The Iconic ‘Silver Swan’ Automaton Gets a Well-Deserved Fluff of the Feathers

In the 250 years since its fabrication in the studio of jeweler and entrepreneur James Cox, the Silver Swan automaton has beguiled viewers. The mechanical sculpture continues to live up to its original purpose, designed as a crowd-puller to the artist’s workshop in 18th-century London, which also served as a small museum. Today, it is an iconic resident of the The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle in County Durham, U.K.

Cox modeled the life-size creature on a female swan, incorporating 2,000 moving parts, including 139 crystal rods and 113 neck rings. A slew of delicate pieces are encased in chased, repoussé silver, operated by three clockwork mechanisms that control a music box, a pool of glass with swimming silver fish, and the complex movements of the swan’s head and neck. At the 1867 Paris International Exhibition, its large scale and hefty price tag of 50,000 francs—today that would be well over $200,000—created a sensation. Five years later, the museum’s namesake, John Bowes, bought it in Paris for a tenth of that price and brought it home to the U.K.

In a video produced in 2021, a specialist team of conservators and curators painstakingly dismantled the sculpture to examine the condition of its mechanisms and create a plan for its preservation. This year, the swan is undergoing meticulous repairs and cleaning, and the museum anticipates that the work will be completed by the end of the year.

Cox also designed the well-known Peacock Clock for Catherine the Great, a treasure of the State Hermitage Museum’s collection in Russia. Learn more about the Silver Swan on The Bowes Museum’s website. (via The Kid Should See This)

 

All images © The Bowes Museum

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At a New Restaurant in South Vietnam, Dine Under a Dramatic Thatched Bamboo Canopy

Photos by Hyroyuki Oki. All images © BambuBuild

A cascading bamboo lattice shelters diners at the new Keeng Seafood Restaurant in Long Thành, Vietnam, with a nod to the local ecology. Architecture studio BambuBuild designed an elegant hall with a thatched roof evocative of a ship’s prow, supported by columns reminiscent of nipa palms, a riverside plant common in south Vietnam.

The firm was tasked with designing a structure that would be both strong and built quickly. Thanks to a tensile strength comparable to steel and a compressive strength twice as high as concrete, the medium is sometimes called “iron bamboo.” Traditionally, a pole is used as a post, beam, or truss, but BambuBuild saw potential in a shape called a hyperbolic paraboloid, also known as a hypar or “saddle”—think of the shape of a Pringle chip. Not only does this produce graceful arches and curves, but it can carry a huge load, perfect for supporting a show-stopping canopy.

See more on BambuBuild’s website. (via Designboom)

 

  

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Berndnaut Smilde Conjures Fleeting Nimbus Clouds as They Hover Indoors

“Nimbus Kunstmuseum Hal” (2021).
Photo by Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk. All images courtesy of the artist and Ronchini Gallery, shared with permission

For less than ten seconds, Berndnaut Smilde’s floating sculptures transform galleries, halls, and warehouses into uncanny spaces where indoors meets out. Puffy clouds made of smoke and water hang inside tiled interiors or industrial workshops for a brief time when they’re photographed by the artist’s collaborators. The ephemeral works are part of Smilde’s Nimbus series, ongoing for more than a decade. “I’m still fascinated by capturing a cloud. I never get bored by the process of how the appearance forms into a physical cloud, taking up space, reflecting light, and a specific moment,” he shares.

In recent years, the sculptures have become denser and larger, more imposing elements that haunt quiet spaces from Dubai to Paris to Washington, D.C. Depending on their location, the pieces take on varied meanings to explore questions of time, boundaries, and perception. Smilde explains:

The cloud is a great metaphor and it changes its context, its interpretation, with each space. The old chapel at the Hotel Maria Kapel art space in the Dutch town of Hoorn, where I made my first cloud, for example, emphasized the divine connotations, but in other environments, it could appear as an element escaped from a landscape painting, a thought, a heavenly place, a concealing element, or simply an in-between state. This fleeting aspect of the work is something I’ve embraced in my other artworks, as well. I’ve also learned not to always need to have full control over it and to accept change. A cloud isn’t durable, it changes, grows, and breaks apart.

