Posted on

Outside the Planter Boxes

At the end of last month, 30 planter interventions were created by a group of Toronto-based artists, gardeners, and concerned citizens. These individuals each took a neglected planter and adorned it, modified it, or annotated its condition. This statement is made stronger by a collective approach to highlighting the issue of urban engagement.

The following is from the project’s website: “We all have stakes in our shared environments, and this public project directly engages with Toronto’s urban fabric. One of the primary intents of the Outside the Planter Boxes project is to encourage more direct participation and interest in our shared public spaces – to demonstrate that the public can play a more consciously active role in how our city is shaped.”

Via: Eyeteeth: A Journal of Incisive Ideas

Pictured above: Sean Martindale’s Planter

Continue reading “Outside the Planter Boxes”

Posted on

Sergio Albiac’s ‘Content is Queen’

Content is Queen is a new generative video painting by Sergio Albiac. Using computer programming language, he modifies the tools a painter would normally use and creates dynamic “paintings” from found video. If you’re having a hard time discerning what the image is, take a few steps back. Now the title makes sense!

Sergio states, “My technique uses regions of video content to effectively represent or “paint” heterogeneous regions of the image. Both the partial content of the videos and the whole image are fully visible at the same time, widening the possibilities to deliver meaning in a contemporary aesthetic language.”

Via: Today and Tomorrow

Posted on

Welcome to Pyongyang

Charlie Crane was faced with the task of photographing one of the most secretive and perhaps the most censored countries in the world. It took a year of trying to obtain permission to bring his camera to North Korea, and even as he got there, he was faced with incredibly tight restrictions. As digging deeper would be nearly impossible, Crane chose to go another route, and photographed exactly what he was permitted to see. As a result, this work is of the strongest I’ve seen.

The following images are from tourist sites around the city of Pyongyang, North Korea.

Continue reading “Welcome to Pyongyang”

Posted on

David Maisel’s American Mine

David Maisel‘s photographic series American Mine is getting on a bit now–he started it in 2007–but it’s one of those projects that become more relevant with age. To me his work highlights the paradox of admiring beauty in the organized destruction of something valuable. To be honest, all of David’s work is stunning; I suggest checking out his portfolio.

According to the American Mine project page, “Rather than a condemnation of a specific industry […] my images are intended as an aesthetic response to such despoiled landscapes. These sites are the contemplative gardens of our time, places that offer the opportunity to reflect on who and what we are collectively, as a society.”

Pictured above: American Mine (Carlin, NV 21)

Continue reading “David Maisel’s American Mine”

Posted on

Outpost Journal: Art, Design, and Action from the Fringes

An interesting project to look into …

Outpost Journal is a biannual, non-profit print publication on innovative art, design and community action from cities that have been traditionally underexposed beyond their local contexts. Founded in 2010, Outpost aims to give wider exposure to artists and activists from smaller cities back in more recognized centers of artistic practice and commerce, such as New York and Los Angeles.

Outpost is a journey into the creative heart of a place. Via features like Secretly Famous (profiles of the most infamous artsy locals), guerrilla engagements with tourist attractions, historical explorations, mapping projects, and deep dives into artist collectives and organizations, Outpost plans to expose the myriad ways in which unique local communities arise through creative collaboration and production.

Support it over at their Kickstarter Campaign.

[via an email]

Posted on

Matthew Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs

I have recently come across a very gorgeous set of photographs from Los Angeles, California’s Matthew Brandt. Matthew took snapshots of various lakes and reservoirs in California and soaked them in water from each corresponding location. The results are pretty random and, in my opinion, all beautiful. What he ends up with are sort of “personalized” portraits of these lakes and reservoirs.

Image above: Stone Lagoon, CA (C-Print)

Continue reading “Matthew Brandt’s Lakes and Reservoirs”

Posted on

Dynamite Wildflower Guerillas

Guerilla gardener(s) started a website documenting their efforts. It’s simple and makes me very ready to embrace the impending summer.

They write:

throw sseeds some of them take some dont take some grow then somebody cut it down the bastards. why would someone cut it down i dont know.

if it rains too much the seds get washed away.

we went to the sign twice because we thought seeds didnt take but when we got there we found that some grew.  I was surprised and excited to see the plants there

At night I put seeds in an icetray & make ice cubes with sseeds in it.  In the morning I throw the icecubes out the window while im driving

when i see dirt.

They’ve kept a lovely map, noting when and where their plants are blooming.

Here’s to a very nature-filled summer.

Posted on

Fire Painting by Sanela Jahic

Fire Painting is an interactive installation made by Sanela Jahic. “The viewer can set off explosive levels of kerosene by subtle movements of a sensory data glove. The image can be manipulated, yet it constantly escapes control.” Sanela asks “What happens if a painting is no longer an independent, selfcontained position, bound by standstill, unalterability and light in site?” Interesting.

Via: Today and Tomorrow

Continue reading “Fire Painting by Sanela Jahic”

Posted on

The Night Sky Billboard Project by Charlie Michaels & Bird

The Night Sky Billboard Project from Charlie Michaels on Vimeo.

In collaboration with a local sign painter named Bird, who has been leaving his mark along Detroit’s streets for decades, an artist and our friend, Charlie Michaels turned an old vacant Detroit billboard into a big painting of the night sky – for star gazing in the city.

Above the intersection of Mack Ave. and Mt. Elliott St. on the east side of Detroit, a billboard that’s been sitting empty for decades displays an image of the night sky. Allowing those who pass underneath to see the stars more clearly than they are visible in the city, it offers a quiet reminder to notice what is always present but cannot always be seen.

Charlie says, “The collaboration with bird came out of a desire to integrate the project into the neighborhood somehow instead of simply using it as the destination. Streets on the east side of Detroit are covered with hand painted ads and murals – seeing this project as an addition to this gallery already in the street and wanting to acknowledge those artists whose work is already so present, I decided to seek out a collaborator. Bird was amazing to work with because his work is really everywhere, an entire lifetime of painting on view all over the east side.”

The video provides a very cool behind-the-scenes look at the installation and creation of the work. I heart billboards and this project.