Movement and Instinct Inform Taquen’s Murals of Migrating Birds and Human Touch

“Magpies and swifts.” All images © Taquen, shared with permission

Thin, structural lines delineate a magpie wing and contour a child’s nose or cheekbone in Taquen’s murals. Working with a color palette of pastels and neutral tones, the Spanish artist (previously) paints large-scale portraits, fragments of limbs, and birds, often leaving the composition’s skeletal forms visible. “The supports are just as important as the work itself,” he tells Colossal. “I look for camouflage, minimalism, and mixture. In the end, it is also a metaphorical form of the footprint that I believe we should leave in the places we pass through.”

Many of Taquen’s works consider the relationship between species through the lens of movement and impulse, focusing on gesture, touch, and instinctive acts. Birds mid-flight embody the tie between freedom and migration, while bare feet lounging in the grass or a hand grasping a flower channel a desire for physical contact. “I think we are very disconnected, living in parallel with nature, and it is a mistake. We must share it, experience it, live it, and thus we will be able to understand and respect it,” he says.

In the coming months, the artist will be working on murals in Belgium, Portugal, Ireland, France, and Spain, in addition to a conceptual project centered on paths and walking. You can follow those on Instagram.

 

Briançon, France

Detail of mural in Briançon, France

“Discover and learn,” Port of Sagunto, Valencia

Grenoble

Camprovin

“Hold the oak, be a tree for the trees,” Mostar

“Apology for the wild,” Stockholm, Sweden

Madrid. Photo by Gustavo Bulnes

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Systems Evoking Roots and Veins Sprawl Across Raija Jokinen’s Organic Flax Figures

All images © Raija Jokinen, shared with permission

Finnish artist Raija Jokinen (previously) echoes the natural shapes of botanics and anatomy in her elaborately formed figures. The sculptural works are comprised of sprawling webs that appear like both root and vein systems, with flowers and more dense, fleshy patches emerging from an arm or torso. Each piece fuses the physical and mental, Jokinen says, sharing that her “approach is focused on everyday feelings, situations, and thoughts we all have.”

The mesh works are created from flax—Jokinen employs a technique similar to that used for handmade paper—that she dyes and molds into branches, twigs, and other organic forms. She then adds floral and structural details through machine stitching, which also strengthens the otherwise fragile material. “With these methods, I am able to create free forms, like cut-outs, and transparent structures that allow strong shadows on the wall or occupy the space around it,” she says.

Many of Jokinen’s figures shown here are on view as part of a solo exhibition through October 9 at Château de Trévarez in Brittany, and she will also have pieces included in the International Mini Textile Exhibition in Bratislava this November. To see more of her works, check out her site and Instagram.

 

Photo by Philippe Robin

Photo by Philippe Robin

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Interview: Sho Shibuya Discusses Ritual, His Impulse Toward Minimalism, and His Love for Ubiquitous Objects

All images © Sho Shibuya, shared with permission

Since March 2020, artist and designer Sho Shibuya has fostered a ritualistic creative practice of painting the morning sunrise on the cover of The New York Times, a routine he describes in a new interview supported by Colossal Members. The daily project was born out of lockdown and the COVID-19 pandemic, although it’s evolved into a broad body of work that transcends the artist’s original intent for the pieces.

The process of flipping through the newspaper, watching the sunrise, and then painting every morning is quite meditative… But I treat the paintings the same as eating or sleeping; a vital part of my daily routine. It’s a little mission for myself, to capture the sunrise every day as a visual diary.

In this conversation, Shibuya speaks with Colossal managing editor Grace Ebert about the ongoing series and the addition of more sculptural, conceptual works that respond to politics and current events. They discuss his pared-down, measured approach to conveying complex subject matter, the fluctuating relationship between concept and visual, and his fascination with humble, everyday materials.

 

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Adorably Emotional Creatures Comprise Nosey Mungo’s Playful Ceramic Menagerie

All images © Helen Burgess, shared with permission

In the hands of Helen Burgess, goofy grins, bloated bellies, and eyes wide with surprise turn endangered or overlooked animals into endearing creatures with playfully exaggerated emotions. The British ceramicist, who works as nosey mungo (previously), sculpts quirky renditions of wildlife and other critters—she prefers to focus on conservation issues and species struggling to survive— crafting kooky pufferfish covered in spikes and chicks with tiny beaks poking out from their downy, yellow bodies.

Currently, Burgess is working on a collection of marine wall hangings, and you can follow her progress, along with shop updates and glimpses into her process, on Instagram.

 

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Figures and Events Are Transfixed by Time in Pep Carrió’s Extensive Daily Visual Diaries

Spreads from 2013. All images © Pep Carrió, shared with permission. Photographs by Antonio Fernández

In 2007, Madrid-based artist and illustrator Pep Carrió’s expansive diary project began as a challenge with a simple premise: to draw something every day. No matter what materials were at hand and without any predetermined theme or subject matter, he took a game-like approach to see if he could accomplish filling an entire Moleskine datebook throughout the year. The numerous editions that have followed feature a dazzling array of scenes fashioned from marker, pencil, tempera, pen, ink, collage, and found materials.

Carrió’s stream-of-consciousness process has led to a collection that ranges from abstract flora to silhouetted and patterned figures to surreal vessels and landscapes. Originally, the volumes contained one drawing each day with complementary images on facing pages, but in recent years, the artist has begun to more consistently fill the entire spread with a single image, creating bold compositions that play with the symmetry of the book and the confines of its edges. Imagery of sprawling tree branches, obscured faces and masks, and bodies in precarious circumstances strike a metaphorical chord, exploring human society and psychology. His method of completing a drawing each day is itself an exercise in memory, as the diaries have accumulated records of the artist’s thoughts over time and unfurl into a personal archive.

Carrió currently has work on view as part of From Spain with Design traveling throughout Spain during 2022 and Play with Design at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporánea in Valencia through October 23. You can find more information on his website and follow the visual diary project on Instagram.

 

 

2007

2010

2018

2020

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An Elaborately Designed Book on Weaving Opens to Reveal a Fully Functional Loom

All images © Cai Wei Qun, shared with permission

The swish of a shuttle moving from left to right as it carries threads through the warp might be described as a “xui” sound. A Taiwanese onomatopoeia, the auditory word is also the title of Cai Wei Qun’s elaborately constructed book on the craft, which opens to reveal a trove of history, techniques and tricks, and an entire loom tucked between its covers. The clever design is fully functional and able to produce tiny tapestries based on the patterns and practices described, making the book an immersive manual on weaving traditions.

Wei Qun was recently awarded a Red Dot Design Award for the conceptual project, and you can find much more on the designer’s website and Instagram. (via Yanko Design)

 

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A Satisfying Stop-Motion Tutorial by omozoc Effortlessly Slices and Assembles a Wooden Box Entirely by Hand

omozoc (previously) gives new meaning to handcrafted in one of his latest stop-motion tutorials. With a simple touch of his fingertip or nail zipping along the edge of a piece of wood, the animator appears to cut, bevel, and construct a tissue box without any outside tools or fasteners. Comprised of 791 individual photos, the seamless video took 22 days to complete and is part of omozoc’s growing archive of woodworking lessons, which you can find more of (make sure you turn your volume up to hear the incredibly satisfying audio) on YouTube.

 

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