crossmedia studio
the proposal by andreev and britanishskaya envisions a new form comprising of over 5,000 square meters of exhibition space laid out over five spiral floors, with a dynamic laser show in which each spiral step represents one thousand years of maltese history. the proposal has been submitted to the maltese authorities and andreev describes the project as ‘a perfect monument and symbol of the fusion of modernity and nature, of time and history, and a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit.’
during the oerol festival on terschelling island, the netherlands, studio elmo vermijs installed ‘grounded’, a project that resulted from a long-term inventory of the polder. with the meadow birds as the indicator, the designer investigated the wellbeing of this ancient cultural landscape that is under increasing pressure. two separate works, ‘soundmirror’ and ‘perspective’, show how the area transformed from sea to polder and production ground, and how the fate of the meadow bird changed with it.
Eric Rieger, known by the moniker HOTTEA (previously), is a graffiti writer turned installation artist whose medium of choice is yarn. With it, he creates colorful large-scale works inspired by the moments, experiences, and people in his life. Whether flowing down from the ceiling of a gallery, or interlaced across the top of a pedestrian pathway, Rieger’s installations always hold a connection to his past and those who helped shape it.
“Color to me represents memories and experiences,” Rieger told Colossal, “so in a way it is always in play. It all depends on what really strikes me at the moment of the installation.” When asked about his process, the artist revealed that it’s largely inspiration and concept that dictates form. “I have always let life unravel itself naturally and that informs my artistic practice. I let the space and my thoughts guide me, and from there I create a design based on what I am going through at the time.”
Riusuke Fukahori (previously) has long admired the appearance of goldfish, immortalizing realistic depictions of the small creature in layers of acrylic and resin. Previously Fukahori has focused on paintings of goldfish moving inside of Japanese household objects such as bamboo hats, wooden sake cups, and handmade bowls. For his new Irobukuro series his inspiration has turned to imitating the vessels and scenery of Mong Kok’s Goldfish Market in Hong Kong, where rows of colorful fish line stall after stall. For the included works he molds resin to resemble plastic bags filled with water. Instead of realistically depicting the detailed scales, eyes, and fins of the fish Fukahori paints abstractly to capture how a goldfish glides through the water.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City has selected Kulapat Yantrasast and wHY Architecture to renovate its Michael C. Rockefeller wing. With arts produced in Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the 40,000-square-foot wing is located on the southern side of the Fifth Avenue museum. The $70 million project aim is showcase the collection of arts and artifacts from sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.
If you feel that you are peeking into somebody else’s dreams when looking at Swedish photographer Gabriel Isak’s work then your instincts are spot on. Isak’s hypnotic, cryptic photographs are inspired by the inner world of dreams. Often featuring solitary figures whose faces are obscured, they depict surreal, hallucinatory scenes full of melancholy, apprehension and bewilderment in an attempt to lyrically convey the gist of human experience. Drawing from his own subconscious, Isak invites viewers to project their own deep-seated fears and desires onto the enigmatical scenarios he has soulfully recreated. Channeling the surrealist art of René Magritte, the photographs tap into our unconscious states initiating a process of soul searching and dream interpretation. Yatzer recently caught up with Isak to talk about his dreamlike work, his ‘psychoanalytical’ approach to photography, and his affinity for the colour blue.
In 2012, Ai Weiwei argued that China’s art world does not exist. Speaking with The Guardian, the artist explained that in his home country, art is a consumerist offering that provides little in the way of a genuine experience of China. His comment fuels the idea that true Chinese art only comes from the country’s radical physical and social exiles (like when he smashed a 2000-year-old Han Dynasty urn in 1995). When we see that this year alone damaging rulings such as China’s ban of hip hop and queer themes from television didn’t appear once in contemporary Chinese art, but only from those living on the margins, Ai’s theory stands in full validation.
With the recent demolition of his Beijing studio, the artist turns his lens back on China for his first major institutional show in Los Angeles, Ai Weiwei: Life Cycle, running until March 3, 2019, at Marciano Art Foundation. In a meditation on contemporary Chinese life, in Life Cycle, Ai takes his journey on documenting the global refugee crisis closer to home by using traditional Chinese materials and mythology to explore contemporary Chinese society and demonstrate how exiled art will be the only way to push China forward. Through his use of ancient fantasy, his utopian vision of a China sans communism beams through the works.
emmanuelle moureaux has created the installation ‘knit in 100 colors’ as part of a special exhibition launched by uniqlo during 2018’s paris fashion week in september, at the galerie nationale du jeu de paume. ‘the art and science of lifewear : creating a new standard in knitwear’ marked the brand’s first large-scale exhibition open to the public. it introduced uniqlo’s knitwear in five areas ‘art’, ‘science’, ‘craftsmanship’, ‘fashion’ and ‘collaboration.’ in the ‘art’ zone, moureaux’s ‘knit in 100 colors’ presented an infinite world of colors where visitors could experience the vibrant palette of uniqlo at a glance.
set across a monumental 10,000 square meters and comprising more than 50 artworks in a single space, teamlab’smori building digital art museum is officially open to the public. the immersive institution features multiple 3-dimensional spaces that revolve around the theme of ‘borderless’, removing the boundaries between art and visitors. the japanese collective of ‘ultra-technologists’ have titled the entitled the extensive exhibition ‘teamlab borderless’ to describe the free-flowing nature of the boundary-free installations that transcend the various rooms, communicating with other artworks and even blending in with them.
Carl Kleiner creates sleek editorial content for fashion and lifestyle brands, and that sensibility shows in his photo and video series Postures which features artfully arranged tulips. Using minimal metal rods, bent at strategic ends and angles, Kleiner showcases the graceful curves of the flowers’ long necks and gently ruffled petals and leaves. A further sense of movement is instilled through the stop-motion video, which combines still photos of the blossoms’ subtle changes into a dramatic dance. You can see more from the Swedish photographer on Instagram and Vimeo.
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