London's Iconic Skyline is Recreated Using 2,186 Sugar Cubes

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Museum of London Docklands, artist Chris Naylor recreated London's iconic skyline using 2,186 sugar cubes. Weighing in at 13kg the sugar sculpture was meticulously assembled over a period of three days using a vast supply of sugar cubes, a stanley knife, and a glue gun. "I could spend 15 minutes carving a perfect curve into a cube, only to have it crumble into dust" Naylor told Wired.co.uk. "I must have inhaled my week's supply of sugar in the first afternoon." 

Photographer Creates Tintype Images on Discarded Cans

Arizona-based photographer David Emitt Adams uses a 19th century process known as wet-plate collodion to create tintype images on the surface of discarded tin cans found on the desert floor. The result is an object that has history as an artifact and an image that ties it to its location. David says of his work, "The deserts of the West also have special significance in the history of photography. I have explored this landscape with an awareness of the photographers who have come before me, and this awareness has led me to pay close attention to the traces left behind by others."

Recycled Bicycle Parts Chandeliers Fill an Underpass with Light

For their latest project titled "Ballroom Luminoso", artist Joe O'Connell and Blessing Hancock took over a freeway underpass in San Antonio, Texas and transformed the empty space into site-specific installation featuring six color changing chandeliers crafted from recycled bicycle parts. Each globe contains a custom-designed LED light fixture, which casts sharply detailed overlapping shadows. The chandeliers paint the underpass with complex color patterns and ethereal lighting thereby refashioning the space into a majestic ballroom shadow theater.

The Week-End

Our most popular posts this week featured a colorful installation created from thousands of rolls of tape, meticulously crafted dioramas built inside discarded televisions, a ready to brew calendar made from pressed tea leaves and beautiful photographs documenting the vibrant facades of hotels in Venice.

And from around the Web...

Classic paintings recreated using the faces of modern celebrities.

Dissident artist creates giant map of China from baby formula.

Giant rubber duck deflates in Hong Kong harbor.

Chimpanzee’s photographs set to fetch over $100,000 at auction.

A colorful canopy of paper lanterns. 

A Spectacular Installation Made from Hundreds of Arrows

A collaboration between Polish artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski and German artist Bodo Korsig, "Pfeilschaften" is a site-specific installation consisting of hundreds of arrows darted through the gallery walls and joined together to create a sculptural sphere suspended in space. The installation is part of a group exhibition titled gast.freund.schaft at TUFA in Trier, Germany and will be on display through June 9, 2013.

A Ready to Brew Calendar Made from Pressed Tea Leaves

Designed by Kelle Rebbe for German tea manufacture Hälssen & Lyon, "The Tea Calendar" features 365 days of wafer-thin pages made from pressed tea leaves. Simply tear off one of the square pages and let it brew directly in a cup with hot water.

Urinal Cake Decorations by Carmichael Collective

Today is my birthday, so it seemed fitting to start the day with this hilarious project from the creative folks at Minneapolis-based Carmichael Collective. These delectable creations are actual urinal deodorizer cakes decorated to look like real cakes, including a two-layer strawberry cake, a birthday cake, a wedding cake and cupcake. Enjoy!

Wearable Helmet Sculptures Crafted from Everyday Materials

Influenced by Japanese flower arrangements, called Ikebana, Bermuda-based artist/photographer James Cooper created a series of wearable ‘sculptures’ using materials found in his immediate surroundings. Although the photographs are all staged, the helmets are intentionally kept simple, resembling the creations of a deranged DIY enthusiast. Speaking about the project Peter says, "Helmets are something that are around me all the time in Bermuda, people by law have to wear them on mopeds, so they are a super familiar object. I wanted to take that logical and everyday object and shift it into something more ridiculous and illogical. "

Mysterious Photographs of Gasoline Spills on Road Surfaces

Inspired the play of light caused by refraction and interference on oil, photographer Charles Morgan Smith created a series of images documenting gasoline spills on road surfaces. Titled "Emissio" the project investigates the interrelationship between the everyday and sublime. Many of the compositions are reminiscent of Hubble's classic images of galaxies and nebula. Via his website, "Through his most current work, Smith has used images of the banal and everyday and created a series of ‘astrophotographs’, exploring notions of scale, aesthetics and the limitations of photography and representation."

Artist Creates Miniature Dioramas Inside Discarded Televisions

Repurposing the empty frames of discarded televisions, artist Zhang Xiangxi creates meticulously crafted dioramas inspired by “real life” in present day China. Some of the miniatures closely resemble Zhang's own personal living experiences such as his old workspace in Guangzhou, the workers' dormitory he once lived in and his parent’s sitting room. "When you look at the work from a distance, it seems like the two-dimensional image broadcast on a television." Zhang explains, "It is only when you get closer up to observe it, that the picture becomes three-dimensional."

Facades Of Beach Hotels Photographed by Luigi Bonaventura

Luigi Bonaventura's "Behind the Edge" is a series of photographs documenting the vibrant, eye-catching facades of hotels in Jesolo Beach, a town in Venice, Italy. Photographed in primarily static, symmetrical compositions, the buildings appear as abstract geometric patterns. Luigi says of his work, "The real mission is to show each structure as its Platonic ideal: that is, as the architect imagined it, not as it all too often looks in real life and mixing color encourage your own imagination around the picture."

A Colorful Installation Created from Thousands of Rolls of Tape

Art director and graphic designer Koji Iyama recently created an installation using rolls of masking tape, as part of a showcase in Sendai, Miyagi, promoting the multi functional uses of mt-masking tape. Koji covered the floor and walls of an old warehouse with masking tape and then proceeded to hang thousands of rolls from the ceiling. The colorful stripes tranform the warehouse, inviting the viewer to interact with the space by moving around it.

The Week-End

Our most popular posts this week featured photorealistic murals that defy gravity, abstract images of nature distorted by fire, a life size newsstand made entirely from denim and a series of weapons crafted from organic materials.

And from around the Web...

How historical figures might look today. 

A stop-motion animation charting the history of typography.

Modern painting models in real life.

Homemade inventions from China.

Graffiti artist uses rotten food as paint.

Animated GIFs Show Deteriorating Star Wars Action Figures

Merchandising is Forever" is an ongoing project and Tumblr blog documenting in photographs and animated GIFs the minute variations of deteriorating vintage Kenner Star Wars action figures. Via the website: "Starting in 1978 the toy company Kenner produced the first line of Star Wars toys. Although these toys were mass produced, each one has gained a unique identity throughout the years. Some were played with, some were forgotten in attics, some are completely unrecognizable, and some are still mint." Sorry for the slow loading time of the images!

Assault Rifle Created from 1,200 Suspended Ping Pong Balls

American multimedia artist Michael Murphy has recently created a sculpture composed of hundreds of suspended black ping pong balls, which when viewed from the right angle transform into a graphic illusion of an AR-15 assault rifle. The piece called “Damage” aims to generate discussion around the subject of gun control. Speaking about the project Michael says, "Historically, the black ball was used in secret ballots to signify opposition. Here they are used openly to signify opposition to the gun culture and culture of violence that we currently have in the United States."