Showing posts with label INSTALLATION. Show all posts
Showing posts with label INSTALLATION. Show all posts
Friday, 4 June 2010
Saturday, 15 May 2010
The 100 Helmets of THE VADER PROJECT: Plasticgod
One hundred contemporary and urban artists were invited to give Darth Vader's helmet a makeover and the results were astounding. Quite an array of looks were produced, but the headwear of the Sith remains easily recognizable whether adorned by Plasticgod, Gary Baseman, Shag, Dalek, Amanda Visell, Bob Dob, Tim Biskup, Marc Ecko and a host of others. The show has been travelling for four years and will be at Freeman's Auction in Los Angeles in June before moving on to Philly for the auction on July 10. The Vader Project is curated and produced by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys.
Artists: various
+ thevaderproject.com
+ freemansauction.com
Gary Baseman
Shag
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Droog hotel
Leaving the canal-facing front façade intact, Atelier Bow-Wow created an intricate inner courtyard façade inspired by Amsterdam's historic architecture. The hotel restaurant will host new concept dinners by invited designers and chefs, improvising with local market left-overs and practicing the act of eating slowly yet attentively. The street level will house an on-going program of Droog exhibitions and events.
Monday, 15 March 2010
Light Living Gold Line by Orest Tataryn & Bruno Billio
Toronto light sculptor Orest Tataryn combines neon lampworking with Venetian glass blowing to create mesmerizing works that you can almost taste. We saw some recent examples of Tataryn's work as part of a collaboration with Bruno Billio at Come Up To My Room at the Gladstone Hotel during Toronto Design Week, and then put some questions to Orest.
How did you decide on the lighting to complement Bruno Billio's installation at Come Up To My Room?
Early in the summer of 2009 at a chance meeting at an art opening Bruno Billio and I decided to collaborate in his space for the 2010 edition of the Gladstone's " Come Up To My Room " event. The decision and project direction was effortless in that I would develop and evolve one of Bruno's techniques whereby he fires a laser beam along a perfectly straight section of vertical yarn. We came up with the idea to bend light throughout the space using golden neon tubes interspersed with my signature, mathematically precise coloured incursions. Our strategy was to block the viewers' passage at the threshold of the room so one would be forced to view the installation from a single point where the yellow line appeared to be continuous when actually the electrode ends and wiring were concealed behind curtains, columns and walls.
What is it that attracts you to neon?
I love the feeling of working with fire and glass and then applying relatively modern technology to affect illumination. Neon light manufacture does not lend itself to mass production but can only be made by hand and to a specific pattern. It is also a dying craft and trade which deserves preservation. The coloured light produces an intense saturation that transforms and infects the environment it finds itself in. There are the very important challenges of working within limiting parameters such as the length of glass between electrodes, the diameter of the tubing to be processed, colour variations and electrical insulation / installation considerations. There is also a beautiful delicacy to the work, which, as an added benefit, is very energy efficient.
In your work as a light sculptor, you combine lighting with colour. How do the different colour affect what you are trying to express?
My working with coloured light is an extension of my intrigue with the production of colour in a physical and chemical manner. In 1972 I started working in a quality control lab at Northern Pigment, which was an industrial facility that concocted accurate hues from the rusting of metals. It was fascinating and large scale. In my practice as a light sculptor / painter I refer to myself as a colourist working on the effects upon the emotions of the witness. Some of my favourite aspects within these endeavours are the wonderful accidental discoveries during the course of execution.
How has your work as a firefighter influenced your art and design practice?
The seed of what I now do was in fact planted as a result of an experience during a restaurant fire back in 1987. The fire had stubbornly seated itself within the kitchen's ductwork and as we aggressively attacked for access, two neon beer signs had dislodged from their anchors and were swinging wildly through the dense smoke creating magnificent coloured moiré patterns. I physically stopped them and became enchanted at the simple elegance and beauty of this material to which, up until this point, I was completely unconscious. As for the actual influence of my fire-fighting career on my creative practice, the most that I can say is that during the hyper awareness and razor sharp anxiety response to the chaos in a crisis, a person learns to see things outside of the normal conventions of memory and contemplation. Your eyes tend to pierce through to possible outcomes. It's a desperate hopefulness that becomes reverie after the fact. My work is a personal resolution to that confusion which only light can bring.
+ oresttataryn.com
Installation Photos: Cat O'Neill
How did you decide on the lighting to complement Bruno Billio's installation at Come Up To My Room?
Early in the summer of 2009 at a chance meeting at an art opening Bruno Billio and I decided to collaborate in his space for the 2010 edition of the Gladstone's " Come Up To My Room " event. The decision and project direction was effortless in that I would develop and evolve one of Bruno's techniques whereby he fires a laser beam along a perfectly straight section of vertical yarn. We came up with the idea to bend light throughout the space using golden neon tubes interspersed with my signature, mathematically precise coloured incursions. Our strategy was to block the viewers' passage at the threshold of the room so one would be forced to view the installation from a single point where the yellow line appeared to be continuous when actually the electrode ends and wiring were concealed behind curtains, columns and walls.
What is it that attracts you to neon?
I love the feeling of working with fire and glass and then applying relatively modern technology to affect illumination. Neon light manufacture does not lend itself to mass production but can only be made by hand and to a specific pattern. It is also a dying craft and trade which deserves preservation. The coloured light produces an intense saturation that transforms and infects the environment it finds itself in. There are the very important challenges of working within limiting parameters such as the length of glass between electrodes, the diameter of the tubing to be processed, colour variations and electrical insulation / installation considerations. There is also a beautiful delicacy to the work, which, as an added benefit, is very energy efficient.
In your work as a light sculptor, you combine lighting with colour. How do the different colour affect what you are trying to express?
My working with coloured light is an extension of my intrigue with the production of colour in a physical and chemical manner. In 1972 I started working in a quality control lab at Northern Pigment, which was an industrial facility that concocted accurate hues from the rusting of metals. It was fascinating and large scale. In my practice as a light sculptor / painter I refer to myself as a colourist working on the effects upon the emotions of the witness. Some of my favourite aspects within these endeavours are the wonderful accidental discoveries during the course of execution.
How has your work as a firefighter influenced your art and design practice?
The seed of what I now do was in fact planted as a result of an experience during a restaurant fire back in 1987. The fire had stubbornly seated itself within the kitchen's ductwork and as we aggressively attacked for access, two neon beer signs had dislodged from their anchors and were swinging wildly through the dense smoke creating magnificent coloured moiré patterns. I physically stopped them and became enchanted at the simple elegance and beauty of this material to which, up until this point, I was completely unconscious. As for the actual influence of my fire-fighting career on my creative practice, the most that I can say is that during the hyper awareness and razor sharp anxiety response to the chaos in a crisis, a person learns to see things outside of the normal conventions of memory and contemplation. Your eyes tend to pierce through to possible outcomes. It's a desperate hopefulness that becomes reverie after the fact. My work is a personal resolution to that confusion which only light can bring.
+ oresttataryn.com
Installation Photos: Cat O'Neill
Thursday, 11 March 2010
Jean-François Fourtou
"Mes maisons (My houses)," 2009
Playing with proportion and scale, Jean-François Fourtou's "Houses" includes personal memories of childhood and the fantastical magic of Alice's Wonderland. The installation in Marrakech includes objects from his "Maison du géant" (Giant's House), and the "Maison de poupée" (Doll's house). Fourtou recreates a child's sensation of disorientation in adult spaces in order for it to be re-experienced by a grown viewer.
see more of his work, please click here.
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