From Infancy to Adulthood, Trevon Latin’s Genderless Figures Transform Through Patchwork Bodies

“Big blu” (2023), fabric, sequins, wood, 54 x 48 x 84 inches. All photos by Guillaume Ziccarelli, courtesy of the artist and Perrotin, shared with permission

Large, life-sized doorways and entrances line Perrotin’s New York gallery. Reaching up to seven feet tall, these patchwork planes are made from patterned, sequined, and solid-colored fabrics that evoke the stained glass windows of Christian cathedrals, their curved architectural shapes mimicking the windows and archways of the religious sanctuaries.

The work of artist Trevon Latin (previously), these reliefs can also be seen as portals. Latin is visionary and corrective, using quilted, mixed-media forms to amend historical narratives and envision new realities. Part of their solo show TOYMAKER: Big Blu & the Weeping Walls!! , these works reflect a world that welcomes the fluidity of gender and sexuality and where queer love and joy reign.

 

Left: “I wish I could have listened to my conscience …..And not drunk a drip. I wouldn’t be here in so many pieces….. I shouldn’t have drank a sip” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, barrettes, beads, phone, bottle, 72 × 51 × 11 inches. Right: “Soul-flower take me flying with you” (2023), fabric stretched on panel, 72 x 51 x 10 inches

Sewn with distinct, vibrant color palettes, the reliefs consider the process of self-discovery and stages of development from infancy to adulthood. A genderless figure emerges through the works, in “I wish I could have listened to my conscience …..And not drunk a drip. I wouldn’t be here in so many pieces….. I shouldn’t have drank a sip” appearing as a barrette-enveloped baby grasping for a bottle. Similar, stylized subjects continue to appear in each of the pieces, an arm extending from the mishmash or embracing another as in “Our daily bred | Blue-berries n’ cream.”

The artist’s childhood in a Southern Black Pentecostal community undergirds the body of work and offers an entry point into exploring how the strictures and rigidity of the church affect the formation of an identity. Although experiencing dysmorphia and confined by these religious doctrines, Latin’s figures continually transform and find greater freedom as they break from their structural bases. The freestanding sculpture “Big Blu” is the final form in the series, its fists pressing into the green, earthen base and hunched back appearing ready to rise and move forward.

TOYMAKER is on view through July 28, and you can find more from Latin on Perrotin.

 

Detail of “I wish I could have listened to my conscience …..And not drunk a drip. I wouldn’t be here in so many pieces….. I shouldn’t have drank a sip” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, barrettes, beads, phone, bottle, 72 × 51 × 11 inches

Left: “Thumbsucker (Pink)” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, barrettes, beads, wood, 84 x 47 1/2 x 6 inches. Right: “Thumbsucker (Blue)” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, barrettes, beads, wood, 84 x 47 1/2 x 6 inches

“Big blu” (2023), fabric, sequins, wood, 54 x 48 x 84 inches

Left: “Lean with the left-lean with the left | Llelow” (2023), fabric stretched on panel, barrettes, beads, boxing gloves, wood, 84 x 50 x 16 inches. Right: “Our daily bred | Blue-berries n’ cream” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, beads, 84 x 50 x 18 inches

Detail of “Our daily bred | Blue-berries n’ cream” (2023), fabric and sequins stretched on panel, beads. 84 x 50 x 18 inches

Detail of “Big blu” (2023), fabric, sequins, wood, 54 x 48 x 84 inches

Installation view of ‘TOYMAKER: Big Blu & the Weeping Walls!!’

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Incredible New Drone Footage Flies Over the Latest Eruption of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano

For more than 800 years, the volcanic system on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula sat dormant. That is, until March 2021, when a fissure vent appeared south of Fagradalsfjall mountain. A throng of scientists, photographers, and tourists descended on the area to capture the long-awaited eruption, with the first event continuing for six months, followed by a second—and very similar one—that ran for less than three weeks in August 2022.

