In Markus Georg’s new exhibit, “The Power of Images”, he uses highly straightforward, even banal-looking images to remind the viewer of, ironically, the power of the imagination.
In his artist’s statement, he proposes that imagination is a forgotten currency in our highly empirical world, and that he wants these pieces to “resocialize imagination,” which he says is “a fundamental prerequisite for both producing art and its reception.”
Hence, out of highly ordinary materials, which appear at first to be nothing more than exactly what they are, he creates motifs that are just familiar enough to trigger some level of recognition, but not quite literal enough to be understood without the employment of one’s imagination.
Did you think this was a painting? This is actually a photograph of a person covered in paint…
From the early Renaissance until the beginnings of Impressionism, the goal of art, and in particular painting, was to imitate life. The emphasis, subject matter, and techniques varied over time, but the general idea was to present a naturalistic, believable view of the world on a two-dimensional surface. Then Impressionism hit, and everything changed, kicking off Modern art movements that routinely rejected the goal of presenting real life on a flat surface.
Now, along comes Alexa Meade, who actually takes real life– ie, real people– and paints literally directly on top it, turning the 3-d, real life subjects into a 2-dimensional-looking “representations” of the actual people. Her medium is acryclic and flesh.
Then, she photographs them, making the ultimate medium photography… that looks like a painting… of a person… that is actually a photograph of a painted person.
Click the jump for lots more work from Alexa Meade…
Sometimes she paints the surroundings as well, like this in this scenario.
Meade’s work at its most basic already combines performance, painting, and art, and in pieces like the above, where she paints found objects as well and creates a whole scene, she also incorporates mixed media and installation.
And sometimes, the subject is the only painted element in the scene…
I wondered at first if this one was a black and white photo of a person she’d painted in color. But no… although both scenarios are interesting. Painting a person in black and white paint is a great concept, as would be changing the representation of the person by photographing them in black and white even if she’d painted them in color. Then the photographic record would in some way be a false account of the “performance” part.
You MUST watch this video. It’s very short, and it will add a lot of wonderment to your day. I’m enthralled.
Theo Jansen explores the boundaries between art and engineering, creating these “kinetic sculptures.”
These “animals” move. Or I should say, they walk. They’re wind-powered. It’s amazing. They look like a cross between an exoskeleton and an erector set, which is basically what they are, and then they start moving and they become so anthropomorphic, you wonder if they’re alive in some way.
Many of his creatures are so “evolved” that they are now capable of “living” on the beaches on their won– the wind powers their “walking,” and they have sensors that tell them to stop and turn around when they hit either water or dry sand, keeping them permanently on the wet sand.
They even have sensors that tell them when a storm is coming, and their “brain” tells them to start pounding a stake into the ground so they don’t fall over in the storm.
Can you imagine having a brain that dreamed up stuff like this?
In the video above, you see the “rhinoceros”-like sculpture walking.
If you want to learn even more about Jansen and his work, click here for a ten minute video presentation by Jansen that shows more animals walking and an explanation of how they work.
It’s also extremely interesting to hear how he talks about the animals– he doesn’t discuss them as art, or really as machines or product prototypes either– he talks about them as though they are animals that he is looking after, and he doesn’t seem to feel any need to explain the “purpose” of them, which I think is an amazing insight into the brain of someone this creative.
I think that science and art are going to continue to merge in this way, in the minds of people like Jansen who are capable of seeing their relation to each other, and have a desire to explore their intersection without the desire to make a practical product or advancement in technology. While in art, it seems sometimes that “we’ve seen it all,” and there’s nothing new under the sun, science is continually evolving and pushing boundaries in material ways, and through the integration of science and art, art could do the same.
THIS IS A REAL MAP. I saw this and thought someone had painted something pretty on top of an old map.
Not so, which means this might be the most amazing map I’ve ever seen.
In the early 1940s, the Army Corps of Engineers commissioned a guy named Harold Fisk to make a map of the various courses the Mississippi River has taken over time. He showed each course in a different color, to show when and how they happened. This is the result.
Just goes to show, the representation of practical information can be executed in a way that is also aesthetically pleasing.
I feel like I could look at these forever. I’ve searched and searched and I’m pretty sure you can’t buy any prints (original or reproduced) of this, but I wish you could*! I would frame a whole bunch and hang them on my wall!
(*If anyone can find any originals and would like to give them to me, it would be like the coolest gift eveerrrr, just sayin)
Rivers are constantly in flux, as they erode banks and make deeper curves (or “meanders”), until the meanders become so meandering that the two sides of the curve almost touch. At this point, the river cuts off the curve and so that it has a straight path again, and it leaves an oxbow lake behind.
Here’s a detail:
When all the pages, each showing a different section, of his study are fit together, they form this long continuous path of the Mississippi. I can’t get the image to load any larger, but it looks really cool when it’s shown as the same width as the pages above.
THE ALLUVIAL VALLEY OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Harold Fisk, 1944
Living walls + silhouette art + random acts of creativity + street art = just too much. In the best way.
