Ethereal Paper Sculptures and Large-Scale Installations by Ayumi Shibata Play With Light and Shadow

All images © Ayumi Shibata, shared with permission

Japan-based artist Ayumi Shibata (previously) designs intricate landscapes using layers upon layers of white paper. Some of her sculptures are miniature, whereas others are immersive installations, and all are brought to life with the play of light and shadow, which create “movement” throughout her pieces. The works feature architectural domes, cave-like forests, and swirling suns hovering over tree-filled cities. These picturesque places aren’t based on a particular location but what the artist “hopes and believes the future of the planet could look like”.

Shibata’s ethereal landscapes envision a world in which humans and natural forms coexist, and she describes her pieces as having a “Yin and Yang” element. Paper represents Yin, the material, and the ways the works emit shadows correlates to Yang, the invisible world. “The light represents spirit and life, how the sun rises and breathes life into the world,” she explains. “I believe my pieces are a place to observe the material world and the visible one.”

The physical elements have a deeper meaning for the artist, as well: In Japanese, Kami means god or spirit but also paper, a sacred material in the Shinto religion. “Invisible ‘Kami’ spirits dwell in various objects and events, places, as well as in our houses and in our bodies,” she says. “I use my technique to express my thankfulness to the Kami spirits for having been born in this life. Each piece of paper I cut is a prayer.”

 

Shibata began constructing these sculptures when living in New York. She would visit a church to meditate and escape the noise of the city, and it was when she observed light illuminating stained glass that she was reminded of her love of working with paper. The artist explains:

The city was full of noise. Everything, people, time goes so fast and moves rapidly, and I needed a quiet space to go back to myself. One day, I opened my eyes after meditation and saw colorful light flooding the floor through the stained glass. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It reminded me of a memory from childhood where I used to cut black paper and stick colored cellophane behind it to make a ‘paper’ stained glass piece. I got the tools on my way home and tried it that night. From that moment, I continued to cut paper.

Currently, Shibata is working on an installation called “Inochino-uta, Poetry of Life,” for an exhibition later this year. The large-scale project is made out of 108 pieces of paper connected by strings and suspended from the ceiling. To view more of the artist’s work, visit her Instagram or website.

 

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Wooden Apple Sculptures by Yosuke Amemiya Melt Into Succulent Puddles

All images ©Yosuke Amemiya, shared with permission

An apple oozing into a flat puddle or a round bulge is likely a sign of softening and rot, although the fruits carved by Yosuke Amemiya retain their supple, juicy freshness despite their melting appearance. The artist, who moved to Yamanashi, Japan, from Berlin a month ago, shapes succulent pieces and paints their likeness with reds, yellows, and speckles of brown discoloration. He’s amassed dozens of the intriguing fruits since he began creating the pieces in 2004—originally he used FRP and plastic before switching to wood—and likens the process to “trying to create human universality through the apple.” The sculptures are a small portion of Amemiya’s practice, which you can delve into on his site. (via Escape Kit)

 

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Painted Ants Crawl Across Vintage Porcelain Dinnerware by Evelyn Bracklow

All images © Evelyn Bracklow, shared with permission

Trimmed with gold and minuscule insects, Evelyn Bracklow’s porcelain dinnerware is equal parts pristine opulence and repulsion. The German artist (previously) hand-paints vintage pieces with tiny black ants that congregate over an imaginary morsel left on a plate and crawl along the mouth of a pitcher, transforming the ceramic vessels into distasteful displays.

Bracklow began adding the detailed creatures to found platters, teapots, and plates approximately 10 years ago and has made hundreds of the works since—shop the few pieces she has available on Etsy. “(Painting the ants) totally made sense to me on an aesthetical level. It was and still is a physical experience to paint or watch the ants move across objects,” she says. “It`s this feeling of the supposed movements, of the slight shuddering that always gives way to admiration for the animal and its ever new formations.”

Currently, Bracklow is working on a few large-scale projects, including a multi-faceted initiative called Antology, and she recently completed a collection of ant-laden figurines and other sculptural objects, which you can explore on her site.

