Families of Tiny Ghosts Haunt Miniature Coffin Houses and Graveyard Gardens

All images © Blacklillybee, shared with permission

There’s plenty of spirit to be found inside Blacklillybee’s miniature coffins. Nestled inside the tiny wooden caskets, centimeter-wide ghosts roam through Victorian-style dollhouses with gravestone gardens, cushy furniture, and gilded frames holding spectral family photos. Each character is made from polymer clay and takes on the classic white bedsheet appearance as they float upstairs or rest by an empty fireplace. The coffins are currently sold out, but keep an eye on the artist’s Instagram for updates.

 

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Mantras Immense Butterfly Murals Flutter Across Buildings and Walls

Jackson, Michigan. All images © Mantra, shared with permission.

Seemingly floating atop vast brick exteriors and inside massive specimen boxes, enormous butterflies stretch their wings, casting a soft shadow on building facades. Now based on both sides of the Atlantic—Switzerland and Mexico City—French artist Mantra (previously) continues to lean into the passion, curiosity, and respect he harbors for nature. Pursuing his childhood dreams of becoming a naturalist, the artist’s signature take on exploring the Lepidoptera through freehand acrylic murals is monumental.

Mantra is inspired by insects’ seemingly effortless movements and motions that are, in actuality, incredibly complex. He explains to Colossal that “it is quite challenging to study a butterfly so closely that your presence will not disturb them. Their flight patterns are unpredictable, and they rarely spend much time resting on a leaf or flower. However, this is precisely what captivates me.” The artist has also had recent opportunities to affirm his artistic practice, such as accompanying a volunteer research program and census by the Cerro Prieto community inside the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico.

As he works toward his first museum show in the United States projected to open next year, you can keep up with his work on his Instagram and website.

 

Switzerland

Mantra’s summer studio

Italy

Italy

Spain

Mantra’s studio

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Exquisite Porcelain Figures by Vipoo Srivilasa Express the Ineffable Nature of Beauty and Connection

Left: “My Fabulous Self” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 37 x 22 x 12 centimeters. Center: “Free As An Independence Bird” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 38 x 23 x 12 centimeters. Right: “You Make Me Happy” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 38 x 20 x 10 centimeters. All images © Vipoo Srivilasa, courtesy of Edwina Corlette, shared with permission

Flowers in gold luster and cobalt, small portraits of mythical creatures with feathers and polka dots, and various geometric motifs embellish Vipoo Srivilasa’s porcelain figures, which celebrate abundance and joy through opulent details. On view now at Edwina Corlette in the artist’s solo show Solitude and Connection, the sculptures are otherworldly in form as they meld human anatomy with flora and fauna, exploring “the diverse ways in which love takes shape.”

Born and raised in Thailand and now based in Melbourne, Srivilasa often explores how these two cultures overlap and diverge and what it means to occupy the space in between. Most figures in this recent menagerie hold two fingers in the air, a hand gesture with widely varied meanings depending on the location and context.

Evoking the divine and interconnected forces, the collection also references the unearthly features of deities, profuse growth, and the pleasure derived through simplicity. “Like a diverse array of flowers, love permeates various relationships, encompassing friendships, familial bonds, and the profound connection with nature,” the artist shares. “These relationships, like vibrant petals in a vast garden, remind us that love knows no boundaries or limitations.”

Solitude and Connection is on view through July 4. Find more of Srivilasa’s works and glimpses into his studio and process on his site and Instagram.

 

“Enduring Unity” (2023), glazed porcelain and gold luster

Back of “You Make Me Happy” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 38 x 20 x 10 centimeters

“I Dream of Three Snakes and None of Them Are My History” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 48 x 23 x 11 centimeters

“Harmonising Souls in Sweet Symphony” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 37 x 22 x 12 centimeters

Back of “Enduring Unity 2/3” (2023), glazed porcelain and gold luster, 26 x 21 x 12 centimeters

“Self-partnered” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 38 x 22 x 12 centimeters

Back of “Free As An Independence Bird” (2023), porcelain with cobalt pigment and gold luster, 38 x 23 x 12 centimeters

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Heidi Gustafsons Book of Earth Embarks on a Visual Voyage Through the World of Natural Pigments

All photos © Heidi Gustafson unless noted, courtesy of Abrams, shared with permission

There’s quite a bit more to ochre than the deep, golden hue squeezed out of a tube of paint. “Color is tied to matter, as much as light,” Heidi Gustafson told Colossal in a recent interview. “In fact, in the ochres and Earth pigments, it tends to be the metal elements (iron, copper, lead, etc.) that are responsible for our color experience.”

The Washington-based artist and founder of the Early Futures Ochre Archive (previously) marvels at the diverse hues of naturally-occurring minerals beneath our feet. In her new Book of Earth, published by Abrams, she takes us on a journey through rare pigments and their landscapes in a celebration of the what she describes as the “behavior, capacities, being-ness, language, needs, and concerns” of the material.

