Train tray surprise

Every now and again there's someone who can really surprise us. One person who does for sure is English Dominic Wilcox. Dominic created a 'pop up train tray surprise'. What a great treat! For sure a fresh look on street art, graffiti and guerrilla art, putting some smiles on people's faces!

Dominic was recently featured on many sites with one of his latest projects, called 'by a thread' where cotton thread is wound onto a wooden cane, one spool at a time. 'By a thread' is now on show at the Designhuis in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Landscapes

English Tom Edwards' set of landscapes was inspired by Icelandic scenery. Wonderful how the charm of a seemingly simple cut & paste look emphasizes the concept, shapes and colors.

Mapping arts and cultures

Today the (Dutch) site ‘Mapping arts & culture' was officially launched; a worthwhile initiative that puts the spotlight on arts and culture. The site, an online platform, wants to share and show the meaning of arts and culture to the bigger audience; share inspiration and acknowledge that arts and cultures are anywhere in our society and very essential to all of us, even though we don’t always realize this. In so many ways arts and culture inspire all of us, and can be found anywhere, in any way you can imagine. At the same time the project is a wake up call for the politic – time to open some eyes and let them know that arts & culture matter and do more than we sometimes take for granted for! Great concept and very curious what this will lead to and cause within the society and arts & cultural related communities…

Images via weheartit.

WhiteOut

In order to explore the body and the body's relationship to tectonic reality, Alex Suarez of international design studio SpaceOperaForm designed this cool reactive 'WhiteOut' installation in the Hallein Salt Factory in Salzburg. As visitors walk through, the light weight panels react to the body's static condition to widen and narrow the passage. The faster one moved through, the more the panels inflated. Wow. Can you imagine the (fun) responds of visitors, not knowing about the interaction between them and these panels and being surprised while checking the space out?

TransNatural

Today the TransNatural, an art and design exhibition looking at the crossover between nature and technology, is opening at the Trouw building in Amsterdam.

Australian Lucy McRae, now living in the Netherlands, is one of the designers and scientists who is presenting their work during the Multiplex TransNatural. Being a 'hybrid' (trained as a classical ballerina and interior designer, involved in anything varying from photography to graphic design and from styling to arts) Lucy has been involved in several (futuristic) commercial and non-profit projects, straddling the world of fashion, technology and the body. With her fascination with the human body she acts as a true 'body architect' and creates the most amazing things.

Chlorophyll skin

A great experimentation into color, movement, absorption and the body by Lucy McRae and Mandy Smith.

Make something cool everyday

Another amazing therapeutic project is ‘make something cool everyday’ by American artist Brock Davis. In 2009, for 365 consecutive days, Brock worked on one creative work per day. The constant in his exceptional track record is being able to transform humor and insights into work that gets a reaction. I wish I had the patience to work on such... nice!

La Debacle

After months of work, visual artist Andrée-Anne Dupuis-Bourret presented her project 'La Debacle' just a couple of weeks ago. An installation made from several modules, black and white copies of drawing, each folded by hand. I love how the installation looks like a carpet transformation; a graphic landscape of drawings creating new perspectives and depths.

Chris Berens

Last night, when the whole house was asleep I was enjoying my local newspaper. Just a little me-moment. And then, after turning page 7, I just fell in love. In love with the beautiful work of Dutch artist Chris Berens.

Via his paintings, Chris has found a true unique way of sharing visions of his internal universe as if he sees it through an ancient handmade lens and shares his view of curious places in unpredictable ways. His canvas world is inhabited by an exotic menagerie of animals, children and fantasy landscapes.

Chris' technique and process of working are just as unique, as he begins by painting small scenes and figures in ink, bistre and varnish on glossy paper. Once completed, he cuts up each sheet and reserves the elements he wants to use, and peels away the clear coating layer from the underlying paper. The remaining semi-transparent images are stacked, layered and collaged onto panel to create the final work. To learn more about Chris’ technique, see the interview (part 1 & part 2) for Hi-Fructose magazine.

Would you happen to live or be in New York, please make sure to check out Chris' first solo exhibition debut 'The only living boy in New York'. The exhibition runs from December 16, 2009 through January 23, 2010 at the Sloan Fine Art Gallery.

Cloud

Imagine how cool it would be to run into this dreamy cloud, projected on the wall of the courtyard in Paris? Every year, Nuit Blanche is full of pretty surprises like this... if you're into events, art, design and interactive media, you'd check it out!

Miso

About a year ago Liss mentioned Melbourne street artist Miso and it seems as if her work has been popping up ever since. Liss now shared the news that Miso is having a solo show at Gorker Gallery, opening next week. I wish I could go and see for myself...

Collage

Sometimes it's just fun playing around. Collage created by OrangePop, via Polyvore.

Mysterious letters

Designed to prompt neighborly discussion and promoting community curiosity, Michael Crowe and Lenka Clayton decided to write a handwritten letter to everybody in the world. This project kicked off writing to every single household of Cushendall, Ireland. In two weeks time Michael and Lenka wrote 467 letters, and in trying to be personal they put in the time and effort to make each letter entertaining and stunningly beautiful. Imagine receiving such a letter? How wonderful would that be? I hope one day I will find one on my doormat too...

Amorph

I was truely stunned after I watched the video and reading the thesis about Funktionide, a concept by young German Stefan Ulrich or Eltopo. According to Eltopo Funktionide reflects upon how new technologies will change future products, and the way we interact with them. The Funktionide is an amorph object whose intention is to provide the user with a atmosphere of presence thus counteracting the feeling of loneliness.

Eltopo also created an amazing liquid wall (do check this!), to able people for authenticity and presence of materiality, and with this he and Yi-Cong Lu were named winners of the International Design Award 2009.

Carpe Diem

Vietnamese Diem Chau creates these lovely delicate pieces, combining silk with porcelain. Diem embroidered partial figures on stretched cloth that covers discarded dishes, a renewal of an object's previous life, the past is ever-present in her art. And... should you be in the San Francisco neighbourhood; Diem's work will appear in the Rare Device gallery from October 2nd till November 1st.

Umbrella

A cloudy umbrella 'landscape' by Adam Parker Smith. The lights shine through the umbrellas, just like the sun would shine through the clouds. Beautiful!