Living (or green) walls, also called vertical gardens, are such a cool concept, and Mosstika, an “Urban Greenery” collaboration between Edina Tokodi and Jozsef Valyi-Toth, has turned them into silhouette art using grasses and moss, and then, even better, they put their pieces on public walls.
I love how their work challenge the traditional notion of graffiti and the effect someone can have on a public space when “making their mark”– both through the content and the medium.
I love that it is something living on the wall, and reminds you of the nature that might have been there before all the buildings were.
Rather than just leaving a tag or a cryptic design, their street art gives something to the passerby– just a small moment in which he or she gets to stop and marvel at the fact that an anonymous stranger spent their time making something beautiful for them to see.
It’s an experience that is capable of making you feel more hopeful about the world for a moment, knowing that someone put that there expecting nothing in return.
Animal photographer Sharon Montrose’s work still gets me. How does she manage to make these totally cute-overload images without them just being totally cheesy?
I don’t know, but she walks that line well, and I like it.
Above – Baby Pig, Baby Deer, and Baby Porcupine
Here’s more of her work, beyond the Baby Animals series. Also, in addition to the prints she sells, she works with tons of corporate clients for ads. What a fun job!
I’m experiencing cute overload just working on this post. This is too much.
Seriously.
No seriously, stop it.
Isn’t she amazing at capturing their personalities??
And finally, a shot of the artist at work. Seriously, tell me that must not be the must fun job ever.
It’s even better than the ones you think up as a kid like working at a zoo or being a veterinarian.
I love photographer David Hilliard’s tryptichs documenting his personal life and the world around him.
Above, his father and himself.
They often capture positively mundane-seeming moments, but through his composition and format, they take on much greater meaning about relationships and familial dynamics, capturing small significances fluctuating between loneliness and intimacy.
The shifting focal planes between the photos manipulate the panorama into a much different image than if the scene were contained within one shot, and for the viewer, the physical distance and perspective translates into an emotional distance and perspective.
The tryptich format also suggests more of a story-telling element than would a single shot, as he directs the viewers eye from frame to frame, creating a narrative.
This, combined with the almost fish-eye lens-like quality created by the changing focal planes and vivid colors, leaves these photos floating between fiction and memory and leaves the viewer wondering if they were simple records of moments, or constructed tableaus.
I LOVE these fantastic photos of Picasso playing with light. They were inspired by work by Gjon Mili, who also photographed him here “drawing” with a small flashlight in a dark studio.
Via Cup of Joe and more cool photos from the series on Life‘s website.
And, they reminded me of a book I’ve been wanting – Goodbye Picasso by David Douglas Duncan. It’s an intimate look at Picasso in his studio and home. The cover is a self-portrait by Picasso of himself as an owl done in ink with a photograph of his eyes collaged in.
From the bookjacket:
“[The book contains a selection of] tens of thousands [of photos] taken during the next seventeen years when David Douglas Duncan often shared the simple meals, the constant work, the gaiety, the countless explosions of creativity.
After other guests had gone, Duncan still remained in the studio — by now his second home. Thus was born a friendship unique in the lives of both men. Two minds, two hearts, each discovering a special communication with the other.
While photographing hundreds of Picasso’s paintings, surrounded by myriad other works that overflowed the studio, Duncan also recorded many of the emotion-charged events at the heart of the household.”
Picasso sparring with his son Claude.
Picasso and Jacqueline, Picasso showing his dear Lump a plate he has made bearing his portrait.
Picasso at work.
His studio at Villa la Californie, full of his works just propped here and there. Notice Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (image below), 1907, in the background. This shot gives a good sense of how big it is! This photo was taken in 1960– I didn’t realize this painting remained in his private collection that long. It now hangs in the Moma. Or maybe this was a sketch for it? The ground looks much darker than in the image below, but maybe that’s just the lighting. Also, I love the textile draped on the rocker by Jacqueline.
His own collection included works by Matisse, Degas, Modiglianis, Cezanne, etc.
A rare posed-looking shot amongst mostly intimate, casual candids. Also, I love that he seems to be shirtless (and/or pantsless) most of the time. The more photos I looked through, the more apparent this became. His total comfort with partial nudity, combined with his often very engaged, active stances, gives him such a vital and alive loo
k, like he was just bursting at the seams with creativity.
Loving this random act of creativity.
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Picasso sparring with his son Claude.
Picasso and Jacqueline, Picasso showing his dear Lump a plate he has made bearing his portrait.
Picasso at work.
His studio at Villa la Californie, full of his works just propped here and there. Notice Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (image below), 1907, in the background. This shot gives a good sense of how big it is! This photo was taken in 1960– I didn’t realize this painting remained in his private collection that long. It now hangs in the Moma. Or maybe this was a sketch for it? The ground looks much darker than in the image below, but maybe that’s just the lighting. Also, I love the textile draped on the rocker by Jacqueline.
His own collection included works by Matisse, Degas, Modiglianis, Cezanne, etc.
A rare posed-looking shot amongst mostly intimate, casual candids. Also, I love that he seems to be shirtless (and/or pantsless) most of the time. The more photos I looked through, the more apparent this became. His total comfort with partial nudity, combined with his often very engaged, active stances, gives him such a vital and alive loo
