Monday, November 13, 2023

A Documentary Follows Biologists Fighting Ravens with Lasers and Decoys to Save Desert Tortoises

In 1990, the desert tortoise landed on the federal endangered species list following decades of decline. Expanding human populations in the western U.S. encroached on wild habitats and brought more ravens to the Mojave Desert—the large, black birds are known to scavenge for food and have a particular taste for young reptiles. Coupled with the effects of the climate crisis, these changes rapidly propelled the species toward extinction.

Conservation biologist Tim Shields has studied desert tortoises for decades and recently decided to intervene in this lopsided predator-prey relationship. In a short documentary for The New Yorker titled “Eco-Hack!,” Shields explains the innovative and non-lethal tactics his team uses for “educating” ravens and deterring them from attacking the reptiles. Green lasers, 3D-printed decoy shells, and explosive sprays all come into play in an effort to train the birds to find alternative food sources.

The strategies are more irritating than harmful to the ravens but already have had significant payoffs: more babies are now roaming the arid landscape, meaning their intervention is working to protect the slow-moving creatures that are particularly vulnerable in the first three years of life. “If we don’t want a really lonely planet that’s just us and ravens and rats and cockroaches, we have a whole ton of work to do,” he adds.

Josh Izenberg and Brett Marty produced “Eco-Hack!,” and you can find the full story behind the film in The New Yorker.

 

a still showing a hand holding the top of a decoy tortoise shell with a spraying mechanism at the center

Tim holds a dead tortoise

a decoy shell sprays a raven

a tortoise in the desert

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 Documentary Follows Biologists Fighting Ravens with Lasers and Decoys to Save Desert Tortoises appeared first on Colossal.



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Sonya Clark Uses Common Fibers to Weaves Together Craft, Community, and Activism

a grid of braided hairstyles

“The Hair Craft Project: Hairstyles on Canvas” (2014), silk threads, beads, shells, and yarn on canvas, nine at 29 × 29 inches and two at 33 × 33 inches. All images courtesy of High Museum, shared with permission

In a poem devoted to the singer and activist Paul Robeson, Gwendolyn Brooks writes, “We are each other’s harvest, we are each other’s business, we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Sonya Clark draws on Brooks’ words in her mid-career retrospective at the High Museum as she wields the power of collaborative making to illuminate issues of racism, sexism, and capitalist imperatives.

Titled We Are Each Other, the exhibition encompasses 25 years of the artist’s participatory works that highlight the inextricable links between craft and community. Fiber becomes both a connective tissue and transmitter in Clark’s oeuvre, which uses materials like books, hair, found fabrics, and flags to untangle the narratives and structural inequities of American life. “How do we address and challenge our shared colonial past, and how do we hold ourselves accountable for and claim agency in what happens next in the future of our society?” she asks.

 

a stack of books with an open-book sculpture on top featuring cut out hands in fists

Detail of “Solidarity Book Project” (2020–present)

Included in We Are Each Other are several works created in collaboration. “The Hair Craft Project,” for example, photographs stylists’ elaborate braided designs done on Clark’s head to both celebrate their artistry and connect contemporary hairdressing with broader textile traditions. Similarly, a large-scale portrait uses more than 3,000 plastic combs to portray Madame C.J. Walker, the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in the U.S. by establishing an immensely successful hair-care business. Walker then used much of her wealth to advocate against lynching and race-based violence, and Clark’s depiction honors this impulse toward activism and unity.

Other pieces on view are “Unraveling,” a performance-based work that asks volunteers to deconstruct symbolic objects like the Confederate flag, and a portion of the ongoing “Solidarity Book Project.” Emphasizing the importance of reading and knowledge sharing, this project offers instructions for carving a raised fist, the symbol of Black liberation, from the pages of a book.

We Are Each Other is on view through February 18, 2024, in Atlanta. Dive deeper into Clark’s works by picking up the exhibition catalog and checking out her Instagram.

 

a woman with a floral-like braided hairstyle stands with her back to the camera, while another woman smiles in the background

“The Hair Craft Project: Hairstylists with Sonya: Sonya Clark with Jamilah Williams” (2013), inkjet photograph, 28 × 28 inches. Photo by Naoko Wowsugi

an abstract portrait of a woman in black and white

“Madam C. J. Walker” (2008), combs, 122 × 87 inches

A grid of portraits with one woman with her back turned to the camera and other women blurred in the backdrop

“The Hair Craft Project: Sonya with Kamala Bhagat, Dionne James Eggleston, Marsha Johnson, Chaunda King, Anita Hill Moses, Nasirah Muhammad, Jameika and Jasmine Pollard, Ingrid Riley, Ife Robinson, Natasha Superville, and Jamilah Williams” (2014), pigment prints on archival paper, eleven framed, 30 × 30 inches each

black hair combs

Detail of “Madam C. J. Walker” (2008), combs, 122 × 87 inches

a bench in front of a bookshelf in a gallery

“Solidarity Book Project” (2023), installation view. Photo by Alphonso Whitfield

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 Sonya Clark Uses Common Fibers to Weaves Together Craft, Community, and Activism appeared first on Colossal.



