the shadow images above were already familiar to me from an anonymous google search a while back, but now i know who made them… japanese artist kumi yamashita
however there is much more classy work to be admired from this very talented artist, like these ‘rubbings’ made with old credit card embossed type (below)
not to mention these incredible portraits (above & below) made with steel tacks and thread… simply amazing
and finally these ‘warp and weft’ images created by stripping threads from pieces of denim material… check the website out for more of this outstanding portfolio
…through challenging camera angles Menno Aden abstracts most familiar actual living environments and public interiors into flattened two-dimensional scale models. A camera that the artist installed on the ceiling of various rooms takes pictures downwards of the interiors. The resulting images lay out space in symmetrical compositions that look like assemblages stripped off any kind of objectivity. The views into private homes and secret retreats bring up associations of the ubiquitous observation camera. The notion of surveillance is systematically played out by the artist to hint at society’s voyeuristic urge that popular culture has made mainstream…
some wonderful, unusual room portraits by menno aden
(many thanks to ‘uwe’for the inspiring link)
last week i spent a few days visiting the latest (and much criticised) edition of the (5 yearly) ‘documenta’ art festival in kassel, germany
these are the final projects which i apparently found interesting enough to photograph (and therefore blog about) the first was a series of more than 900 hand painted portraits of apples made by a monk korbinian aiger who was imprisoned at ‘dachau’ concentration camp during the second world war and whilst interred there managed to create several new breeds of apple, one of which is still around today… aiger spent years creating these beautiful apple images and although they are by biology standards not the most accurate depictions, they are still regarded as one of the most important collections in their sort, seeing them all together was quite overwhelming
secondly i was drawn into a performance project (and forced to take part) by american artist ‘michael portnoy’ the performance included more than 40 people, a giant mud spaceship and some new age crystals… difficult to explain if you weren’t there, to give you an idea of who he is see this clip where he first became well known by interrupting a live performance by none other than bob dylan back in the 1990’s, amazing how cool dylan remains throughout…
of course writing about these project doesn’t come anywhere near to the experience one undergoes when actually seeing them (see also these previous related entries here and here)
a new project from taylor holland (see related post here) this latest one is entitled frames and is an observation on the ‘peripheral’ beauty in classical paintings from ‘the louvre’, put otherwise he has taken out the paintings and filled the frame with the frame…
