Hilla Shamia‘s Furniture combining cast aluminium and wood. The negative factor of burnt wood is transformed into aesthetic and emotional value by preservation of the natural form of the tree trunk, within explicit boundaries. The general, squared form intensifies the artificial feeling, and at the same time keeps the memory of the material.
William Miller‘s own words ‘ These are Polaroid pictures run through a partially broken SX-70 camera that I purchased from a yard sale. The camera sometimes spills out 2 pictures at a time and the film often gets stuck in the gears, exposing and mangling the images in unpredictable ways. Over time I’ve figured out how to control and accentuate aspects of the camera’s flaws but the images themselves are always a surprise. Each one is determined by the idiosyncrasies of the film and the camera.
All prints are 30X36 inches to accentuate details, cracks and flourishes hidden from the naked eye’.
Photographer and artist Chris Fraser took his cues from the camera obscura — the projection ancestor to photography whose first recorded mention occurs in the 4th century BC — to create his interactive light installments.
He says, “My light installations use the camera obscura as a point of departure. They are immersive optical environments, idealized spaces with discreet openings. In translating the outside world into moving fields of light and color, the projections make an argument for an unfixed notion of sight.”
The United Kingdom Pavilion at Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo was constructed of 60,000 light-funneling fiber-optic rods each with one or more seeds implanted at its tip.
The Seed Cathedral was designed by the architectural firm led by Thomas Heatherwick, who worked with the Kew Gardens and Millennium seed bank project, whose mission is to collect seeds from 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020.
The structure was designed to evoke the theme of the Expo: “Better City, Better Life.” The project includes a surrounding landscape conceived as a continuation of the building’s texture.
The fiber-optic rods that make up the cathedral are designed to respond to external light conditions, so that movements of clouds and changes of light outside it are experienced inside as changes in luminosity.
Upon its dismantling, the cathedral’s 60,000 rods will be distributed to hundreds of schools across China and the U.K. “just as dandelion seeds are blown away and dispersed on the breeze,” in the words of the architect’s statement
Heatherwick designed the interior to be a contemplative, tranquil space, surrounded by thousands of points of light, each bearing, literally, the seeds of life.
The architects at ch+gs created the new state-of-the-art additions to the Matadero cultural center in Madrid, Spain. The new additions to the facility include two exquisite theaters as well as a massive library. The dark walls and flooring are illuminated by glowing lights inside the woven plastic tubing that spans much of the walls, ceilings and stairwells of the building. Elongated stairwells and tall ceilings combine with the bold lighting to create a modern and cosmic ambiance for the theater and library that can be enjoyed by anyone. Via dsgnr
An extraordinary American artist from Pennsylvania, USA.
In Mary Ann Wakeley‘s own words…
…”My work is an expression of an affinity with color and line. I use them to depict a rich inner landscape, one that is colored by a feeling that occurs during the creative process. Within this landscape are stories that take place at any point in time–snapshots of moments new and perhaps relived, relationships that play out where the actors are represented by any number of marks. Sometimes the marks come together as figurative forms that intrigue me much the way someone I do not recognize appears in a dream. I view them as aspects of myself playing out in the drama of each piece. It is a form of self-communication as well as a channel for what needs to come through”.
“Each work is created intuitively without a preconceived idea. Often I have the sense of painting time itself and what is suspended in it. But this is just an idea after the fact, not something that I set out to depict intentionally. Titles allow me to play with words and language so as to add another dimension to the work”.
“I hope that my work elicits a thought provoking yet emotional response in the viewer, something that speaks of our connectedness which is so easy to forget in today’s world”.
Wadi Rum Resort is a concept created by Oppenheim Architecture + Design for an 7500-square-meters hotel in Jordan that will completed in 2014.
The project merges silently with its wondrous setting, exploiting and enhancing the natural beauty of the desert to establish accommodations that are uniquely elemental and luxurious. The minimal yet powerful gestures of the architecture, both built and carved serves to create harmony, and balance while framing and amplifying the surroundings.
“We have trained and heightened our senses to see, smell, taste, hear, and touch the mystical beauty of Wadi Rum.We tapped the inherent power of the desert through primal and instinctual design moves, informed by the forces, rhythms and patterns of nature— past, present, and future,” says Oppenheim about his creative process for the project.
With this resort, Oppenheim offers a harmonious unity between nature and man, working with the native materials and formations to guide their design.
Bluarch, latest mesmerising installment, Innuendo Restaurant in New York. Bluarch is an architectural and interior design firm, best known for their multidimensional, organic formations.
The cloud-like installation is made of wooden squares, layered in a geometric pattern. Using mathematical sequences and complex geometries as his inspiration, architect Antonio Di Oronzo of Bluarch realizes a bold concept that fuses structural, lighting and interior design. Antonio Di Oronzo says,”the concept, links the fractal definition of geometry versus its topological essence”. “It shelters occupants in a soft, shifting, ever-fluid space, adding that LED lighting is integrated into the installation, positioned to enhance its hovering nature”.
The Turner Prize winning artist Martin Creed has transformed the Gallery restaurant at London’s Sketch
In the first of a new long-term programme of artist-conceived restaurants, at the venue, Martin Creed has taken to task a complete redesign of the main restaurant space.
Through a series of new works both functional and decorative, Creed has created an environment that is at once an exhibition, an artwork, a restaurant and an Events space. Exemplary of the logical and welcoming systems that recur throughout his work, the floor, walls and furniture take the form of new artworks inspired by the boundaries of art and functionality.
Mario Testino’s language of layering and intricacy in his decor and fashion taste is exquisite!.
His eclectic palette of earthen colors and graphic floral motifs, mixed with an array of furniture and art from a multitude of different countries is a beautiful integration of global culture and craftsmen ship.
bgiraldos 