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Contemplative Women Emerge Through Subtle Grids in Stelios Pupet’s Paintings

a woman with a large sunhat stands in a garden surrounded by cacti. the painting is gridded

“Les murmures du jardin,” oil on canvas, 200 x 200 centimeters. Photo by Auryn F. All images © Stelios Pupet, shared with permission

Whether working on a wall or canvas, artist Stelios Pupet begins with a grid. What starts as uniform blocks slowly morph into varied, angular shapes as he works, adding depth and structure to his largely figurative compositions. Viewed through the subtle distortion of the grid, his subjects are often crouching amid cacti and potted plants or curled into themselves in moments of contemplation. He describes his process:

I am focusing on creating a nice image, different or contemporary and easy on the eye. Sometimes, there is a personal story behind a canvas or a painting on a wall that makes the artwork more powerful or important (to me at least)…I believe that if you give everything in the creation of an artwork, somehow a part of you is captured and in this way, feelings are being created (for) the viewer.

Following a busy few months of working on murals across Europe, Pupet is currently creating a small piece in a park near his home in Athens. Follow his progress on Instagram.

 

a woman's back is turned to the viewer as she grasps a potted plant on the floor

“Amongst Greenery,” oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters

a close up of a woman wearing a sunhat

Detail of “Les murmures du jardin,” oil on canvas, 200 x 200 centimeters

an aerial view of a robot like character mural amid rubble

“MR Tlaloc,” Athens. Photo by Dimitris Maniatis

a mural of a crouching woman with a large sunhat surrounded by cacti

“Amidst the Cacti,” Zaragoza, Spain. Photo by Marcos Cebrián

A grid-like portrait of a stern woman looking directly at the viewer

Remake of the Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painting, “Portrait of Madamme Gaudry” (1864), acrylic and crayons on canvas , 40 x 40 centimeters

an aerial view of a mural of a woman curled up on a blue background

“Solitude of Contemplation,” Antonis Tritsis Metropolitan Park, Athens

A woman on a wooden chair with her legs pulled up. All on a gridded purple backdrop

Study for the canvas “They keep coming,” gouache on paper, 25 x 18 centimeters

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 Contemplative Women Emerge Through Subtle Grids in Stelios Pupet’s Paintings appeared first on Colossal.



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Thursday, November 9, 2023

Mist Casts the Hudson Valley in a Mysterious Light in Andrew Moore’s Atmospheric Photographs

A misty photograph of sheep among some trees at sunrise.

“Jill’s Keep, Rhinebeck, NY” (2021). All images © Andrew Moore, courtesy of Yancey Richardson, shared with permission

Sheep wander through the morning mist in Rhinebeck and storm clouds ebb over a waterway in dreamlike photographs by Andrew Moore. Known for his in-depth, long-term series that document natural places and the built environment, Moore’s work has focused on the evolution of places like Bosnia, the American South, or Cuba as they evolve over time. In his forthcoming solo exhibition Whiskey Point and Other Tales at Yancey Richardson, Moore delves into the Hudson Valley region of Upstate New York in a group of large-scale, atmospheric landscapes.

Nodding to the legacy of the Hudson River School painters, Moore hones in on the natural beauty of the region while also considering its historical significance. Whiskey Point, for example, which inspired the show’s title, is a strip of land that obtrudes into the Hudson River, formed when its surrounding soil was removed for brick production in the latter half of the 19th century. The spot is encompassed by Sojourner Truth State Park, designated in 2019 and named for the African American abolitionist and suffragette who was born nearby into slavery nearby, in 1797.

Moore examines the myriad histories and lore of the area from the perspective of an omniscient wanderer, capturing various times of day, landmarks, and weather from a range of vantage points. He emphasizes the constancy of change and the sense of anticipation spurred by a new day or a bend in the road, revealing what an exhibition statement calls “different kinds of lineages” that connect the present to the past.

Whiskey Point and Other Tales opens November 16 and continues through January 4, 2024. See more on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

A misty photograph of car headlines coming around a curve in the road.

“Platte Kill Clove” (2021)

A misty photograph near Trap Cliff, Barrytown, New York.

“Trap Cliff, Barrytown” (2023)

Misty "rain sprites" dancing after a storm.

“Rain Sprites, Clinton” (2021)

A misty, nighttime photograph of a stairwell at Rhinecliff Station in New York.

“Rhinecliff Station” (2021)

A misty morning photograph at Vlei Marsh in Upstate New York.

“Little Vlei, Rhinebeck” (2022)

A photograph taken at either dawn or twilight of a road in Upstate New York. Red light, like from the tail lights of a car, shine on road sides and a white house.

“Ferry Road” (2023)

A misty photograph of some trees and the corner of an ornate building.