Each chapter of Book of Earth is dedicated to an aspect of the Gustafson’s archive, which contains more than 600 samples. The volume elucidates the world of natural color, challenging our perceptions of terrain and the inanimate world, and includes practical advice and techniques for creating your own pigments. Find your copy on Bookshop.

 

Photo by Chiara Zonca

Photo by Sheena Callage

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Dont Miss Ebony G. Pattersons Summer Art Exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden

Vultures descend on NYBG’s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory lawn in an installation by Ebony G. Patterson

This summer at the New York Botanical Garden, celebrated contemporary artist Ebony G. Patterson alludes to the hidden histories of the garden in …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting…, featuring thought-provoking sculptures and horticulture displays. The artist responds to the collections of the garden with a living work of art that sheds light on the historical relevance of our collective pasts and the potential for healing in renewal.

Patterson’s work embraces the lush, colorful, and enticing elements of the space while offering bold and provocative moments. Hundreds of glittering vultures descend like shadows to gather among wound-like ruptures in the landscape. Colorful plantings and ghostly cast glass sculptures represent extinct species that now exist only as specimens in the Herbarium, serving as a reminder of what we stand to lose. Displays in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library feature an immersive video installation, woven tapestries, and paper works that continue Patterson’s artistic viewpoint on gardens and wild, uncultivated nature.

You have never experienced the New York Botanical Garden like this before!

…things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… is on view through September 17.

To learn more, visit nybg.org.

 

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 Don’t Miss Ebony G. Patterson’s Summer Art Exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden appeared first on Colossal.

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Explore Mars Craggy Topography in an Enormous 5.7 Terapixel Mosaic of the Red Planets Surface

All images via Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization

A new composite released by the Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization details 99.5 percent of Mars’ surface in unprecedented detail. Using images captured by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the lab stitched together a 5.7 terapixel mosaic of the Martian planet, approximately rendering each pixel the size of a parking space. See some of the cratered topography here, and get the full experience by navigating Mars’ surface using the lab’s 3D explorer, which includes quick links to interesting destinations similar to Google Earth. (via Kottke)

 

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Miniatua Puts the Micro in Microchip in a Series of Remarkably Precise Miniature Computers

IBM 5150. All images © Miniatua, shared with permission

“I think it’s important to understand our roots, where the technology we use came from, and I believe these machines and the people who made them should be celebrated,” says Nicolas Temese, a.k.a. Miniatua. By day, the Montréal-based artist works as a technical director at an animation studio, and in his spare time, he tends to the exacting details of minuscule, vintage hard drives, floppy disks, and keyboards.

Temese has been fascinated by computers and science since childhood. “The first computer I ever played with was an 8-bit Atari 800XL,” he says, sharing that during the last ten years, his interest in engineering of early technology grew. He spends hours poring over manuals and documentation of retro models, fascinated by the inner workings and intent on being able to recreate every detail as faithfully as possible. “IBM had incredible, clean industrial design back then, with great aesthetic that still look amazing to this day,” he says.

Ranging from 1:10 to 1:16 scale, Temese’s editions are fashioned from polystyrene sheets that he delicately cuts and shapes before gluing and sanding the components and adding a coat of paint. For softer accessories like cushions, he uses polymer clay. “I recently started using resin printing to add details on some of my miniatures, but I have a few projects that I make entirely by hand,” he says. “Depending on the project or deadline it can take me a few months. The longest project I worked on was eight months.”

 

IBM 704

Many of Temese’s iterations are based on actual models that hit the market in the second half of the 20th century, from room-sized data processors like the IMB 704 to game-changing desktop versions like the IBM 5150. Introduced on August 12, 1981, the 5150 was the first widely available personal model, marking a paradigm shift in computing, business, and society as a whole. He also pays a lot of attention to lighting and documentation, mimicking the style of photography used in advertising during each machine’s respective era.

Temese recently embarked on his first fictional examples, creating a model of the WOPR, or War Operations Plan Response, from WarGames. The 1983 film follows the exploits of a high school-aged character named David Lightman, played by a young Matthew Broderick, who inadvertently hacks into a military central computer, thinking he has accessed a game, only to find himself enmeshed in escalating tensions between nations headed to a seemingly inevitable World War III.

“The WOPR was a challenge because of the electronics mostly,” Temese says. “I changed my approach a few time while building it, and the design of the electronics had to change a few times.” Recently, he created a scale model of David’s bedroom, where a phone, coding books, and other electronics complete with illuminated details flank a boxy setup.

Learn more about each piece and find many more images on Miniatua’s website and Instagram.

 

Detail of IBM 704

IBM 5150

IBM 704 Vanguard

IBM 1401

David’s Room from ‘WarGames’

Detail of David’s Room from ‘WarGames’

‘WarGames’ WOPR

Detail of ‘WarGames’ WOPR

HP 264X

HP 264X

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