Junkculture

Artist Creates a Breathing Bike to Combat Beijing Pollution

How does an artist cope with China's massive pollution challenge? Beijing-based artist Matt Hope used his mechanical engineering background to create this amazing breathing machine using a Walmart bicycle cobbled together with various found components, such as a wind generator, an Ikea trash can and a Chinese fighter pilot mask. The bike generates clean air through an electromechanical filtration system. Air gets pulled into the bike through an Ikea trashcan, and the dust particles get positively charged and stick to a metal trumpet. The cleaned air gets propelled through a tube to the gas mask, fit for breathing.

"DaIly Contaminations" is a photography project by Luca di Filippo that aims to create a new microcosm to display (through a captivating metaphor) the invisible electronic traces we leave in our daily activities. "These little creatures are born from all the trashed electronic gadgets we used for years and years." di Filippo explains, "They are very smart, harmless but curious, very curious.They roam around looking for informations about our habits." The little creatures have been created using electronic waste and none of them were harmed during the photoshoot.

Jad Melki's "La Chaleur de L’amour & la Beauté des Paroles (The warmth of love & the beauty of words)" is an art piece that expresses the absence of presence. Using an exposed mattress lit from the inside to make it glow, Melki converted its inner springs into words and sentences extracted from letters written by his mother when she was in Sierra Leon in 1974 to his father when he was at the American Univeristy of Beirut.

Dutch designer Roeland Otten uses photographic prints, mosaic tiles and paint to camouflage misplaced public eyesores on city streets. Otten's project began in 2009 when he covered a large electricity substation on the corner of Graaf Floristraat and Heemraadsingel in Rotterdam, with high-resolution photographs of the surrounding streets making the large structure disappear. For his latest project Otten camouflaged the little concrete building of GGD Amsterdam with little mosaic tiles, creating a pixelated view of the surrounding area.

Randy Grskovic’s photo collage series titled “Distortions of the Past; Collaborations for the Future” consists of cut up vintage photographs from flea markets and antique stores that have been reassembled to create complex geometric patterns. The images are a striking juxtaposition of flowing, dynamic movements and solid, stationary scenes. Randy says of his work, "I sift through the images and find the ones that emotionally appeal to me. I quickly scan and grab them intuitively. When I sit down to cut them up I stare at them for a long time and really consider the images. I think about the past and the present and how they relate to the future. I make some stylistic cuts depending on the mood that the image projects to me, which is essentially a projection of myself onto the image. "

English singer/songwriter Sivu just released a new music video for his song "Better Man Than He" that was actually filmed inside an MRI machine. The video directed and edited by Adam Powell was inspired by research into improving the management of children born with cleft lip and palate, and gives us a unique and reavealing look inside the artist's mind. The research carried out at St Bartholomew's Hospital is funded by Barts and CLEFT, a small London based charity.

Presented at Art Stage Singapore 2013 by Fost Gallery, Sookoon Ang's "Your Love is Like a Chunk of Gold" is a series of oxymoronic objects, that are part soft bread and part prickly crystals. Replacing mold with the crystal growth caused by monoammonium phosphate, Sookoon Ang explores the idea of comfort and pain - mirroring the ups and downs of romantic love. She says “For something so much discussed, the concept of love completely eludes us”

For their latest project, Toronto-based studio Hot Pop Factory decided to remix the human body to create personalized Pez dispenser with 3D-printed heads of customers. The idea came after a client asked them to create a fun 3D-printed holiday gift for each of their employees. Hot Pop Factory co-founders Matt Compeau and Bi-Ying Miao used the motion sensor from the Xbox Kinect to get a scan of the person’s head, which was then reproduced on a plastic-printing desktop machine. Having removed the busts of the usual cartoon characters from the dispensers, the designers simply snapped the replacements on top.

Our most popular posts this week featured a six month pinhole exposure made with a beer can, masking tape photographic collages by Iosif Király, a miniature living room created inside the shell of a PC computer and a colorful sculpture created using hundreds of clothespins.

And from around the Web...

The frozen aftermath of a Chicago warehouse fire.

