Brooklyn’s MF Gallery is currently featuring a Halloween group show with some nifty, spooky pieces.
I wish I could have attended the opening (especially to support my friend Kathy Hayes…the awesome setup above is her handiwork).
See the show online here.
These porcelain skull sculptures by Katsuo Aoki are beautiful…intricately detailed and liquid-like…
The installations are also quite interesting and well crafted.
See more here.
I’ve been meaning to post about The Elvis Mobile for ages now.
This amazing vehicle is the brainchild and handiwork of two of the coolest people I’ve ever met: Jo David and Marlow Harris, of Unusual Life.
It started as a simple whim (Marlow presented a sketch as a joke…Jo made it happen), and there’s nothing I love more than when whims become reality.
See guys? If you can dream it up…you can do it! It just take a little elbow grease, and the occasional VW van.
This mini museum on wheels is a functional shrine, chapel, and brilliantly executed kitsch masterpiece (available for events upon request!).
Read an article about the museum’s creation here.
You can follow the adventures of the Traveling Elvis Mobile here and see a large photo gallery on facebook.
Assemblage artist Jocelyn Marsh has some fine found object sculptures made of bones and bits of gaudy delight.
See more here.
Steve Lambert is quite an interesting artist with a variety of thought provoking projects.
Amazing sign:
We are friends of irony and contradiction here on this blog…
From the artist statement:
For me, art is a bridge that connects uncommon, idealistic, or even radical ideas with everyday life. I carefully craft various conditions where I can discuss these ideas with people and have a mutually meaningful exchange. Often this means working collaboratively with the audience, bringing them into the process or even having them physically complete the work.
I want my art to be relevant to those outside the gallery – say, at the nearest bus stop – to reach them in ways that are engaging and fun. I intend what I do to be funny, but at the core of each piece there is also a solemn critique. It’s important to be able to laugh while actively questioning the various power structures at work in our daily lives.
I may consider using this as a gift packaging technique, to convey the simple sincerity of giving a present.
The ultimate challenge for an introvert like me:
I love this Playhouse installation by Dietrich Wegner. Somewhere between atomic aftermath and heaven…
When an image stands in limbo, between associations, it occupies a flexible place in our mind. Wegner creates images that are safe and unsettling, abject and beautiful…Often Wegner chooses materials that contradict an aspect of an image while striving towards a realistic depiction of the image.
A mushroom cloud is fluffy like synthetic cotton, yet a Poly-fil mushroom cloud becomes fun and cozy…The ephemeral beauty of a mushroom cloud is frightening, how it floats for a minute, delicate and blooming, yet remains chaotic and utterly destructive. We experience a contradiction between what our eyes enjoy and what our mind knows.
Thought you’d never see anything about Barbara Streisand on this blog, eh? Me too. I’m just full of surprises.
Usually I’m unimpressed by celebrity displays of ostentation, but at least this one is unique. Instead of storing her things in the basement, Streisand has turned the area into a street of shops.
If you are among the infinitesimal minority of the population unconstrained by time, space and finances, I think this is a creative way to categorize important collections.
I couldn’t look at these images without wondering how I would set up my own “street basement”…
My personal street would be lined with an antique shop, oddities museum, art gallery, fabric store, Halloween/spooky shop, craft center, (large) library and candy store. Throw an old fashioned movie theater in there, too.
In my opinion, our innate desire to give life meaning is one of the most meaningful qualities we possess as a species (a purposeful tautology, I assure you). Manifestations of symbolism have always intrigued and delighted me. I recently discovered the custom of love padlocks.
According to this tradition, the lovers write their names or initials on a padlock, attach it to a permanent public fixture and throw away the keys.
Most of these sites are located in Europe and Asia (I’ve never seen one, personally).
Depending on location, the custom varies slightly. Some locks are placed by newlyweds, some by couples in relationships for luck.
Although not remotely superstitious, I am a romantic in terms of my admiration for human commitment rituals. All mysticism aside, I enjoy the fact that humans conjure up these ideas to solidify otherwise intangible elements of existence.
Do these locks really mean eternal love? Does anything? Of course not. The cynic in me knows that even the best laid plans often fail.
But what about the success stories? My grandmother lost her husband at 40 years old. She wears her wedding ring to this day because she was “thankful to have been given the little time she had with the true love of her life.”
The objects we endow with meaning matter. We have the power to make them matter.
Hats off to the couples who “locked” their love and made it ’til the very end (and I’m sure they’re out there). We should all be so lucky.
Seen on Web Urbanist
Well, this is certain perfect for my Candy Coated Nightmares tag! Jennifer Rubell created this fine installation: a padded cell lined with cotton candy.
“[A] Padded cell is an 8’X16’ freestanding room constructed of basic building materials, with a single door that contains a plexiglass window. Inside, the walls and ceiling are padded with pink cotton candy, and a bare light bulb hangs in the center. The door is opened at 9pm, but the interior is visible through the window throughout the evening.”
She goes on to describe it as “an all-American funhouse that is at the same time confining, threatening, claustrophobic. It is an object that addresses the dark side of pleasure, the price of pleasure, the possibility that pleasure is its own punishment. Approximately 1,600 cones of cotton candy are used in its construction.”
SheWalksSoftly 