DIGITAL ART

100,000 LED lights to light up the Sumida River

Tokyo has always been a mistery to me, one of these cities that will you blow away for sure. What follows would certainly water my eyes. At the occasion of the Tokyo Hotaru festival that just happened, one of a kind of installation was made where LED lights were the main ingredient. LED lights are awesome, aren’t they?

100,000 LED lights, that is what it took to give to the onlookers an astonishing spectacle. The aim here was to suggest hotaru (fireflies) with those lights that floated down the Sumida River through central Tokyo.

Beyond the purdy effect, let’s note that the LEDs were  designed to light up upon contact with water and were 100% powered by solar energy. Let’s also mention the reference to a long gone practice were people used to to gather, it seems,  around clean, running water, searching for these luminous creatures.

First seen on www.spoon-tamago.com. All credits to the pictures below can be found on this website

ART-PIE - Hotaru festival

ART-PIE - Hotaru festival

ART-PIE - Hotaru festival

CONTEMPORARY ART

How to Spot Street Art

If you love spotting street art, but you’re never quite sure where you should look for it, then worry not. There are plenty of ways in which you can make sure you encounter great street art on a regular basis.

Where as street art was once considered to be little more than vandalism, these days it is a hugely popular art form. This means that there are plenty of books, magazines and websites dedicated purely to the subject of street art and where you van find it. Many works of street art are now protected, so you you may find that you have much more time to visit them. Spend time researching an area before you visit, and you are more than likely to be clued up on where to find local street art before you arrive.

However, some street art is far more temporary, and you’ll need to be on the ball if you want to be in with a chance of spotting it. Sites like Twitter can be a great way to keep up to date with the latest street art discoveries. If you’re keen to keep an eye on where new works of street arts have cropped up, whilst playing online games like Partypoker and checking your email from the comfort of your own home, then using sites like this can be the best way to do so. They’re also perfect if you’re on the go, and don’t mind making a detour to see some great street art before it’s gone.

Lastly, it is important to simply keep your eyes peeled. Even street art which may not have a big name attached to it can still be well worth seeing. Certain locations are fairly well known for attracting street artists, so it can be well worth keeping a look out should you happen to be passing through.

CONTEMPORARY ART, INTERVIEWS

The Universal Struggle to Self-Identify: This 'Me' of Mine

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Peripheral Vision (c)2010 David Minton
Peripheral Vision, (c)2010 David Minton, oil on canvas

But it may be that without meaning there is only space, so in a sense I make my paintings by accident, but knowingly so.  The central space created by painting ‘at the periphery’ has a tension that is constantly pregnant with possibility.  In order to remain so, the tensions of space are never resolved, but continue and it is this continued lack of resolution that forms the overall content of the picture.[1] Perhaps what’s missing is what’s outside that loop or the fear of its ceasing to be a loop and become something that runs forward in time.  All those fears and hopes, everything the intimacy within the home brings, begins to open up to a greater loss and eventually time will bring the loss of things because of the infinite nature of time; everything outside of time is infinite.[2]

At art college we were encouraged to self-analyse our output and I found myself not fully understanding how I travelled from initial concept to final outcome. So, now I find it useful to think of myself as a black box where every new line of enquiry has the potential to reveal more of my inner (often hidden) self and my motivations for doing what I do.[3] Initially it was very important to move away from outward observation, it came out of necessity for me, and I had to close myself off from the real world for a while although outward observation is creeping back into the work acting as little anchors.[4] All that is visible is a barely responsive exterior… This indifference, characteristic to the figures in my paintings, suggests the social is almost taken away. You wonder what is revealed in this state of consciousness, just mindless projections on to others perhaps.[5]

Woman with Cardigan (c)2010 Melanie Titmuss
Woman with Cardigan, (c)2010 Melanie Titmuss, oil on canvas

 

This play on words, mixing up sentences from each artist interviewed so far for This ‘Me’ of Mine, is not intended as a clever ploy at meaning-making, but rather a look at the interconnectedness of the issues of the self and identity.  Each of these artists is concerned in their own way with issues of self in their work.  It is fascinating for me as curator to see how their concerns link together in the universal struggle to self-identify; something which I hope will become evident through these interviews.

Join us in the on-going discussions. Go to INTERVIEWS at the This ‘Me’ of Mine blogsite to read more from David Minton, Anthony Boswell, David Riley, Aly Helyer and Melanie Titmuss, the artists interviewed and quoted above (see credits below for links to the individual interviews).

Interviews coming up: Sarah Hervey, Shireen Qureshi and Sandra Crisp.  Waiting in the wings: Kate Murdoch, Annabel Dover, Edd Pearman, Cathy Lomax, Hayley Harrison, and Darren Nixon.  Art Historian and critic, Becky Huff Hunter, is kindly interviewing me and that will be coming up too.

