A Cube of Scaffolding Encloses a Glowing Red Sphere That Looms 25 Meters Above Madrid

Photos by Ruben P. Bescos, © SpY, shared with permission

As a visual metaphor for the intensity and urgency of the ongoing climate crisis, urban artist SpY erected a luminous orb that towers nearly 25 meters above Madrid’s Plaza de Colón. The large-scale work, titled “Tierra,” features a cage of construction scaffolding that encloses the massive sphere, creating a contrast between the two geometric shapes and casting a brilliant red glow on the surrounding area. Set against the backdrop of the bustling Spanish city, the installation “asks us to reflect on the way in which our home makes up a whole of which we form part and in which everything is connected as if it were a living creature,” the artist says.

SpY is known for his public interventions, including ironic installations and a temporary park in the middle of Madrid, where he currently lives. Follow his upcoming projects on Instagram.

 

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This Is Not a Gun: An Interview with Cara Levine Explores Collective Trauma, Grief, and the Power of Ritual

All images © Cara Levine, shared with permission

In December 2016, Harper’s Magazine published a list of more than 20 objects that had been “mistaken for guns during shootings of civilians by police in the United States since 2001.” Artist Cara Levine found herself stunned then grief-stricken by the items, prompting her to launch the multi-faceted This Is Not a Gun project, which she discusses in the latest interview supported by Colossal Members.

I needed to slow down and understand what I was looking at because I don’t want to live in a world where someone can be killed eating a sandwich. We are getting this information so fast. I decided first to carve. I thought, “If I can carve a sandwich, somewhere in the process, from block of wood to sandwich I can understand how someone might think this is a gun. If I just spend all the time understanding its form, maybe I’ll understand how it was mistaken as a gun.”

As Levine explains in her conversation with Colossal contributor Paulette Beete, she wasn’t naïve about gun violence or how often it occurred in Black communities at the hands of police. What she found unfathomable, however, was how these everyday objects could be interpreted as threats. So she turned to her art as a way to understand the seemingly understandable. In this interview,  Levine speaks about how This Is Not A Gun has informed and evolved her practice, her understanding of both individual and collective grief and trauma, and the importance of ritual.

 

A This Is Not A Gun workshop

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Abstract Shapes Respond to a Relaxing Melody in a New Animated Music Video for Janek Murd

Colorful shapeshifting animations dance across the screen in an experimental music video for a newly released single by Estonian musician and composer Janek Murd. Created by the design studio Tolm, a collection of floating orbs, speckled discs, and a mishmash of flexible rings follow the melody of “AVA,” a mellow tune dominated by a trumpet and xylophone. The lively, abstract shapes are transposed to primarily correspond to the brass track, with spheres bursting into the air with a crescendo and bubbles growing in dense clusters as a run builds in intensity. “‘Ava’ explores the constant cycle of life—be it a breath of air, passing of a day, (a) full turn of the year, or journey from one’s birth to death,” Murd says about the piece.

Watch the full music video above, and go behind the scenes with Tolm on Behance.

 

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The Natural Landscape Photography Awards Spotlight Phenomena and Stunning Topographies Around the World

By Paul Hammett. All images courtesy of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards, shared with permission

After garnering 13,368 entries across 47 countries, the first annual Natural Landscape Photography Awards released a striking collection of rugged topographies and serene wildernesses. The inaugural contest eschews digital manipulations in favor of highlighting realistic beauty around the world, and winning entries capture a brilliant lightning strike atop Matterhorn in the Alps, the moon peaking through branches at Joshua Tree National Park, and a melting iceberg on the black sand beaches of Fellsfjara in Iceland.

