Monday, October 23, 2023

The Colonnade of a Barcelona University Building Embodies a 13-Meter-Tall Heart by Jaume Plensa

A photo of a university building front entrance with an inflatable sculpture of a realistic human heart wedged in behind its colonnade. People stand in the foreground.

Photos courtesy of University of Barcelona, shared with permission

Every year on September 29, World Heart Day raises awareness of cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death around the globe. Events range from performances and walks that route courses in the shape of a heart to major art installations, like Jaume Plensa’s enormous inflatable artwork at the University of Barcelona.

Wedged behind the rib-like colonnade of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences building, the 13-meter-tall “The Secret Heart” depicts anatomically correct veins, valves, and ventricles. The work was originally commissioned in 2014 for display in Augsburg, Germany, where it was accompanied by a voice clock recording of local residents ticking off the hours, minutes, and seconds.

While The Secret Heart was on view in Barcelona for only a few days, you can explore more of Plensa’s large-scale installations on his website.

 

A photo of a university building front entrance with an inflatable sculpture of a realistic human heart wedged in behind its colonnade.

 

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Friday, October 20, 2023

A New Book Celebrates the Groundbreaking Women Who Changed Land Art

red concentric circles on desert

Lita Albuquerque, “Spine of the Earth” (1980), pigment, rock, and wood sundial, El Mirage Lake, Mojave Desert, California. Image © Lita Albuquerque, courtesy of the artist and Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles. All images courtesy of Artbook D.A.P., shared with permission

As conceptual art emerged in the 1960s as a dominant movement, more artists turned their attentions toward atypical materials and spaces. Using wood, steel, plants, peat moss, and other organic matter became commonplace in the genre known as land art, which included works made directly on the earth or with natural materials brought into the gallery.

As with most of art history, land art has generally been dominated by men, although a new book published by Delmonico offers a corresponding, if not corrective, narrative. Groundswell: The Women of Land Art is a 256-page volume that encompasses a range of works by renowned artists like Ana Mendieta, Nancy Holt, and Agnes Dean, to name a few.

On the cover is Lita Albuquerque’s “Spine of the Earth,” an ephemeral creation of concentric circles laid in the Mojave Desert in 1980, with projects like Meg Webster’s verdant “Moss Bed, Queen” and Patricia Johanson’s winding “Fair Park Lagoon” inside its pages. Given the fleeting nature and live components of many land-art pieces, the book is both a celebration of the women artists working in the genre and a necessary resource for documenting such groundbreaking and transient additions to the canon.

Groundswell is available on Bookshop.

 

brown pathways wind through a swampy area with grass

Patricia Johanson, “Fair Park Lagoon” (1981–86), gunite, native plants, and animal species, For the People, the Meadows Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, Texas Commission on the Arts and their private and corporate donations, permanently sited in Fair Park, Dallas. Image by Michael Barera, © Patricia Johanson, courtesy of the artist

a black and white image of a maze on land

Alice Aycock, “Maze” (1972), 12-sided wooden structure of 5 concentric dodecagonal rings, broken by 19 points of entry and 17 barriers 6 x 32 feet diameter, originally sited at Gibney Farm near New Kingston, Pennsylvania, now destroyed. Image by Silver Spring Township Police Department, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, © Alice Aycock, courtesy of the artist

three concrete cylinders rest in the desert while the sun illuminates them

Nancy Holt, “Sun Tunnels” (1973-76), Great Basin Desert, Utah, concrete, steel, earth, 9 1/6 x 86 x 53 x 86 feet, collection of Dia Art Foundation with support from Holt/Smithson Foundation. Image © 2023 Holt/Smithson Foundation and Dia Art Foundation, licensed by Artists Rights Society, New York

a rectangle of moss in a gallery

Meg Webster, “Moss Bed, Queen” (1986/2005), peat moss, earth, and plastic tarp, 10 x 60 x 80 inches, Walker Art Center, T. B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2006. Image © Meg Webster, courtesy of the artist and the Paula Cooper Gallery  Photo: Courtesy Walker Art Center

a row of metal trees in a landscape

Maren Hassinger, “Twelve Trees” (1979)

a square wooden structure with three levels on stilts

Mary Miss, “Perimeters/Pavilions/Decoys” (1977–78 ), earth, wood, and steel, temporary installation at the Nassau County Museum, Long Island, New York. Image © Mary Miss, courtesy of the artist

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 New Book Celebrates the Groundbreaking Women Who Changed Land Art appeared first on Colossal.