“Empire in Fog, Rhinebeck”

A landscape photograph of Burger Hill in Upstate New York, featuring a large, white house and stormy clouds in the distance.

“Burger Hill” (2021)

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 Mist Casts the Hudson Valley in a Mysterious Light in Andrew Moore’s Atmospheric Photographs appeared first on Colossal.



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A Choir From Clay: Colorful Textures Swathe Carlos Cabo’s Ebullient Ceramic Figures

A group of tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in a variety of patterns.

All images © Carlos Cabo, shared with permission

Elegant, richly textured garments cloak artist Carlos Cabo’s enchanting ceramic figures (previously), showcasing the endless possibilities of clay. Tall and slender, the figures sport a wide variety of styles, donning button-down tunics, dresses, neck ties, and hats. While each one is unique, they are drawn together by a synchronic gesture: mouths open wide, they sing toward the sky.

Cabo gathers his material from the countryside around his home in Salinas, Spain, then works it into column-like figures and geometric forms. He considers the texture to be “the skin of the piece,” differentiating each from its companions while also emphasizing their similarities and a sense of unity.

Find more on Cabo’s website and Instagram.

 

A group of 10 tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in a variety of patterns.

A group of 4 tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in white.

A group of 6 tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in white, some wearing ties. The artist is shown working on one, showing their large scale, approximately three feet high.

A group of ceramic spiral sculptures with a variety of textures.

A group of tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in a variety of patterns.

A group of tall, slender, abstract figurative sculptures adorned in white.

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 Choir From Clay: Colorful Textures Swathe Carlos Cabo’s Ebullient Ceramic Figures appeared first on Colossal.



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Wednesday, November 8, 2023

Toon Joosen Splices Snapshots of ’60s Life into Tongue-in-Cheek Collages

people rest on lily pads like they're a beachfront

“Oh, island in the sun.” All images © Toon Joosen, shared with permission

Artist Toon Joosen (previously) continues his retro mashups, splicing two distinct images into ironic and amusing juxtapositions. Having amassed an enormous archive of magazines and newspapers from the 1960s, Joosen tends to identify a pair of clippings “that together strengthen or alienate the whole,” he says. Through warped perspectives and exaggerated scales, the resulting collages reveal the artist’s signature wit as they depict people lounging on massive lilypads, a young boy spraying whipped cream on a beach, and a fisherman reeling in love.

Joosen sells his collages as prints, cards, and more on Etsy, and you can follow his latest creations on Instagram.

 

people appear to climb corrugated cardboard

“Let’s take the stairs”

two kids appear to carry of a bucket of words from a page

“Let’s make a story of our own!”

a kid appears to spray whip cream on a beach full of people

“It’s the same boy who puts snow on mountaintops”

a man fishes in a boat and reels in the word "love" from a book page

“True love that’s a wonder these days …”

a person appears to grab a red rope that's dangling from a map

“Hold on, I’m coming …”

a kid sits on a heap of words on a page

“I still haven’t found what i’m looking for…”

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 Toon Joosen Splices Snapshots of ’60s Life into Tongue-in-Cheek Collages appeared first on Colossal.



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Open Planet Is a Growing Library of 4,500 Free Videos Documenting Nature and Climate Issues Around the World

Climate science has a communication problem. Abstract data, figures, and projections into the distant future can be tough to comprehend. Without effective storytelling tools to convey the severity of the crisis and what’s at stake if we don’t act, it can be difficult to motivate the broader public to advocate for change.

The team at Open Planet wants to bridge that gap. A collaboration between Studio Silverback and  Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE Lab, the new digital library contains a growing collection of climate and nature footage available for free use. Open Planet currently boasts some 4,500 clips that travel around the globe, from Bird Island off the Georgian coast to Brazil’s Jamari River to Pangti Village in western India. Documenting animals, plants, landscapes, and more, the footage is diverse in subject matter and captures visual evidence of some of the most pressing issues facing the world today. Director Colin Butfield shares:

As filmmakers, we know stories can be powerful agents of change, and with the window for action rapidly closing to address the planetary emergency, there’s never been a greater need for compelling, authentic storytelling. Open Planet will not only present the causes and impacts of climate change and nature loss but also the incredible ingenuity of those driving innovation to keep crucial sustainability targets within reach.

While some videos were created specifically for the platform, others are submitted by filmmakers, broadcasters, and production companies, and new footage is added daily. “Our immediate focus is to significantly grow the Open Planet footage library to cover a wider range of issues and regions globally so that more stories can be told to more audiences,” says Bethany Hutchings, who leads communications and content. “Crucially, our content needs to then reach changemakers around the world to deliver impact on a greater scale.”

Open Planet recently released its first collection focused on India, which has already reached more than 400 million viewers, and the full library is set to launch early next year.

 

a bird with blue feathers perches on wood

a blue ocean expanse

a woman holds a sapling

a snowy mountain

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 Open Planet Is a Growing Library of 4,500 Free Videos Documenting Nature and Climate Issues Around the World 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 ...