Smilde’s work is included in a group show on view through March 17, 2024, at Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst in Otterndorf, Germany, and he’s currently creating a piece for a hotel in Amsterdam, where he’s based. Find more of his short-lived weather works on Instagram. (via Aesthetica Magazine)

 

“Nimbus De.Groen” (2017). Photo by Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

“Nimbus Katoenveem ” (2018).
Photo byCassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

“Nimbus Electriciteitsfabriek” (2022)

“Nimbus Museum De Lakenhal” (2022). Photo by Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

“Nimbus MdbK” (2021). Photo by Cassander Eeftinck Schattenkerk

“Nimbus Atlas” (2017), exhibition view
at De.Groen fine art collection

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The Largest-Ever Roman Mosaic Found in Anatolia is Revealed to Be Even More Expansive

Photos by Sercan Küçükşahin for Anadolu Ajansı

As the warmer months came to a close in İncesu, Keyseri, Turkey, archaeologists currently at work in a sprawling ancient complex announced that the Roman-era mosaics they uncovered—already recognized as the largest ever found in the region—just keep getting bigger.

İncesu sits atop the ancient town of Sadogora, or Sadacora, a late Roman and early Byzantine municipality, remnants of which were originally encountered in 2010. Initial excavations brought a series of beautiful mosaic floors to light, some bearing Latin and Greek inscriptions. Legal reasons prevented any further work until 2020, but when archaeologists resumed digging, it wasn’t long before they realized they were unearthing a site of epic proportions.

By the end of the 2021 season, ten rooms of what archaeologists are tentatively designating a 4th-century Roman villa of great significance, boasted more than 3,000 square feet of mosaic floors in excellent condition. This year, the excavation more than doubled its surface area, exposing 6,500 square feet of mosaics out of a total 43,000 square feet that has been excavated across the entire site.

Can Erpek, a professor of Byzantine art and archaeology at Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University, posits that the site may have been an imperial structure, perhaps belonging to rulers or administrators of the region. He says, “We are talking about a high-end residence spread over a very large area; a residence with 33 rooms, (and) we have not reached the limits of this residence. We foresee that the current residence will expand even further with our excavations that will continue next year.” (via The History Blog)

 

 

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Comically Candid Snapshots Culminate in the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Photo © Jacek Stankiewicz. All images courtesy of Comedy Wildlife 2023, shared with permission

A young greenfinch gets scolded, human legs propel a batfish forward, and a kangaroo shreds on an air guitar in this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Created in 2015, the annual contest (previously) is an effort to empathize with the wildlife around us while calling to attention the threats they face. With thousands of entries from around the world every year, the deluge of delightful images serves as a reminder that animals and humans have plenty in common, from idiosyncratic personas and comical clumsiness to the Earth we share.

A gallery showcasing the 2023 finalists is available on the competition’s website, where there is still time to vote for the People’s Choice Award.

 

Photo © Danielle Goonan

Photo © Jason Moore

Photo © Dakota Vaccaro

Photo © Jacques Poulard

Photo © Wendy Kaveney

Photo © Thomas Vijayan

Photo © Otter Kwek

Photo © Adrian Slazok

Photo © Delphine Casimir

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Sebastian Foster Announces 30 Artists and For Their Eclectic Fall Print Set

Anne Siems

Austin-based gallery Sebastian Foster just announced its 2023 Fall Print Set, marking the 11th anniversary of the collection since it launched in 2012. The new release features 30 works by well-established illustrators, printmakers, and painters from across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Japan, and Europe. Half of the artists have worked with the gallery for years, while the other half are guests who joined just for this collection.

