Category Archives: URBANISM

Architecture by Filip Dujardin

Architecture is often looked over isn’t it? But when you come across architects such as the belgian artist and architectural photographer Filip Dujardin, you have to share a bit of love and make you aware of his works.

He just had a show at Highlight Gallery in San Francisco and we hear that the works focused on “fictional buildings that Dujardin has created using a digital collaging technique from photographs of real buildings around Ghent, Belgium.”

One will classify these as “absurd“, as the “René Magritte and Raoul Servais” of architecture.

What do you reckon?

Filip Dujardin | Art-Pie Filip Dujardin | Art-Pie Filip Dujardin | Art-Pie Filip Dujardin | Art-Pie

First seen on Slamxhype

A glow in the dark skate park

Otro by Koo Jeong-A | Art_PieWe all like when art means having fun, don’t we? How about then if you could skateboard on a sculpture and even better glow-in-the-dark skate park? Yes you would or at least you would support the concept.

The concept is out there in fact and in France precisely. Korean artist Koo Jeong-A has come up with a solution. The structure is called Otro, and is made from green phosphorescent concrete (how cool is that) so it gives off a radioactive glare at night. It is composed of different bowls, a cradle and three tunnels. See pictures below.

Koo Jeong-A invites anyone to share the physical and sensorial experience of her sculpture/skatepark. With OTRO, Koo Jeong-A tries out the fragile visibility of the artwork, its discrete appearance that tests our perception, obliging you to discover with patience the artwork’s essence. So if you are on holiday in France near Limoges, make a stop for Otro, you’ll like it.

Exact location: Lac de Vassivière | 87120 Beaumont-du-Lac, France | View the location on Google maps

Go onto the www.escaut.org website to find out more about the OTRO project

Otro by Koo Jeong-A | Art_Pie

Otro by Koo Jeong-A | Art_PieOtro by Koo Jeong-A | Art_Pie

Otro by Koo Jeong-A | Art_Pie

Color Jam

At last there is something for the “looking down while walking” individuals. There is a good reason to ignore your siblings, there is the new work from Jessica Stockholder to look at.

“Color Jam” is the name of the installation and is a make-over of State and Adams streets in downtown Chicago. A flow of colors have landed on the concrete and are licking the surrounding building.

Orange, lime green and turquoise shapes seem to wait for the bypassers in the hope of lighten these often bleak faces. Jessica Stockholder hit again with what she does best – site-specific works that merge painting to a three dimensional element.

ART-PIE - Color Jam by Jessica Stockholder

ART-PIE - Color Jam by Jessica Stockholder

Below is a photo of another installation made also in Chicago back in 2009 where brightly colored plywood platforms and metal bleachers were assembled to turn a section of Madison Square Park in New York into an abstract painting, “Flooded Chambers Maid.” Children instantly appropriated it as a playground, and adults used it as an informal seating area.

ART-PIE - Flooded Chambers Maid by Jessica Stockholder

Central St Giles – urbanism at its best

I did not expect to walk through what, actually, turned out to be a truly enjoyable experience. I am talking here about the new urban development named Central Saint Giles, comfortably wedged between Bloomsbury and Soho in London.

I suspect the sunny weather that day helped here, but I was truly amazed by the imposing and colorful buildings that make up this very modern workplace, which includes office space, shops, restaurants, cafes, apartments and an outdoor public piazza. Bright green, yellow and orange are the colours used for the huge facades, which clearly make them stand out amidst the surrounding urban buildings.

While enjoying a walk on the spacious and bright piazza, I was happily surprised to encounter a couple of sculptures, one of which is by the artist Steven Gontarski; a five-meter-tall piece, adding another layer of colour to the landscape.

Urbanism like this can be beautiful, by either inspiring the architect (Renzo Piano) or being integrated into it.

http://www.centralsaintgiles.com/

Central Saint Giles

Ob 08 by Steven Gontarski
Central Saint GilesOb 08 by Steven G0ntarski

Central Saint Giles