Sumito Sakakibara Plumbs Memory and Time in His Animated Film ‘Iizuna Fair,’ On View for a Limited Time

One night, a man’s car goes off the road. His life flashes before him, as the synopsis of “Iizuna Fair” says, “In the midst of the frenzy night, a man finds himself lost in the crevasse of time.” Dreamlike scenes unfold in filmmaker Sumito Sakakibara’s poignant short film as it pans across the anonymous protagonist’s buried memories, inhibitions, and unkept promises, as he realizes, “he was the phantom.”

In hand-painted frames that merge gradually from one scene to the next, Sakakibara taps into the nuances of nostalgia, human experience, regret, grief, and what it means to truly be alive. Seemingly unrelated scenes unfold simultaneously, dipping in and out of different time periods and events, centering around a fair that has come to the town of Iizuna. Watch from beginning to end, and you’ll witness how Sakakibara composed the film into an infinite loop.

“Iizuna Fair” was commissioned by Nagano Prefectural Art Museum, where it is currently on view on a massive 26-meter-wide, L-shaped screen, and you can also watch the animation above through December 15. See more on the artist’s Vimeo and website.

 

All images © Sumito Sakakibara

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A Sprawling Nest of Vintage Wooden Chairs Perches on Liaigre’s Facade in Paris

All images © Tadashi Kawamata, courtesy the artist and Mennour, Paris, shared with permission

Constructed with an intuitive weaving process evocative of birds, Tadashi Kawamata’s “Nest in Liaigre” is a sprawling, site-specific installation that questions how we interact with our built environments. The towering work perches on the side of the Liaigre architecture firm and winds inside the Paris studio, creating a spiral maze of wooden chairs and furniture that flows between the facade and interior. Using humble, vintage materials, Kawamata invites viewers to relax and socialize within the cozy space, while exploring the links between art and architecture.

“Nest in Liaigre” is on view through March 25, 2024, as part of Paris + par Art Basel. Find more of Kawamata’s works on Instagram.

 

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Everyday Activities Revolve Around Interiors in Cinta Vidal’s Dizzying Oil Paintings

“Eames” (2023), oil on canvas, 100 x 100 centimeters. All images © Cinta Vidal, courtesy of Thinkspace, shared with permission

Known for her perspective-bending murals (previously), Cinta Vidal explores the nuances of interiors and the myriad ways we interact within architecture in Cohabit, a new body of work presented with Thinkspace Projects in New York. “I’m intrigued by the relationship that people establish between themselves and their immediate surroundings, and now I’m zooming in to find out what’s going on in there,” Vidal says. “In contrast to my most recent works, where I played with darkness, I now strongly illuminate the scenes, which take on more vitality.”

The artist’s background in scenography and set design lends itself to a natural curiosity about how people move around and connect in different places. Notable art and architecture plays a key role in Vidal’s recent paintings, from the seminal Eames House, also known as Case Study House No. 8, to paintings by the likes of Piet Mondrian, the cool tiles of a subway station, or a Renaissance arcade in a public square.

Vidal’s paintings flirt with perception, filling private rooms and public areas with figures who barely adhere to the laws of gravity. Each composition can be flipped or turned onto its side to reveal parallel narratives unfolding in the same space, suggesting overlapping layers of time. In “Eames,” for example, people and furnishings wander up one of the walls and onto the ceiling, while in “Room,” the composition can be arranged on any of its four sides. The artist achieves this balance by anchoring paintings, corners, and windows around a central vanishing point.

Cohabit goes on view for four days only, from October 18 to 21, at a Thinkspace Projects pop-up location on Broome Street. Find more on Vidal’s website and Instagram.

 

“Avenue” (2023), oil on canvas, 80 × 80 centimeters

“Hotel” (2023), oil on canvas, 73 × 61 centimeters

“Plaza” (2023), oil on canvas, 61 × 61 centimeters

“Subway” (2023), oil on canvas, 73 × 92 centimeters

“Museum” (2023), oil on canvas, 61 × 61 centimeters

“Parlor” (2023), oil on canvas, 100 × 100 centimeters

“Room” (2023), oil on canvas, 100 × 100 centimeters

“Atelier” (2023), oil on canvas, 81 × 100 centimeters

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To the Rainbow Realm! Technology and Magic Merge in ‘Feltopia,’ the First Felted Stop-Motion Video Game

Photos by Sarah Wright. All images © Andrea Love and Andy Katsikapes, shared with permission

“Set in a dreamy, fluffy world, the wizard Skyrider is facing the ramifications of a giant technological glitch that forced civilization up into the clouds,” says a synopsis of artist Andrea Love’s new video game, Feltopia. Your mission? Fly on a trusty steed named Cumulus “through a world of wizards, robots, and magical creatures—clearing the way towards the rainbow realm, where a mysterious mega-bot is threatening to consume the whole spectrum.”

Known for her meticulously detailed stop-motion animations using wool, Love (previously) embarks on an ambitious collaborative project to transform her felted stories into an interactive game. Just launched on Kickstarter, the project aims to roll out initially on iOS and expand to more platforms as funding allows. Love joins seasoned game designer Andy Katsikapes, who invited sound and music designers Peter Michael Davison and Richard Gould to build a world frame-by-frame, combining playable elements with hand-felted compositions and stop-motion techniques.