Two days ago, a new eruption began spewing dramatic currents of lava in an area north of Fagradalsfjall, near Litli-Hrútur. Drone pilot Isak Finnbogaso captured stunning footage of the remarkable landscape as it churned molten earth to the surface. You can see more of his footage of Iceland on YouTube and Instagram. (via Kottke)

 

All images © Isak Finnbogason

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Erwin Wurm’s Motley Crew of Suits and Sausages Cuts a Rug at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

“Big Mutter” (2015). All photos by Jonty Wilde, installation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2023) courtesy of the artist and Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Images courtesy of YSP, © Erwin Wurm, shared with permission

Dancing business suits, a handbag with legs, and contorted vehicles are just a few of the uncanny scenes visitors to Yorkshire Sculpture Park will encounter this summer. Acclaimed Austrian artist Erwin Wurm’s first large-scale museum exhibition in the U.K., Trap of the Truth, includes nearly 75 sculptures indoors and dotted around the landscape, plus numerous drawings, paintings, photographs, and videos created during the past three decades.

Wurm began making art with inexpensive, everyday items like used clothes, scraps of wood, and cans. As he experimented with materials and ideas, he had an epiphany: “At some point, I came to realise that everything surrounding me can be material for an artistic work, absolutely everything… That was the decisive step, as then anything was possible.” Now known for playful, surreal, and often humorous installations, the artist challenges perceptions of the human body, quotidian objects, and sculpture itself.

 

“Big Disobedience” (2016)

Wurm often tangles comically with ideas around politics and culture, referencing capitalism, cultural norms, and social conformity. By giving business suits a life of their own and transforming them from dull gray to playful pink, he separates the wearer from the symbol, freeing them to move about on their own. A giant water bottle, a much-loved object of comfort, is personified with a pair of shoes and titled “Big Mutter”—mutter means “mother” in German—along with other references to his nation’s identity and history, like anthropomorphized Viennese sausages.

The title Trap of the Truth nods to the 17th-century French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, who immortalized the phrase, “I think, therefore I am,” as he interrogated the subjectivity of truth. Wurm captures a sense of uncanny joy, prompting viewers to question what they see and how they relate to the world around them.

Trap of the Truth continues through April 28, 2024, and you can find more on Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s website. Explore more of Wurm’s work on his website and on Instagram.

 

“Big Hypnosis” (2008)

“Renault 25” (1991)

Left to right: “Big Disobedience” (2016) and “Big Kastenmann” (2012)

Left: “Big Suit 2” (2010-2016). Right: “Step (Big)” (2021)

Left to right: “Untitled” (2018), “Giant Big, Me Ideal” (2014), and “Untitled” (2018)

“Truck II” (2011)

Left to right: “Dance” (2021) and “Trip” (2021)

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A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book of Astrological Ideas Tried to Predict the Future

All images via The Library of Congress

More than 2,000 years ago in Hellenistic Greece, the astrolabe was invented as a kind of analog calculator to decode a range of astronomical observations, survey an area, or reckon latitude and time. Often made from metal, the tool was modified and further developed in the Islamic world, then later in Western Europe, throughout the next several centuries. By the medieval period, it had been adopted by astrologers and some physicians—the latter for whom religious belief and medicine were closely intertwined—to determine the course of the planets and their influences. And in the 16th century, the device found its way to scholar Leonhard Thurneisser (a.k.a. Thurneysser, circa 1530-96).

Thurneisser was fascinated by the workings of the universe, and his wide-ranging knowledge landed him a position as an intellectual and miracle doctor at a noble court in Brandenburg, Germany. Denounced as a serious scientist by some of his peers due to his interest in alchemy and astrology, he nevertheless published his findings in a phenomenal tome known as the Archidoxa in 1569, containing a collection of astrological predictions and ideas. Six years later, he released an addition to the volume called the Astrolabium, which used volvelles, or wheel charts, to provide individual horoscopes.

Richly illustrated with hand-colored plates engraved by an artist named Peter Hille, each page contains a different constellation and Des Menschen Cirkel und Lauff, or “man’s circle of life.” The volvelles, which could be layered on top of each page and spun in relation to one another, include the locations of fixed stars and Baum des Lebens, or “tree of life.” Bound in ornate leather, the book would have functioned as a kind of medieval Ouija board, in theory enabling the user to foresee their fate or predict natural disasters.

You can explore dozens more pages on The Library of Congress’s website, and you might also enjoy another 16th-century gem that can be read six different ways.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article A 16th-Century Pop-Up Book of Astrological Ideas Tried to Predict the Future appeared first on Colossal.

