Kyle Bean’s What Came First?

In light of the Easter holiday, here is a simple but clever creation by UK designer Kyle Bean. Described concisely as a “chicken made from eggshells,” his sculpture whimsically illustrates the age-old question and all of its philosophical implications. 

For more interesting work by Bean (favourites include Apps and Aerotropolis) see his website here.

- Erin Saunders

Carole Clark

Turning her attention away from more conventional artistic media, American artist Carole Clark seeks inspiration in the natural world. Her more recent projects include these “vessels,” composed of naturally-sourced materials — fallen tree bark, lichen, mushrooms, moss, berries, seed pods — and assembled as a kind of sculptural collage. While these objects are indeed creative studies of texture, line, and form in their own, they also represent the practice of sustainable art-making. Clark is sure to underscore this quality by giving her sculptures use-value as containers. She writes of her work:

“The work evolved from my experiences searching for edible mushrooms in the woodlands and grasslands near my home. Walking in the woods, focused on nature’s extraordinary diversity, and enjoying the pleasure of the hunt, I discovered a great diversity of natural materials so beautiful in their form, color, line, and texture that I could not resist bringing them back to my studio. There I carefully prepared and dried all the materials to make them maximally durable….My use of green materials, sourced from nature, defines my work as eco friendly, sustainable art. This environmentally sustainable practice of foraging natural elements is similar to that of collage in its process of selection and juxtaposition.”

See more of Clark’s projects at her website here.

- Erin Saunders

David Altmejd

David Altmejd focuses on the growth that can occur in decay. The Montreal native makes artworks where colours, crystals, faux flowers and apparent signs of optimism arise out of the dead or dying. There is also an element of fantasy in his works as the dead come back to life, or become mythic creatures such as werewolves and giants. His artworks create an immense presence in their environments and viewers tend to feel like they have stepped into another world. To see Altmejd’s works is to be enveloped in awe. To see more of his works, click here.

- Lee Jones 

Phil Ross

Dense foam, yeasty bricks, tubular protrusions and chunky domes characterize the sculptures of Phil Ross, an innovative artist and researcher with a passion for mycology (the study of fungi). In the series Pure Culture (1997-present), Ross harnesses the various properties of mushrooms to create an array of shapes: from small, delicate toadstools, to something resembling a bakery explosion. The fungi are coaxed and teased using moulds to produce appealing forms, yet the end result relies on the particularity of each specimen.

Some pieces are the direct result of Ross’s research; though fungi are often associated with pharmaceutical breakthroughs, Ross seeks to unlock their potential as building materials. a large six foot wide by six foot high arch, titled Mycotectural Alpha, is an imposing structure made from bricks of rock-hard mycelium, root-like fibers of the mushroom Ganoderma Lucidum. Impacted into a mass as strong as concrete, the mycelium is harvested and cut into blocks. The spongy bricks have been skillfully fashioned into an arch; fibers cling to the sides of the structure, revealing its organic origin. Not only an effective sculptural material, innovation in the harvest of mycelium shows its great potential as a biodegradable, inexpensive and reliable alternative to plastic, even Styrofoam. 

Another fungal sculpture is patiently teased into a semblance of Harold Edgerton’s iconic Milk Splash photograph (middle, right). The twisting, fragile toadstools stretch toward the sky along a spongy rounded base. Ross literally transports mushrooms ‘out of the dark’; he playfully invites the viewer to share his curiosity and enthusiasm for these specimens, and the result is an all-encompassing celebration of their dynamic physicality. For more information on Ross and his projects, click here.

-Stephanie Read

Levi Van Veluw

In this series, Veneer, by Levi Van Veluw, the artist uses an expressionless, almost universal, face and demonstrates how different materials can create meaning. As he states, “By playing with the value of the each material and by using them for a purpose that was not originally intended for them, I construct within the image, in a very small way, a different perspective on the world.”

The use of repetition in this series also creates meaning. At first, since the face is present throughout the series, one would think it would be the focus. Yet the differences are what stand out. As Veluw states, “By using the same head and facial expression, the person slowly becomes of secondary importance to the form.”

Through his focus on materials Veluw raises questions about “veneers”—Does the difference in material change the value of each of the pieces in the series? Veluw thinks it does, “My work amounts to small researches into the valuations we assign to the things around us and the associations they engender.” To see more of his work, click here. 

- Lee Jones

THE ART PROCESS: Miniature Art

On the same wave as Victoria’s previous post highlighting Aiba’s work with miniatures, let’s take a closer look at these little artist-created worlds (like, real close - these things can get pretty tiny). 

Miniature and model art focuses on the thousand-year-old traditions of engraving and sculpting small-scaled objects mostly based on life-sized things. As this genre meshes in with the contemporary art world, some very interesting analysis of nature and architecture arise. 

A great example of this which comes to mind is the meticulous work of Keisuke Tanaka. His process starts with large blocks of blank wood which he carefully and skillfully carves into incredibly detailed sculptures. The carvings are then hand-painted with extreme care. Weaved into his pieces, which are mostly comprised of trees and cloud-like wisps, you will find cityscapes, tiny wooden houses, and swirling trails. 

These overall whimsical pieces come silver-lined with the beautifully ironic concept of trees being carved out of wood. What I like most about miniature work is how the artist can put a whole forest at your feet yet it will remain completely humble as if you were standing in the forest itself. 

- Jess Petrella

Marilyse Chaussée

We’ve featured the works of Marilyse Chaussée before, but with the work she’s been doing since our last post we thought it was time for a revisit. In the piece above, What do you think of when you create?,  the artist created an installation regrouping four big tracing paper sheets, aligned in order to create a spiral like shape. As Chaussée describes the work, 

“My project is about escaping reality by projecting ourselves in a minimal miniature landscape. It talks about reinventing daily living, recycling objects and how to evoke fascination out of the ordinary. It talks about scales, humans and systems. It is playful. I don’t think it’s about nature preservation, I find it relates more to how to deal with what we have, and to go on from there.”

The piece’s title also carries a larger message about how we access art.  The title of the work came from a discussion Chaussée had with a colleague who asked her about the inspiration for her works.  As she states,

“At first, I dismissed the question thinking that artists have a common understanding of creation process. But I realised that he had a different approach, he would pick up an idea and then bring it to life materially whereas I would play with the proprieties of the materials and think of ideas along the way.  This title also alludes to the common belief that in order to appreciate or talk about art one must be a specialist.  That is often not the case and, sadly, this belief prevents people from going to galleries and even talking about art. I would like my work to be an access to imaginary and, perhaps, the starting point of interesting discussions.”

This is a really poignant message to contemplate, how do we make galleries more accessible? Why do people sometimes hesitate when talking about art?

If you happen to be in Ottawa, this piece will be at Blink Gallery from September 6th to 9th, and for more of Chaussée artworks, click here. 

- Lee Jones

Richard Fauguet, Untitled (2000-2005)

In this untitled work, contemporary French artist Richard Fauguet traces the trajectories of a ping pong ball during an imaginary game. The resulting sculpture is an incredibly precise mapping of the ball’s spatial impressions that recalls the aesthetic of chronophotography. Reviewer Robert Nelson writes for The Age (2005):

 ” The work is a history, because it tells the story of just a few strokes of imaginary table tennis, of which you have so little consciousness that you’re more consumed with the rules or the thought of who’s winning. But here, the phenomenology of the tock-tick ti-ti-ti is grotesquely monumentalised, leaving no room in the space for any other moment.”

See more of Fauguet’s work here.

- Erin Saunders