We’ve chosen some of our favorite images below, but you can peruse all of the top photographs encompassing abstract snippets, shadow-laden nightscapes, and wide aerial shots on the contest’s site. (via Peta Pixel)

 

By Carl Smorenburg

By Jai Shet

By Steve Alterman

By Eric Bennett

By Matt Palmer

By Eric Bennett

By Ben Horne

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Social Issues and the Climate Crisis Intertwine in Subversive Crocheted Works by Jo Hamilton

“I Crochet Portland” (2006-2009), mixed crocheted yarn, 63 x 114 inches. All images © Jo Hamilton, shared with permission

From a mix of wool fibers and yarn made from plastic waste, Scottish artist Jo Hamilton crochets large-scale portraits and architectural landscapes delineated with dangling threads. Her knotted pieces push the boundaries of art and craft traditions, bringing the two together in subversive portrayals of powerful women and metropolises marred by production. Unraveling at the edges, the textured works reflect on interlocking issues like unchecked capitalism, social disparities, and the increasingly urgent climate crisis.

All of the materials Hamilton uses are recycled, whether sourced from estate sales and resalers or created in studio. A few years ago, she started turning grocery bags, videotapes, and other household items into skeins of yarn-like threads—the artist shares some of this process on Instagram—as a way to reduce her impact on the environment, explaining:

We tend to glorify nature as an eternal and everlasting idea, separate from ourselves and our real-life actions. We’ve held on tightly to these ideas during the last few decades in the throes of late capitalism and globalization, and if we don’t change our thinking, policies and behavior immediately it will be too late. So I channeled my anxieties about over-production, pollution, and climate change into my work, using plastic in some of the works in contrast with the yarn.

If you’re in Portland, stop by Russo Lee Gallery to see Hamilton’s most recent works as part of her solo show Transitory Trespass, which closes on November 27.

 

“Cherry Steel Above and Below” (2017), mixed crocheted yarn, 68 x 122 inches

“Shinig Mountain Eclipse.” Photo by John Clark

Left: “Masked Metamorhic.” Right: “Masked Marbled.” Photos by John Clark

“Death Star PDX” (2018), mixed crocheted yarn, 45 x 52 inches. Photo by John Clark

“Isaac Montalvo” (2008), mixed yarn, 23 x 22 inches

“Head & Neck Dietician” (2016), mixed crocheted yarn, 29 x 27 inches

“Groucho Gia” (2013), mixed crocheted yarn, 51 x 36 inches

Hamilton with a 2019 outdoor crocheted mural project on SE Foster Road in Portland. Photo by Kevin McConnell

Hamilton with a 2019 outdoor crocheted mural project on SE Foster Road in Portland. Photo by Kevin McConnell

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Surreal Characters Vacation at a Fantastic Resort in a 1,500-Piece Puzzle by Marija Tiurina

All images © Marija Tiurina

Marija Tiurina is known for her chaotic, fictionalized worlds that offer a brief escape from reality, so it’s fitting that London-based artist (previously) turned one of her larger watercolor renderings into a daunting 1,500-piece puzzle. Brimming with surreal splendor, the vibrant illustration envisions a holiday resort for families and their imaginary friends. Adults, kids, and a seemingly endless array of fantastical characters pack into the vacation venue to relax poolside, play video games, fish, and ice skate around a rink.

The dreamy design is currently available from Heye Puzzle, and you can shop originals and prints of other bizarre scenarios on Tiurina’s site. Keep up with her future works on Behance and Instagram.

 

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A ‘Staircase to Heaven’ Installation Ascends into the Sky as a Trippy Optical Illusion

All images © Strijdom van der Merwe, shared with permission

South African artist Strijdom van der Merwe’s deceptive “Staircase to Heaven” sculpture is designed to make you wonder. When viewed straight on, the towering optical illusion appears to ascend into the sky at an incline, although the 4.5-meter-tall work actually lies on a flat plane. Van der Merwe partnered with Taiwanese artist Chou Sheng-hsien to create the trippy sculpture for the Nanhui Art Project in Taiwan, which commissioned 14 public works to be installed throughout Taitung County.

Built with steel square tubing that weighs about 240 kilograms, “Staircase to Heaven” is modeled after van der Merwe’s 2016 project, “Sculptures on the Cliff.” For more of the artist’s site-specific works and sprawling land art, check out his site. (via Laughing Squid)

 

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