Real life LEGO hotel in California.

A multi-layered stop-motion journey by Kijek/Adamski.

Adorable photographs of ponies wearing cardigan sweaters.

The food astronauts eat in space.

A Carpet Made from 4,000 Watches by Heidi Voet

Heidi Voet's "Is six afraid of seven/ 'cause seven, eight, nine/ I'm about to lose the pieces I find" is an elaborate carpet installation woven together from over four thousand, multicolored watches all set to the exact time, creating a symphony of digital chimes. Over the course of the exhibition, the watches will inevitably malfunction, losing their synchronicity and eventually sounding like an out of rhythm and out of tune orchestra.

Using dollhouse furniture and copious amounts of imagination, an unknown Russian artist has created a miniature living room inside the shell of a PC computer. The tiny room replica includes a working floor lamp, a tiny gumball machine an oriental rug, and even a miniature copy of the New York Times. The pictures were posted to a Russian website, Modding.Ru.

Fascinated by the physical form of cameras, artist Daniel Arsham has created hundreds of replicas built out of plaster, glass, stone and sand as part of an exhibit titled "Reach Ruin" at the Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop and Museum. Arsham's work has us questioning a camera’s form over function. "Normally when we think about a camera we're mostly thinking about not the camera itself but what it can produce," says Arsham. "But the cultural product is the object, it's the camera itself. For me these cameras have in some ways an important historic and almost fetish quality about them."

Inspired by a pinhole workshop taught by Justin Quinnell, UK based photographer Matt Bigwood created a a six month long exposure using a beer can converted into a pinhole camera. The setup is very simple - an empty beer can with the top removed and a hole made with a needle or pin, a card lid for the can held on with gaffer tape, and a sheet of 5”x7” black and white photographic paper inside. The curve you see is the sun’s path across the sky as distorted by the curve of the can.

Concentrating on other uses of everyday objects, Argentina-based Normal Studio creates colorful sculptures using hundreds of clothespins that have been dipped in paint. Originally planned as a one-off installation, the "Tender Project" explores the use of humble objects to create interesting forms. “Tender is an installation born from a research based on the concept of “ready made” or “found art” explains Martin Huberman from Normal Studio in a Yatzer.com interview, “By placing a large number of clothespins on a tight mesh, the weight of the clothespins generates, on its own, a complex surface known as a Hyperbolic Paraboloid, a geometric shape of sensual simplicity,”

Chicago-based artist Scott Carter digitally slices apart objects and recreates them from the walls of the gallery by cutting and stacking individual cross sections of drywall. Scott excavates the surrounding walls leaving a pattern of negative spaces, prompting viewers to question their relationship to the exhibit space itself.

Romanian artist Iosif Király creates stunning photographic collages by carefully taping together real shots of different places. Each image turns out to be a construction of details which the artist had actually photographed in one place, and then combined to create new compositions. Different realities are intertwined through the artistic process into one simultaneous constellation.

For his latest project titled "The Office", Brussels-based paper and set designer Alexis Facca created a series of realistic interior designs fully made of paper. The idea was to recreate the offices of a British advertising agency in 80′s. The results of his attention to detail are quite staggering: just look at the newspaper on the coffee table announcing Margaret Thatcher's historic victory in June 1983, as well as the calendar open to ... June 83.

Our most popular posts this week featured a historic Church in Washington DC completely transformed with latex paint, gorgeous photographs of paint before the color is mixed in, hybrid vacuum cleaners inspired by mid-century architecture and gravity defying photographs of objects suspended in midair.

And from around the Web...

A time-lapse of a train journey through four seasons.

Skittles sorting machine by Brian Egenriether.

Vibrant macro photographs of coral.

An artist’s game of chance on the high seas.

Amazing illustrations created on a freezer door.

Cardboard Sculptures by David Sleeth

Artist David Sleeth creates impressive sculptures using sheets of cardboard that have been glued together and sanded down to intricately layered organic forms. His sculptures reclaim the organic, yet mechanically produced, material as something natural. David says of his work, "I hope that by elevating a culturally or structurally familiar object to a state of uselessness I can elevate it’s aesthetic significance. I want to create work that alludes to the beautiful qualities I recognize in historical objects without replicating them."

