418
art sculpture

May 12

By Yang Yongliang, this awesome cement dragon is made to look like it is breaking through the gallery wall, it’s a political/environmental statement about China and it’s industrial consumption of materials like cement and metal. I think the surface of the piece has a brilliant texture to it, it’s oozing and fluid looking. 

(Source: mymodernmet.com)


185
art installation sculpture

May 08

By Yasuaki Onishi, this astounding installation plays with negative space, the sheet is draped over boxes before the artist drips hot, black glue in thousands of strands onto the sheet to hold it in place. 

(Source: mymodernmet.com)


151
art sculpture

May 02

By Urs Fischer, an exact replica of Giambologna’s 16th-century sculpture The Rape of the Sabine Women, made entirely from wax. The sculpture set to slowly, hauntingly melt and form a blob by the end of the show. The clever wit and comment from the melting spectator is wonderful, for me the forming textures on the surface of the wax is most interesting. It almost looks like a chemical reaction forming on the surface of stone. 

(Source: mymodernmet.com)


219
art crafts sculpture

May 02

By Anthony Michael Simon, this cracking project is done in collaboration with a group of spiders! The webs are spun on these plastic rods, then the artist covers them in a protective coating to hold the structure and then he adds colour. The ingenuity of making use of an animals instinctive constructionism is so basic and stripped down, they make for very interesting viewing.

(Source: mymodernmet.com)


33
art crafts design interview artists on tumblr

Apr 27

Interview - Joshua Ben Longo

I’m thrilled to be able to introduce all of you to a brilliant interview with Joshua Ben Longo, a wonderful monster-maker whom I’ve posted about several times. I had the pleasure of being able to talk to Joshua about his creatures, their origins and a little about his fascinating credentials.


As an admirer of your monsters for a year or so now, it’s great to be able to talk to you about your practice and the method behind the monsters. How do you come up with such a vast array of creatures that each have their own distinct structure? 

Combine the foundation of my genes, upbringing, and the abstract ideology learned through Pratt’s Industrial Design program…… An understanding of “how” starts to come into focus. With any language you have letters and with those letters you build words and with those words you build sentences. If you build on something and continue to build upon it you will find yourself in a world that relates and exists in harmony with one another. It wasnt intentional to create a language but in hindsight I am very happy to see the evolution of the story.


How long did it take you to develop the style for them, the lack of eyes on many of them gives them a fantastically unique twist?

The style could be described one way when I first started and another now. I think the fact you can see the documented progression of  the work ….it makes it easier to see my voice.  A slow evolution. I hope to evolve past what I have done thus far. I think the worst thing me right now is to feel stuck in a pattern, but then sometimes I forget this is all for fun and smiles and I stop thinking about it. Not putting eyes on most of the pieces is intentional. People gravitate towards the eyes in any artwork. When the eyes are removed the viewer is forced to look and experience the piece form a different perspective. They look at the overall and find their own details to try and connect emotionally as opposed to the expression of the eyes.



Having trained as an Industrial Designer, how did you get pulled in the direction of making creatures that in essence have a very crafty, fine art based feel to them?

My training as an industrial design greatly involved my hands and my eyes. Craft was very important as well as intention. Everything visual is deliberate. I was making very clean toys and people thought they were manufactured. I didnt like the fact that it looked like I wasnt making everything by hand. A good friend suggested that I visually document the process in the work itself, not so specifically, but you get the idea. I started showing the process of the piece within the piece. It shows my appreciation for the material and the time spent making it. Like I said, everything is deliberate.


What have been some of the biggest influences of the monsters themselves? Animals, people, objects, emotions etc..

I get asked this alot and as time passes it gets harder to honestly answer where this all comes from. Childhood toys, cartoons, comics, dogs, etc And they do, but I think I am looking for something. Sometimes I find it in a twist or a lump or a small stitch. A small remnant of a dream. A memory of something fantastical. I don’t believe in god in the modern sense, but I think I am looking for god.


What has been your biggest achievement so far in your making career? 

I just recently spoke at Pictoplasma in Berlin. I made people laugh. I ran a workshop with 80-100 participants while building the largest monster I have ever built. This all occured in a three day window. It was the most intense, rewarding experience to date. I constantly try and put myself in situations that push me farther then I would push myself. You learn the most when you are forced to deal with so much. Shout out to everyone at Pictoplasma. I couldn’t have done it without any of them.


How do you think that getting the O2 Germany contract/commission has impacted on your work being known to a wider audience? Has it opened door? Also, how did it come about?