 

[1] The Temporary Suspension of Tension; an interview with David Minton, 2012 Jane Boyer for This ‘Me’ of Mine, found at: http://thismeofmine.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/the-temporary-suspension-of-tension/

[2] Living in the Constant; an interview with AnthonyBoswell, ibid, found at: http://thismeofmine.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/living-in-the-constant/

[3] I Am a Black Box; an interview with David Riley, ibid, found at: http://thismeofmine.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/i-am-a-black-box/

[4] Anchors of Observation; an interview with Aly Helyer, ibid, found at: http://thismeofmine.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/anchors-of-observation/

[5] A Barely Responsive Exterior; an interview with Melanie Titmuss, ibid, found at: http://thismeofmine.wordpress.com/2012/07/14/a-barely-responsive-exterior/

CONTEMPORARY ART, DIGITAL ART, REVIEWS

Gordon Cheung at Room: multi media artist

I always find fascinating when an artist can juggle between medias or techniques, when artists can be as varied as Gordon Cheung is. It is definitely a sign of open mindedness and in this case also talent.

Pyrographics, spray paint, oil, acrylics, sculpture, animation… Gordon Cheung seems to explore everything in is art. THE JOURNEY (ink, acrylic gel and spray paint on canvas), BEAR and BULL (both being acrylic gel and spray on canvases) are definitely my favorite pieces. Acrylic gel is superb to get incredible texture and relief. Continue reading Gordon Cheung at Room: multi media artist →

STREET ART

P183, street artist or Bankski copycat?

P183 is his name and Moscow his playground where he has recently dropped a series of street artworks which some will tell feels very “banksy-ish”. Banksy, British artist, first began his guerilla artwork campaign in Bristol in the early 1990s.

It is hard not to agree when you see some of his works below but one piece particularly caught my eye – Seeing is believing, I actually think it is very clever and is one of the best use of the urban furniture I have seen in recent street art. It uses lamp-post to double as the arm of a giant pair of eyeglasses, with the rest of the ‘frames’ drawn in the snow. Clever

Another piece is worth mentioning too – Instigators Of Bridges. A rioter with a flare has been drawn on a flyover and fire is lit at night giving the piece another realistic dimension.

What do you reckon?

P183 - Seeing is believing
P183 - Seeing Is Believing
P183 - Instigators Of Bridges
P183 - Instigators Of Bridges
P183 - Seasonal
P183 - Seasonal
P183 - Urban Hazard
P183 - Urban Hazard
BLOG, CONTEMPORARY ART

Girls, glasses and tattoos

Some people like art for its meaning or the messages that it conveys but others will appreciate the art for its beauty, its aesthetic. I will not dive into what is beauty or aesthetic in art but I would rather illustrate one form of beauty – tattoos, the art of tattoos. And what about tattoos on girls wearing glasses? I know.

Hoping these trigger emotions in relation to the sense of beauty you have got in mind.

Girls, tattoos and glasses | Art-PieGirls, tattoos and glasses | Art-Pie

Girls, tattoos and glasses | Art-PieGirls, tattoos and glasses | Art-Pie

Girls, tattoos and glasses | Art-PieGirls, tattoos and glasses | Art-Pie

First seen on inkedmag

CONTEMPORARY ART, STREET ART

Clemens Behr & Romain Froquet – cardboard, wood, yarn and paint

We have already featured Clemens Behr‘s cardboards installations and are again very happy to do so. This time, the playground is in Paris and the collaboration is with French painter Romain Froquet.

The fruit of this partnership are two eye-catching 3D installations enhanced by Froquet’s neat and intricate abstract paintings which can be seen below. The video of this collaborative work has also been included below.

Clemens Behr and Romain Froquet installation

Uncategorized

AK47 “Bullets Straight from the Heart” at MEN gallery

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WIN a pink or a blue AK47 bullet. You just need to like us on Facebook or share this Facebook status, the competition closes on Friday 08/11 midnight

AK47, an active artist involved in underground and alternative sub-culture circuits since the 1980s, is back in London for a solo show of commercial works at the Maurice Einhardt Neu gallery.

You may have come across AK47 bullets around the street of East London. If you have not, take a look at the video we have included below.

AK47 the artist ‘Bullets Straight From The Heart’ from Art kieda on Vimeo.

AK47 | Art-Pie“Bullets Straight from the Heart” will comprises a series of heart-shaped works with bullets sandwiched between two sheets of perspex, their tip piercing through the front sheet, spell out words and phrases such as LOVE, HATE, KISS ME. These dictums or mandates readily reveal themselves when the viewer stands immediately in front of an individual piece. Direct exchange ensues — the back perspex is mirrored and reflects back to us our own image, the bullets targeting head or chest depending on our individual height. Until this point, when viewed at an angle, the bullets appear like batteries of missiles ready to launch.

‘Love Hearts’ — the tablet-shaped fruit-flavoured sweets, that feature prominently in the artist’s childhood memories, come together in Bullets Straight from the Heart, with another potent childhood memory: playing with guns. The snappy love-related messages of 1970s pastel-coloured confectionary are rehashed and perforated in the juxtaposition of these two referents.

Interaction continues also at the point of sale, with the smaller works in the show flat-packed in pizza boxes ready for self-assembly.

What – AK47 “Bullets Straight from the Heart” solo show
When – The exhibition opens to the public daily on Thursday 7th November and runs until 19th November 2013 from 12 noon – 7 pm FREE ENTRY.
Where – THE MAURICE EINHARDT NEU GALLERY | 30a Redchurch Street | London E2 7DP

STREET ART ENCOUNTERS