Designer Gaspard Tiné-Berès has created a series of recycled appliances called "Short Circuit" that tackle the problem of excessive electrical waste. The coffee-makers, kettles and toasters are made out of junked electrical components and found glassware from landfills with a main structure made out of natural cork for it’s waterproof, anti-bacterial and insulation properties. Speaking about the project Gaspard said, "Landfill sites are increasingly becoming sources of viable and perfectly working complex electrical and electronic components. Moreover, these same components represent a major waste problem, due to their composite and toxic nature.I'm investigating a business model based on the exploitation of such resources."

Inspired by the bounty found in a Parisian food emporium, French photographer Florent Tanet arranged and organized various fruits and vegetables to create playful still-life photos. The series titled "A Winter Color (La grande épicerie de Paris)" is currently on display at La grande épicerie de Paris, the luxury comestibles boutique in the famous Le Bon Marché department store.

Artist Andy Ralph often employs basic household objects and products typically found in discount or hardware stores, and reworks them into the most improbable things. His humorous manipulations straddle the line between function and fiction, transforming hum-drum items into exciting, eye-catching sculptural pieces that carry a different value from their original intended purpose.

French photographer Cerise Doucede uses strings to suspend objects in midair creating gravity defying tableaus that seem to be frozen in time. Cerise finds her inspiration in materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled to create mesmerizing and dreamlike images.

Dutch artist Frank Halmans creates hybrid vacuum cleaners that transforms the interior cavities of these machines into miniature houses inspired by mid-century architecture. The sculptures highlights a meeting between two object worlds, blurring the line between the interior and exterior. Andrea of designboom writes, "Halman has taken an appliance which we use to clean and de-clutter our dwellings and has modified its role. Dirt and the debris is purposely sucked into the domestic interior, within these imagined dwellings, standing as a metaphor for the things which we experience and collect mentally in our memory and physically in our lives "

Atlanta-based graffiti artist Hense recently completed a new mural installation in Washington DC. The private commission involved completely painting a historic Church in Ward 6, an up and coming area located directly across the street from a planned 20,000 sqft museum. Hense completely transformed the church with latex paint creating a monumental installation. This is another great example of art vs architecture, where today’s artists are transforming neighborhoods and skylines with murals and paint.

Have you ever looked into a can of paint before the color was mixed in? These gorgeous photographs of paint in it's last stages of creation were taken in the paint department of a home improvement center after the color tints were poured in, just before mixing custom colors. Shot straight on, and in color the photos expose hidden abstractions and beautiful textures locked away in the paint cans before they are combined with the base paint.

This is a short docu-promo film by KAL about Mario Marchese, aka Mario the Magician, a full-time NYC performer who repurposes objects to create magic. The short film debuted at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center on December 1st, 2012 to a packed house after a live performance by Mario.

New York-based artist Kevin Champeny creates astounding artworks made from thousands of tiny objects. His latest piece titled "Killing Field" is a large mosaic depicting a realistic image of bullet shells created using 12,500 hand cast animal pieces. The message conveyed through this images is clear, as human greed continues to expand, so does the plight of our precious animals.

Our most popular posts this week featured a large pavilion constructed out of 45,000 milk cartons, a series of monuments and architectural landmarks shrunk to fit into a glass of water, mind-bending sculptures of common objects that have been distorted in seemingly impossible ways and a series of photographs of ‘zoo-trapped’ animals in supermarkets.

And from around the Web...

David Bowie's surprise new video directed by Tony Oursler.

Turn photos of your head into a 3D paper model.

Aerial panorama of NYC that looks like a screenshot of Sim City.

Capturing the violent moment of sneezing.

The canine version of 'Where's Waldo'.