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Thursday, October 19, 2023

Joana Vasconcelos’ ‘Plug-in’ Retrospective Buzzes with Three Decades of Energy and Power

Detail of “Valkyrie Octopus,” installed at MAAT. Photo by Bruno Lopes. All images © Joana Vasconcelos, courtesy of MAAT, shared with permission

From a towering solitaire diamond ring made of wheels to a sprawling, embellished textile tree, Joana Vasconcelos (previously) is known for creating monumental sculptures and public artworks that reframe familiar objects and materials into striking installations. Plug-in, a new retrospective at MAAT—the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology—in Lisbon, explores nearly three decades of the Portuguese artist’s comprehensive oeuvre.light

Focusing on an undercurrent of electricity and power, Plug-in brings together new pieces in dialogue with earlier works. For example, two sculptures reimagine vintage cars: “Drag Race,” an ebulliently baroque Porsche, sports gilded woodwork that nods to track racing, self-expression, and pop-culture phenomena like RuPaul’s Drag Race. “War Games,” on the other hand, is encased in toy rifles in an antagonistic tug-o-war between play and violence. Red LED lights switch on and off continuously, and “the interior is filled with hundreds of stuffed toys that wiggle noisily, clamouring for attention and space,” says a statement.

 

A Porsche that has been embellished with gilded woodwork and a red flowing top.

“Drag Race” (2023). Photo by Lionel Balteiro

Vasconcelos often incorporates textiles into her works, working with beads, brocade, fringe, and a wide variety of fabrics. The lavish “Valkyrie Octopus,” part of the artist’s expansive Valkyries series, is shown for the first time in Europe since it was originally unveiled in Macau. Illuminated with tiny lights, the inflatable form coated in patterns looms across the entire width of the room. Plug-in invites visitors into a multi-sensory experience in which flashing lights and shiny surfaces question how we define luxury and power.

The exhibition continues in Lisbon through March 31, 2024. And if you’re in Florence, you can also visit Vasconcelos’ Between Sky and Heart at the Uffizi through January 14. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

“Valkyrie Octopus” (2015), installed at MGM Macau. Photo by Luís Vasconcelos

A large sculpture of a diamond ring made out of car wheels and glass.

“Solitaire” (2018). Photo by Bruno Lopes

An installation view of a tree sculpture made from fabric.

“Árvore da Vida” (2023). Photo by Bruno Lopes

Detail of colorful embellished fabrics.

Detail of “Árvore da Vida.” Photo by Didier Plowy, courtesy of Centre des Monuments Nationaux

Installation view of two car sculptures.

Installation view of “Drag Race” (foreground) and “War Games.” Photo by Bruno Lopes

Two images showing different views of the same piece. A sculpture with lots of car lights on it, with a padded space on one side where someone could step into.

“Strangers in the Night” (2000). Photos by DMF Lisboa

“I’ll Be Your Mirror” (2019). Photo by Bruno Lopes

“War Games” (2011). Photo by DMF Lisboa

Detail of “War Games.” Photo by DMF Lisboa

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An Arresting Optic Nerve Tops the 2023 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition

A starburst like shape of small filaments in various colors

Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson, rodent optic nerve head showing astrocytes (yellow), contractile proteins (red), and retinal vasculature (green). All images courtesy of Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition, shared with permission

One in five people with diabetes also suffers from retinopathy, a disease causing vision loss and blindness. Problems occur when high blood sugar causes cells to swell and leak, damaging the retina. Because symptoms aren’t always perceptible at early stages, though, many people aren’t diagnosed until the condition has already progressed.

Researchers like Hassanain Qambari and Jayden Dickson have been working toward visualizing the initial signs of retinopathy to aid in early detection, which they recently achieved in an electrifying image that won the 2023 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. A starburst-like web of red and yellow fibers sprawl across the frame, which magnifies the intricacies of a rodent’s optic nerve and offers insight into its function. “The visual system is a complex and highly specialized organ, with even relatively minor perturbations to the retinal circulation able to cause devastating vision loss,” Qambari said. “I entered the competition as a way to showcase the complexity of retinal microcirculation.”