This set features 30 works all published as relatively small editions, hand-signed and numbered by the artists. Encompassing an eclectic array of mediums and themes, the collection showcases work from artists previously featured on Colossal, including Graham Franciose’s dreamlike watercolor works, Diana Sudyka’s fanciful storybook scenes, and Grant Haffner’s vibrant, flat landscapes bisected by his signature utility poles.

Now online-only, Sebastian Foster focuses on original works and prints, publishing over 1,000 editions since opening in the late 2000s. Whether you’re looking for the next piece to add to your collection or for meaningful holiday gifts, head to the gallery’s site to shop the Fall Print Set today.

 

Daneil Freaker

Diana Sudyka

Elena Burykina

Fabian Lavater

Matthew Gagnon

Mia Bergeron

Michael McGrath

Daniel Ellison

Susan Abbott

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Our Favorite Art Books of 2023

We’ve started to think about finding the perfect gifts for our loved ones and bet you have, too, which is why we’re sharing the first part of our Colossal Year in Review series a little bit early. Below, you’ll find our staff’s favorite art books published this year, from artist monographs, surveys, and historical reflections to prove that art really does make the world a better place.

The titles below are on our shortlist, so head to Bookshop to check out what else made the cut.

 

Book of Earth: A Guide to Ochre, Pigment, and Raw Color

Heidi Gustafson of the Early Futures Ochre Archive takes us on a journey through rare pigments and their landscapes in a celebration of the unique qualities of earthen materials. Each chapter is dedicated to an aspect of her massive collection, which contains more than 600 samples. Captivating and insightful, 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.

 

Simone Leigh

The first monograph of the pioneering artist’s work, Simone Leigh encompasses two decades of Leigh’s sculptures, videos, and installations, all of which center on Black women and the aesthetics of Africa and the African diaspora. The book also coincides with the artists’s first major museum survey, which is currently on tour across the U.S., and contains writings by some of today’s most brilliant thinkers.

 

An Indigenous Present

Works by more than 60 artists comprise this monumental survey, which renders solid a new paradigm of representation and visibility of Native North American art. The nearly 450-page book is filled with bold full-color images that explore myriad practices focused on contemporary art, music, filmmaking, choreography, architecture, writing, photography, design, and more.

 

Groundswell: Women of Land Art 

This groundbreaking volume is corrective and celebratory as it highlights the women artists who changed the genre. Spanning 256 pages, Groundswell encompasses works by renowned artists like Ana Mendieta, Nancy Holt, and Agnes Dean, who used untraditional and organic materials in their practices and gravitated toward the earth itself as a site for their works.

 

Seth, On Walls

French artist Julien Malland, a.k.a. Seth Globepainter, takes us on a journey through a decade of his resilient and youthful subjects, many of which are enveloped by color and playful optical illusions. The monograph features many of the artist’s most impactful murals and emphasizes how imagination could be the key to solving many of the world’s ills.

 

Luna Luna: The Art Amusement Park

Opened in 1987, Luna Luna was the first-ever art amusement park, and it was brimming with rides and kiosks designed by some of the most recognizable names in 20th-century art history like David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, and Salvador Dalí. This re-issue contains information about and photos of the public spectacle, along with cover drawings commissioned by the artists.

 

Birds of the World: The Art of Elizabeth Gould 

Elizabeth Gould is known for her vibrant illustrations of birds that paired with her husband’s ornithological studies and was overlooked for her contributions during her lifetime. A corrective book that recognizes Gould for her immense talent, Birds of the World is a celebration of the artist’s legacy and contains 220 vivid renderings depicting myriad species, from a speckled vulturine guineafowl and chromatic crimson rosella to a slender-beaked glossy ibis.

 

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us

We intuitively know that art affects us, but how exactly? Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross dive into the connection between art and health in this illuminating book that details a range of positive outcomes, from museum visits aiding people suffering from dementia to playing music to build cognitive skills. It’s an essential read for anyone interested in the real-world impact of art.

 

Shop all of the Best Art Books of 2023 on Bookshop.

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