"Stacked" Bicycles Installation by Ai Weiwei

For his first exhibition at Galleria Continua in Tuscany (Italy), Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has created a new awe-inspiring installation made of 760 bicycles stacked on top of each other. For the project Ai Weiwei physically attached together hundreds of bicycles creating a massive architectural structure that can be explored from within. The exhibition consisting of several other sculptures, photographs and videos by the activist artist will be on view until February 16 2013.

Miami-based artist Asif Farooq meticulously creates highly detailed replicas of guns out of found cardboard. His work question issues like gun violence and mass production and is especially relevant in the midst of recent gun control debates. Asif explains, "My interest in guns is in the idea of visual representation as personal metaphor. As a tool for communication – which is often the intended function of actual guns – they’re universally recognized. So, much as a writer uses words, or a musician uses notes, I use guns to communicate. "

New York-based artist Robert Lazzarini creates mind-bending sculptures of common objects that have been distorted in seemingly impossible ways. Using an algorithmic process, Lazzarini skews familiar objects to create the illusion of the physical world expanding and contracting as viewers shift vantage points. All of Lazzarini's sculptures are created out of the same materials as the things on which they are based; for example, the skull, which Lazzarini first exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, was created out of cast bone.

Rut Mackel's "The Ugly Truth" explores the ugliness and the beauty that exist within each of us. For the project the models were asked to hold a piece of framed clear glass and press their face against it to get various face distortions. Speaking about the project Rut said, "Face is a symbol of personal identity. It's the mirror or the mask of the self. The mirror either 'reflects' or 'distorts'. Our faces are us. Thus, facial disfigurement can be particularly distressing."

Designed by by CUAC Arquitectura and Sugarplatform to celebrate World Recycling Day, this temporary structure is a large pavilion made out of 45,000 milk cartons recycled by more than 100 colleges from around Granada, Spain. The "Tetrabrik Pavilion" (or Hall of Briks) is comprised of two major, freestanding parts: the wall, a solid latticed base, and the tower, a soaring core section that links two base walls. The pavilion has set a Guinness World Record as the largest built structure created from recycled materials.

"Traveler's Cup" is a series of digital pigment prints by Colorado-based artist Joo Yeon Woo that features monuments and architectural landmarks shrunk to fit into a glass of water. The project examines themes of cultural displacement and identity. Joo Yeon Woo explains, "Since 2004, I have been collecting images of my different surroundings and arranging them, per place, within the water glass that I drink from every day, in order to absorb that place visually and conceptually."

Agan Harahap's latest project titled "Garden Fresh" examines the shifting boundaries between humans and animals in today’s environment and the complex relationship between art and nature. It is a series of fables about animals venturing into our daily lives. Harahap explains, "When we see these ‘zoo-trapped’ animals in supermarkets, their most outstanding characteristics are isolated as their ‘only’ characteristics. The animals are stripped of their own identities and are used as empty vessels to be ﬁlled with the human drama of parody, satire and allegory. "

A while back artist Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign did a small takeover of this street phonebooth
with one of his signature weave pattern designs. When that was taken down, he took the space over again
with a photo of that last takeover. Recently, Jordan took over the ad space again creating a series of images
that carry the weight of all the documented takeovers before them. Or more appropriately, a phone booth
takeover within a phone booth takeover within a phone booth takeover.

French design duo Quentin and Thomas have just unleashed a Tumblr blog featuring a vast array of weird and wonderful burger creations. What started as a random lunch project one afternoon slowly evolved into a new creative outlet when Thomas and Quentin decided to take a picture of one of their meals and put it online. Speaking about the project they said, "We were so bored of random food at lunch, so we started cooking together. It soon became a kind of a ritual: improvising and experimenting new ways of cooking a burger."

Artist Jesse Bromm creates miniature dioramas that examine the human propensity for violence and control through the manipulation of animals and the environment. Bromm explores this idea through found objects, glass containers and miniature figurines. Via a press relase for the exhibition, "The Landscapes with the miniature figures have a haunting quality. The humans are so insignificantly small, sitting as they are on or in the much larger glass containers, through the transparent walls of which one can see the underpinnings of their world, usually invisible. Although Jesse Bromm uses a variety of materials in his work, it is the medium of glass that allows his insightful observations."

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