Other submissions to the 49th-annual contest include the venomous fangs of a tarantula, gelatinous slime molds, and spiky sunflower pollen stuck to an acupuncture needle. The 2023 competition garnered nearly 1,900 submissions from 72 countries, and you can see all of the winners on Nikon. It’s also worth taking a peek at the video segment of this year’s contest, which includes striking footage of neurons forming in an embryo.

 

a yellow creature with black spines, tiny black eyes, and two orange nose holes

Sébastien Malo, crab spider (Thomisus onustus)

pink coral with orange tufts on the top

Dr. Pichaya Lertvilai, coral (Acropora granulosa) fluorescing under blue light

two black fangs emerge from thin pink fibers

John-Oliver Dum, venomous fangs of a small tarantula

yellow globs on a metal needle

John-Oliver Dum, sunflower pollen on an acupuncture needle

a pink mass with a heart shape at the center

Malgorzata Lisowska, breast cancer cells

an orange speckled mass with red forms emerging from the bottom left

Raghuram Annadana, developing stamen and stigma inside a Hibiscus flower bud

bulbous and gelatinous globs top spindly stems

Timothy Boomer, slime mold (Comatricha nigra) showing capillitial fibers through its translucent peridium

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 An Arresting Optic Nerve Tops the 2023 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition appeared first on Colossal.



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In Paris, Zanele Muholi’s Bronze Sculptures Summon the Stories of Black Queer South Africans

a sculpture of a woman with a vessel on her head

All images © Zanele Muholi, courtesy of Paris + par Art Basel, shared with permission

South African artist Zanele Muholi (previously) has spent the better part of their career challenging portraiture traditions. Often working with quotidian objects and black-and-white photography, Muholi’s works center themself and Black queer people who have long been omitted from the canon. In recent years, they’ve begun to create bronze sculptures with similar motives, some of which are on view now at The Jardin des Tuileries.

Part of Paris + par Art Basel, Muholi’s The Politics of Black Silhouettes encompasses a series of figurative works positioned alongside statues by art historical greats like Auguste Rodin and Alberto Giacometti. While the previously installed sculptures are often presented on pedestals in stately positions, Muholi’s rest directly on the ground, exploring notions of value and reverence. One work depicts a figure sleeping softly on their side, while another shows a subject bound to a chair with belt-like restraints, their hands and feet anxious to move. The artist’s intent is corrective and “to rewrite a Black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond.”

The Politics of Black Silhouettes is on view through October 31. Explore more of Muholi’s works across mediums on Instagram.

 

a figurative sculpture bound to chair sits in a garden

a detail of a bronze sculpture of woman sleeping

an abstract black and bronze sculpture in a garden

a figurative sculpture bound to a chair in a garden

a sculpture of a woman lying on the ground is next to a traditional white sculpture of a woman on a pedestal, all in a garden

two figurative and one abstract sculpture are nestled in a garden

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 In Paris, Zanele Muholi’s Bronze Sculptures Summon the Stories of Black Queer South Africans appeared first on Colossal.



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Wednesday, October 18, 2023

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.

 

A still from 'Iizuna Fair,' an animated short film. This scene shows a festival in a town.

All images © Sumito Sakakibara

A gif from 'Iizuna Fair,' an animated short film. This scene shows a group of revellers at a festival, standing around a dragon performer.

A still from 'Iizuna Fair,' an animated short film. This scene shows a festival in a town and two figures standing beside a lake.

A still from 'Iizuna Fair,' an animated short film. This scene shows an overturned car on an empty road and a figure standing in disbelief near it.

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

a cluster of wooden chairs hangs on the side of a building

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.

 

wooden chairs and furniture are woven together in a towering installation

wooden chairs and furniture are woven together in a towering installation

a cluster of wooden chairs hangs on the side of a building

a cluster of wooden chairs hangs on the side of a building

wooden chairs and furniture are woven together in a towering installation

wooden chairs and furniture are woven together in a towering installation

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 Sprawling Nest of Vintage Wooden Chairs Perches on Liaigre’s Facade in Paris appeared first on Colossal.



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A Knotted Octopus Carved Directly into Two Pianos Entwines Maskull Lasserre’s New Musical Sculpture

“The Third Octave” (2023). All images © Maskull Lasserre, shared with permission Behind the hammers and pins of most upright pianos is a ...