The head creatives bought a monster around 2006 in a store in Brooklyn. VCCP was still small then and they used it as a mascot for the office. When an idea crossed their minds to create monsters for a campaign they found me through googling “monster asshole” or something equally absurd. They called me. I said yes. It’s  a very long story with funny conversations thoughout, but one of the main reasons they loved the piece was the lack of eyes and obvious asshole. It was a huge campaign all over Germany. One very specific door was Pictoplasma, but overall I think the masses didn’t care where it was coming from. The whole project has given me the confidence that I can really live off of this work.



When you’re making one of your creatures, take us through some of your process, from conception to final birth.

I have a library of fabric. I generally start with industrial felt. I cut pieces and start sewing…. I wait for the idea to happen and then I impress my knowledge of form and push the object visually where it wants to go. It has to have a strong energy before I move forward and put details. Sometimes I won’t touch a piece for months and then I go back because I don’t see it. The best analogy is to music and improvisation. Once you know the notes and chords you let go and surprise yourself. Sometimes I do start with drawing, lots of drawings but I much rather start with nothing.


Have you ever had a standout experience as an artist and designer that you will never forget, be it a piece of advice or criticism? 

My memory is awful, everything happens when it is supposed to. Understanding that small steps will lead me to my dreams is a good piece to follow. You don’t have to please everyone. Patience is important. Persistance is key. I have a circle of advisors. Everyone needs advisors. They challenge and support me as I do them. If you love what you do the world will open its arms to you.


Have you ever had any unusual requests or comments about some of your designs? 

I’m sure that there have been good ones, but nothing sticks out. Because of the work people tend to share crazy stories with me and send me dirty pictures. I love that. My work is a good conversation starter.

If you had one piece of advice to give to a student wanting to make creatures or their own invented world like you have, what would you say? 

One in a ba gazillion people find “success” early on. Everyone else has to work their ass off all the time. You have to learn to deal with rejection and a small bank account. From there if you stick with it and be honest with yourself and be kind to others…. you will find what you are looking for…. sometimes… then you lose it… then you fight to find it again… repeat. Like I said before, a circle of advisors is important. Look at work, get inspired and then stop looking other people’s art….If you are visual you need to let your brain digest and come to its own conclusions. If you keep it up… years later a world will have been created. You don’t realize it when it happens until someone points it out.



Finally, is there anything you have in the pipeline that you can give us a sneaky bit of info into?

I just got back from Pictoplasma Berlin. Usually there is a quiet period after an event like that. I have been lucky to have a big project every six months for the past few years. I have two big maybes this summer, but I cant leak any info on it. I actually wouldn’t mind time to create new work that challenges the old stuff. Some puppets, small films, animation, and possibly some manufactured monsters. I am hoping to attract large sums of money to create a puppet driven movie that has the playfulness of Jim Henson and the wonderful timing of a David Lynch film. Nothing is concrete and it never is. You have to get used that, too.


If you want to see more of his work Longo has plenty of juicy images on his website and some other lovely links for you all to check out;


231
art installation sculpture

Apr 26

By Antony Gormley, just some of the 40,000 clay figures from part of the ‘Field for the British Isles’  on loan from Arts Council Collection, it’s being shown in three of the National Trust’s Barrington Court rooms currently in Ilminster, England. The sheer scale of this work is staggering, I love the crude construction of each figure and how it becomes irrelevant on this awe-inspiring scale. 

(Source: news.nationalpost.com)


138
crafts art embroidery

Apr 25

By Louise Saxton, this fantastic artist currently has an exhibit at the Heide Gallery in Australia, at the moment, it looks wonderful. She takes reclaimed embroidery and discarded patches of needlework and transforms them into these stunning pieces of wall art. 

“My current body of work reinterprets natural history and botanical paintings, reflecting the potential loss, of both species within the natural world and traditions within the home.”

(Source: craftzine.com)


96
art sculpture

Apr 24

By Daphne Wright, seriously haunting, disturbing pieces of work, they have that terrible presence that you can just tell would hook your vision if you saw them in person. The materials make them have a fragile, but vacant appearance which works perfectly. I find myself drawn to the monkey, it almost looks to be sleeping. 

(Source: beautifuldecay.com)


86
art sculpture

Apr 24

By Enrique Marty, some of the more bizarre sculptures that I’ve seen, I can’t quite decide if I enjoy them or feel uncomfortable and that is great. Taken from moulds of real people, then warped into these miniature sculptural versions, I like that they have that bridge between puppetry and statues.

(Source: beautifuldecay.com)


44
art sculpture

Apr 19

By Michele Oka Doner, these astounding sculptures made from bronze or wax, each represent gods and goddesses, the selective study of the forms only really using the legs and semi-torso is an interesting way to explore the body of work. They feel like a fantastical, abstract venture into nature and a supernatural world, hugely inspirational works.