Rodríguez tells Colossal that themes of childhood only recently emerged. He explains:
      The children appeared in my work almost from the beginning, but they were only a reference, a motive. The theme was not childhood. In the early works, they were self-aware children, representing adults in the form of children. The children were a good support to work emotions and question the viewer. In 2007, my sister had two children. I began to use them as a model in my sculptures. From here the theme of childhood was appearing. I began to represent beyond their forms their actions and attitudes.
      Rodríguez was raised in an artistic family in which his father and grandfather were both painters. Despite being exposed to that medium, he shares that he’s always been drawn to representing the world in three-dimensions. “For me, sculpture is a reconstruction of the world. I always build my sculptures in real size the referent, the sculpture, and the spectator live in the same place, breath(ing) the same air,” he says.

      “Small Architect” (2006), painted beechwood, 60 x 78 x 43 centimeters
      Wood, in particular, has been conducive to the artist’s process, which begins with an image in his head rather than a two-dimensional sketch. The malleable material also brings its own history to the works, and Rodríguez chooses the specific type based on its technical and narrative qualities. “Wood has always a past, a biography. A piece of wood has been always something else before, furniture or whatever, at least a tree,” the artist says.
      Through January 1, 2021, Rodríguez’s sculptures are on view at the Granollers Museum in Barcelona. To follow his latest pieces and see works-in-progress, head to Instagram.

      “Anna (golf girl)” (2019), painted cedar wood, painted golf tees and golf ball, 120 x 47 x 35 centimeters
      “Anna (golf girl)” (2019), painted cedar wood, painted golf tees and golf ball, 120 x 47 x 35 centimeters
      “First Fall” (2020), painted cedar and hazelnut, 175 x 40 x 48 centimeter
      “At line” (2020), linden wood and painted okume board, 115 x 55 x 43 centimeters
      “Giorgia builds up” (2019), painted beechwood, 90 x 52 x 51 centimeters
      “Giorgia builds up” (2019), painted beechwood, 90 x 52 x 51 centimeters

      #childhood
      #sculpture
      #wood

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      Sound Artist Zimoun Channels Frenetic Movement in Expansive Kinetic Sculptures and Installations

      by

      
      Art

      #cardboard
      #installation
      #kinetic
      #sculpture
      #sound
      #video

      November 6, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      
      Swiss sound artist Zimoun (previously) harnesses the power of quick, chaotic movements in his large-scale installations and kinetic sculptures. Each artwork is composed of simple materials like cardboard boxes, wooden dowels, and cotton balls, among other common objects. Zimoun assembles multiples of the same configuration—think teetering sticks and metal washers suspended on a wire—and motorizes one portion, causing them to rattle back and forth.
      Because each component is made by hand, they have slight differences that prevent them from synchronizing, despite all the motors being connected to a single current. The frenzied movements contrast the calming, whirring sounds the artworks emit, which mimic raindrops or a repetitive drum. This juxtaposition is just one example of the many comparisons the artist draws: chaos vs. order, mass vs. individual, simplicity vs. complexity, and manufactured vs. organic.
      Considering this theme, Zimoun names each piece by listing the materials used to connect the discrete components and the whole. For example, a recent project that forms a square on the floor (shown below) is titled “1944 prepared dc-motors, mdf panels 72 x 72cm, metal discs Ø 8cm, 2020.” “In my work, I do not try to transport specific associations but rather to create atmospheric spaces and states that invite us to observe, think, and reflect on various levels,” he says.
      In the compilation video above, Zimoun showcases a variety of the sculptures and installations from his extensive body of work, many of which you can explore individually on Vimeo and follow on Instagram.

      “1944 prepared dc-motors, mdf panels 72 x 72cm, metal discs Ø 8cm, 2020.” All images © Zimoun, shared with permission
      “1944 prepared dc-motors, mdf panels 72 x 72cm, metal discs Ø 8cm, 2020”

      #cardboard
      #installation
      #kinetic
      #sculpture
      #sound
      #video

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