Get involved with the Kickstarter campaign, and learn more about Love’s work on her website, Vimeo, and Instagram.

 

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A Groundbreaking Monograph Delves Into Simone Leigh’s Enduring Commitment to Centering Black Women

“Cupboard IX” (2019), stoneware, raffia, and steel armature, 78 × 60 × 80 inches. Image courtesy of Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. All images © Simone Leigh, shared with permission

Simone Leigh’s first monograph opens with this quote from the artist: “In order to tell the truth, you need to invent what might be missing from the archive, to collapse time, to concern yourself with issues of scale, to formally move things around in a way that reveals something more true than fact.”

It’s a lofty and perceptive statement that perfectly illustrates Leigh’s oeuvre. Working across sculpture, installation, and video, the artist returns to the aesthetics of Africa and the African diaspora as she amends the art historical narrative by putting Black women and Black feminist thought at the center. Her works draw on craft traditions and legacies through her material choices, including the ceramic pots and raffia skirts that meld with her figurative works. These hybrid forms draw attention to labor and value, particularly as they relate to women’s disregarded contributions throughout history and around the globe.

Spanning two decades of work, the 372-page book accompanies Leigh’s first major museum survey, which closed at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston in September. The exhibition is in the midst of a nearly two-year tour and currently on its way to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., where it will open in November and continue through March 2024, before finishing its run at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and California African American Museum between June 2024 and January 2025.

 

Comprising bronze, ceramic, and video works, the retrospective highlights the artist’s visual vocabulary of cowrie shells, rosettes, and indistinct facial features, along with pieces from her milestone achievement: In 2022, Leigh became the first Black woman to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale with Sovereignty, an exhibition encompassing sculptures exploring self-determination and the interior lives of Black women.

Within the monograph, writing from brilliant scholars like Saidiya Hartman and Christina Sharpe elucidates Leigh’s interests and aesthetics, alongside historical photos, glimpses of the artist’s studio, and full-spread images of works. An essential and groundbreaking survey, the volume is celebratory, lauding Leigh’s expansive practice and enduring desire to fill gaps in the archive.

Simone Leigh was published earlier this month by Delmonico Books and is available on Bookshop.

 

“No Face (House)” (2020), terracotta, porcelain, ink, epoxy, and raffia, 29.5 × 24 × 24 inches. Image courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery

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Vorja Sánchez Brings the Past to Life in a Series of Uncanny ‘Ancient Pottery’ Illustrations

All images © Vorja Sánchez, shared with permission

Beastly jugs and vessels with legs comprise the latest in illustrator Vorja Sánchez’s eclectic and uncanny menagerie (previously). A new print titled “Ancient Pottery” draws inspiration from a wide variety of stoneware urns, bowls, and statuettes from prehistoric cultures around the world, imbuing each of them with the lively features of animals or mythological beings. Produced from an original piece made with pencil, ink, and watercolor on cotton paper, the artist emphasizes the appearance of age, as if a patina has formed over time across the entire composition.

“I am fascinated by the simple and imperfect but pure and free forms of ancient ceramics,” Sánchez tells Colossal. He continues:

When I started to study them—my cousin is an archaeologist specialized in ceramics and gave me a lot of information—I realized that they shared a common essence regardless of their origin. The older they are, the more universal the language is. I found that very interesting. That’s why I decided, sharing the same space, to make an accumulation.

Sánchez is currently working on new pieces that focus on individual pots. You can purchase prints in the artist’s shop, and find more on his website and Instagram.

 

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Researchers Decipher the First Word Written Inside in an Ancient Scroll Charred by Mt. Vesuvius

All images courtesy of the Vesuvius Challenge

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., it covered Pompeii and surrounding Roman towns with a catastrophic layer of volcanic ash. One small settlement buried in the aftermath was Herculaneum, which housed a luxurious villa with an extensive library of papyrus scrolls. A farmer discovered some 1,800 texts carbonized in the home in the 18th century, all of which were well-preserved and incredibly fragile to the point of being impossible to unroll and read.

These scrolls are now the subject of the monumental Vesuvius Challenge, an ongoing competition to use machine learning and computer imaging technologies to read the ancient texts. Scientists have discovered a way to digitally unroll the scrolls using X-ray tomography and ink detection, producing a viewable 3D scan that reveals the writing without damaging the physical object. The competition, in turn, will award $700,000 to anyone who can discern a substantial portion of the text, at least four passages each with more than 140 characters.

With 79 days to go, this part of the competition is still ongoing, although a 21-year-old college student has already deciphered one word. Luke Farritor “became the first person in two millennia to see an entire word from within an unopened scroll this August,” the challenge says, and that word is porphyras, which translates to “purple.” This color is incredibly rare in texts from antiquity, making it an even more exciting finding and boosting intrigue about the rest of the scroll.

It’s worth checking out the Vesuvius Challenge website to learn more about the entire process behind the discovery and for the ambitious, to find out how to join in.

 

A carbonized scroll

The virtual “unwrapping” of the scroll

A scan of the scroll showing columns of text

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