Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
As an apparent statement against overly sugary children’s cereal (a box of Frosted Flakes is 37% sugar) and because it’s “Grrrrreeeeaaat!”, Ron English created this Fat Tony figure, which he then promoted by planting it on the appropriate shelf at an LA supermarket. According to Clutter Magazine, this Fat Tony will be released as a toy, limited to 500 pieces with more limited followup editions available later. After the jump, watch a couple of classic Frosted Flakes ads, featuring a slimmer (but no less ridiculous) Tony the Tiger, Superman and horseback riding. via Vinyl Pulse
Currently housed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Chris Burden spent four years making “Metropolis II” – a 10 feet tall sculpture of a city with 1,200 toy cars whirring around tracks at high speeds. According to a recent NPR article, Burden, who originally made his name as a performance artist, said that it goes back to “making an object, but an object that is performative.” He also says that Metropolis II fits more into the mainstream than some of his other work, stating “I don’t think you need to have an art history background to understand this sculpture.” The cars of Metropolis II, which move as fast as 230 miles per hour, occasionally find themselves in traffic jams (just like in real life) and an operator is ever present to switch off the machine and get things back in order. After the cacophony of white noise created by all the motion, the silence left by turning it all off is, in contrast, horrific – the emptiness left by an absence of life. In the short documentary below from Supermarche, Burden says “it wasn’t about trying to make this scale model of something. It was more to evoke the energy of a city.”
Artist Bartholomäus Traubeck created this piece, titled “Years,” by rigging his record player’s tone arm with a PlayStation Eye camera so he could take a disc of wood – a thin cross section of a tree – and listen to it as if it were an LP. The rings of years are picked up by the camera and and translated through Ableton Live to give them life in sound. The result: a beautiful, sad and eerie piano concerto. YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo. via Boing Boing
In the same dictatorial vein as our Little Giants figures of Mao Zedong and Vladimir Lenin, artist Stephen Ives has twisted the classic Mr. Potato Head concept to embody the images of some of history’s most pertinent iron-fist rulers: Saddam Hussein, Hitler, Kim Jong Il, Vladmir Lenin, and others. These figures are pretty incredible looking, and, in the spirit of Mr. Potato Head, their accessories appear to be fully interchangeable.
via Beautiful Decay
See…I told you so. Artist Fabian Ciraolo created these illustrations, mashing old pop culture icons and with modern hipster swagger. Whereas we design Little Giants of Frida and Dali, he makes them like rock stars. In Ciraolo’s world, none are safe. Through his art, Ciraolo has morphed cultural figures ranging from Cleopatra and Gandhi to Care Bears and Captain Planet. Check out more of his work here.
S Bahn from Zeitbezogene Medien HAW Hamburg on Vimeo. This surreal animated short film, titled “S Bahn,” by artist Marcus Neidel, features animated alien characters communing to work on the German metro rail. The video was made in collaboration with German design school, Zeitbezogene Medien HAW Hamburg . Riding the New York subways, it’s easy to drift into daydream scenes such as this, but Neidel really nails the feeling with these creatures and their side stories. Follow this link to check out more of Neidel’s work.
Artist Phil Hansen, skilled at creating art based on pop culture figures, illustrated this copy of a self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh. That may be commonplace on its face, but Hansen’s piece is comprised of over 1000 stories taken from conversations, videos, emails, Facebook and other web submissions – all relating to the theme, “something that shocked you or caused disbelief.” Here is a portion of the illustration at full zoom:
People’s responses varied from “when one of my good friends drowned in a lake” to “finding out that my sister and I did not have the same father.” He compiled the responses and, over 90 hours, drew all of them into the picture, which he then exhibited at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival in Denver Colorado. See the video of the making-of below. This is inspiring, not so much due to the aesthetic of the piece itself, but for the concept, the metaphor, the Web 2.0 of it. It highlights the importance of people’s stories being an integral part of a piece of art, a product, a pop figure, or just a human – a point in time. People have a need to broadcast these stories, in whatever medium. Hansen decided to shape them into this one. In theory, everything we create, own and do should have a story worth telling. These people have a multitude of stories that they may not have told otherwise. Now they have. We also appreciate that he chose to use Van Gogh, being that he’s one of our favorite Little Giants. [via Neatorama]
Artist Kyle Bean made these weapons out of harmless materials for a collection he titled “Soft Guerilla” for a spread in CUT Magazine. My favorite, by far, is the jello grenade, but I’ve got to admit that the melty popsicle time bomb is making me wish it were a warm summer day. Pretty cool stuff and a smart concept.
Infamous and controversial street artist, Banksy posted this CCTV mobile - just in time for the holiday season. You know, for kids. It’s a DIY project “not available in the shops.” All you need is some “wood, string, plastic tube, nails, [and, of course,] lead paint.” In keeping with Banksy tradition, the inherent commentary here is pretty thick. “Total assembly required. Keep out of reach of children.”
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