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Weve Got It Made: Process X Goes Behind the Scenes to Demystify the Production of Our Favorite Objects and Tools

When we pull on a pair of denim jeans, hop in our cars, or fill up a bucket, our first thought probably isn’t, “Where did this come from?” We pluck clothing items from racks or off of hardware store shelves, but how in the world were they made? Japan-based project Process X (previously) goes behind the scenes of major manufacturing companies and specialty production studios to discover how simple materials are transformed into ubiquitous objects we rely on all of the time, from pencils to billiard cues to galvanized pails to manhole covers. The team also introduces practices with deep roots in Japanese culture, like the meticulous process of carving Noh masks.

See a few of our favorite videos here, and learn how numerous other things are made—or scrapped—on Process X’s YouTube channel.

 

All images © Process X

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Artist Hilda Palafox Coaxes Emotional Depth from Bodily Contortions and Skewed Sizes

“Camino de vuelta” (2022), oil on linen, 47 6/25 × 35 43/100 × 49 inches framed. All images courtesy of Proyectos Monclova, © Hila Palafox, shared with permission

“A woman’s braid, for me, has a very powerful meaning,” says Hilda Palafox. “It symbolizes the fact of connecting, building, recognizing, changing, and strengthening. And I consider the act of braiding as something very intimate, very personal, and universal at the same time.”

Women convening, considering the size and shape of their forms, or engaging in solitary pursuits are common in Palafox’s works: one figure climbs a ladder sprouting new plant life, others precariously balance bowls on their limbs, and another bends over toward her toes, a table bound to her back with bright red rope.

Primarily working in oil paint on large-scale canvases, the Mexico City-based artist imagines a matriarchal world in which women are free to explore the inner reaches of their psyches and stronger together. Their long, substantial limbs, large hands, and supple curves are repositories for Palafox’s interests.  “I have always thought of the body as a vessel through which we experience the world and emotions and through which we express ourselves and manifest life,” she shares. “I seek to convey certain concerns that travel from a very personal place to a point of universal connection.”

Influenced by her background in graphic design, Palafox’s textured paintings are intuitive and created stroke by stroke, echoing the act of braiding hair strand by strand. “That is very important to me, and that is also why I like simple, clean compositions with some hints of symbolism, where the body language of these beings are the main character and where a door can also be opened for the viewer to finish building the narrative,” she says.

Palafox is represented by Proyectos Monclova, and you can find more of her works on both canvas and walls on Instagram.

 

“Aquí y ahora” (2022), oil on linen, 65.43 x 49.72 x 1.57 inches framed

“¿A dónde llegará?” (2022), oil on linen, 49.72 x 37.87 x 1.57 inches framed

Left: “Cuestión de tiempo II,” oil on linen, 47.24 x 39.37 inches. Right: “Cuestión de tiempo III,” oil on linen, 47.36 x 39.37 x .98 inches

“Portal II” (2022), oil on linen, 47 1/4 × 35 3/8 inches. Image courtesy of Hashimoto Contemporary

“Quizas, un día” (2022), oil on linen, 65.55 x 49.8 x 1.77 inches framed

“Un deseo más al fuego” (2022), oil on linen, 65.55 x 49.8 x 1.77 inches framed

“En aquel breve momento” (2022), oil on linen, 64.96 x 49.21 x 1.61 inches framed

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Artist Hilda Palafox Coaxes Emotional Depth from Bodily Contortions and Skewed Sizes appeared first on Colossal.

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Join Us for a Colossal Workshop on Crafting Paper Entomology Displays with Guardabosques

All images © Guardabosques, shared with permission

We’re thrilled that artists Caro Silvero and Juan Elizalde of Guardabosques (previously) will be joining us this August for a papercraft workshop. The Buenos Aires-based pair will show students how to create the entomological display shown above using new templates designed specifically for Colossal. Grab your scissors and glue, and watch butterflies and beetles come to life during the 1.5-hour virtual session.

Register here, and if you’re a Colossal Member, be sure to use the code in your account for $10 off. Ten percent of proceeds from this workshop will be donated to the Center for Biological Diversity.

 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Join Us for a Colossal Workshop on Crafting Paper Entomology Displays with Guardabosques appeared first on Colossal.

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