 

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Intricate Cross-Hatching Layers Elena Limkina’s Exquisite Illustrations in Black Ink

All images © Elena Limkina, shared with permission

From her studio in Moscow, Elena Limkina (previously) illustrates pages upon pages of sketchbooks with delicate studies of birds, architectural flourishes, and surreal compositions that trap cats and small mice inside glass vessels. She’s spent a decade drawing these elegant compositions, and while they originally functioned as diaries filled with objects, phrases, and impressions she encountered throughout her day, they’ve evolved into narratives unto themselves with recurring characters and motifs.

Frequently working in watercolor, the artist uses solely black ink, pencil, or pen in her sketchbooks, and the meticulous illustrations are shaded with circular crosshatching. “I like the complexity of the task—to convey feelings, emotions, form, without using color,” she says. “I use some parts of the sketches in intaglio printing (etchings, aquatint), and I would like to transfer some of them to large canvases and sculptures in the future.”

Limkina sells originals and prints on Etsy, and you can explore an archive of her monochromatic works on Instagram and Behance.

 

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Sinister Storms and Twisters Disturb Rural Landscapes in Dramatic Black-and-White Photos by Mitch Dobrowner

“Lightning Cotton Field.” All images © Mitch Dobrowner, courtesy of photo-eye Gallery, shared with permission

Shooting solely in black-and-white, Mitch Dobrowner (previously) documents storm cells, tornadoes, and other menacing weather events at peak destruction. Funnel clouds plunge to the ground in spindly tunnels and churning clouds frame bright bolts of lightning. Photographed in the plains and rural regions, the images highlight a range of ominous occurrences on the horizon, a chaotic contrast to the tight rows of cotton and calm, agricultural landscapes in the foreground. To see more of Dobrowner’s storm-chasing excursions, visit photo-eye Gallery and Instagram and watch this interview for insight into his adventures.

 

“Vortex No. Duae”

“Funnel Cornfield”

“Tornado over Plains”

“Trees Clouds”

“Saucer Over Grasslands”

“White Tornado”

“Storm Over Sierra Nevada”

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A Photo Series Captures a Magnificent Rock Formation Set Against the Tateyama Mountains

All images © Yasuto Inagaki, shared with permisison

With the imposing Tateyama Mountain Range in the backdrop, a photo series by Yasuto Inagaki centers on a smaller, recurring focal point: a few trees that have sprung from the top of cragged rocks. Inagaki, who lives in Japan’s Toyama Prefecture, visits Mount Inaba in Oyabe City often to capture the unusual formation among different weather, times of day, and seasons. Some shots show the sun just atop the mountains as it reflects in the water below, while others document bright daylight illuminating the snowy backdrop and an airplane flying in the distance. “The first time I encountered a miraculous scene like this one,” he tells Colossal,” the city was covered in fog, and the moon was shining brightly on the Tateyama Mountain Range…I have visited the shooting several times.”

For more of Inagaki’s photos, which include striking vistas and cityscapes around Japan, visit his Instagram.

 

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Interview: Artist Shantell Martin Discusses the Power of a Single Line and Why Positivity Is Her Biggest Inspiration

All images © Shantell Martin, by Connie Tsang, shared with permission

Shantell Martin has been exploring the magic in a single line since childhood, working primarily in black-and-white to inscribe walls, canvases, and other objects with abstracted faces and affirmational text. In a new interview supported by Colossal Members, managing editor Grace Ebert spoke with Martin about the vast potential of that seemingly minimal form, the joy and fun of collaborating for the sake of collaborating, and her unwavering approach to positive thinking.

I’ve been on this journey, trying to make a recognizable line. What if my line becomes so recognizable that it’s one of the most recognizable artist lines on the planet? ? There’s something so profound about that because literally, we can all make those marks… The foundation of a line is something that’s represented in architecture, design, and in fashion. You can build upon it and imagine upon it in any way that you choose to.

Inviting, accessible, and universally relevant, her monochromatic drawings are prompts for the viewer: Who are you? Are you you? She continually asks for introspection, for better articulating our positions in the world, and for questioning the structures around us, a practice she mirrors in her own life and work. In this conversation, Martin recounts her early career in Japan, shares how she’s cultivated an intense ability to focus, and explains why challenge is the impetus for many of her new projects.

 

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