Colossal | A blog about art and visual ingenuity.

Gregor 2012 Unraveling Scarf Calendar

There are only 122 days until Christmas, I think it’s time to kick off the cavalcade of awesome designer calendars. I admit, this one’s a little early, but with good reason. The Gregor calendar by industrial designer Patrick Frey is a delicately knit scarf that counts down the year by unraveling stitch by stitch. Check out the updated video above to see it in action and then head immediately over to the German design shop details where you can pick one up for about $80. I think the version available is in German, but I might be wrong. Usually they have English as well, so stay tuned.

After posting briefly about this calendar last year, after the holidays, after all the Gregor 2011 calendars had been sold, gifted, and were unstitching themselves in kitchens around the globe, it slowly became the number one Googled thing that lead to Colossal for nearly three months. And then the emails started: Do you know where I can buy the calendar? Do you know anyone who has one? Do you have one? Who has one? Why don’t you have one? I don’t care if you’ve unstitched three months already I’ll take it. You can pro-rate it. Look, can I come to your house and just pull the string a little? Like pull off a week? Ok a day. Just a day. Let me unstitch one day off your calendar, man. LET ME PULL ONE FREAKING STITCH DUDE.

At least that’s how I remember it. The calendar is popular. Get one while you can. Keep away from cats. (thnx, martin!)

By Christopher on August 24, 2011 • calendars textiles

Origami Crane Made from … 2,000,000 Origami Cranes: A Flapping Success for Japan Earthquake Relief

Photo by Andrew Moore for New York Times Magazine. Click for detail.

Shortly after the Japan earthquake the nonprofit Bezos Family Foundation invited children from around the world to mail origami cranes to its Seattle headquarters, promising to donate $2 per crane to the relief efforts, up to to $200,000. A few days later a truck arrived filled with thousands of cranes. And then another truck. And then another. Eventually over 2,000,000 cranes arrived at the steps of the non-profit and the organization doubled its donation. Now, Brooklyn-based Brazilian artist Vik Muniz has been tasked with taking the cranes and making something incredible with them. Above, an image from the New York Times Magazine shows the progress of his meta paper crane mosaic made of paper cranes made from math homework, hall passes, love letters, Saran wrap, Kleenex, candy wrappers, and restaurant menus. Astounding! (via hyperallergic, ny times magazine)

A Woman Made of Candles

A Woman Made of Candles sculpture installation fire candles body

I admit, this leans toward the creepy side, but it’s also pretty captivating too. This wax woman embedded with candle wicks was made by A.F.Vandevorst (which I believe is a Belgian fashion label) for the Arnhem Mode Biennale 2011. Reminds me of this piece by Urs Fischer. (via lenn cox)

By Christopher on August 23, 2011 • body candles fire installation sculpture

Diogo Hornburg

I’m really enjoying the work of Brazilian illustrator Diogo Hornburg.

By Christopher on August 23, 2011 • animals birds illustration

Daniel Crooks: Static No. 12

Production still from Static No. 12 (Seek Stillness in Movement), courtesy Anna Schwartz Gallery. Click for detail.

Static No. 12 (Seek Stillness in Movement) is a video piece by Australian artist Daniel Crooks who filmed a man performing tai chi and used what appears to be a form of video slit scanning to play it slowly back. I tried to get the actual video for you, but it’s technically unavailable for viewing online (ahem, however — awesome right?). Hopefully one day we’ll be able to watch a clearer version online. Thanks to the Anna Schwartz Gallery for permitting use of the still above.

By Christopher on August 23, 2011 • body martial arts multiple exposures video art

Deborah Butterfield

Deborah Butterfield wood sculpture horses animals

A number of new works by Deborah Butterfield who assembles these striking horse sculptures using tree branches made from bronze. ~~I can’t imagine the process involved in finding the perfect piece of wood for each delicate line~~. Her upcoming show at Danese in NYC runs September 9 through October 8, 2011. (via ex-chamber)

By Christopher on August 23, 2011 • animals horses sculpture wood

Solitaire “Win” Screen Constructed from Over 1,000 3D Playing Cards

Solitaire Win Screen Constructed from Over 1,000 3D Playing Cards sculpture multiples games computers cards

Creative duo Lars Marcus Vedeler and Theo Tveterås of Oslo, Norway have come together to form the experimental design team Skrekkøgle that I was originally tempted to call an art collective, however via their website they suggest otherwise.

We don’t think of ourselves as artists, as we come from a product/interaction design background. What we see ourselves as is a studio that does what it very well pleases, experimenting with products and electronics and the like, not necessarily being tied to a client.

Sounds like every designers dream to me. A number of their projects have bounced around the blogs lately, my favorite being this hilarious three-dimensional sculpture of the win screen for Windows Solitaire. Also check out their exceedingly clever big money project that makes nearby objects look tiny by placing them next to an enormous replica of the 50 Euro cent piece and photographing them using using tilt-shift photography. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Reading their blog they seem to fancy Colossal—what’s up guys? (via quipsologies)

By Christopher on August 23, 2011 • cards computers games multiples sculpture

Fantastic Kinetic Sculptures by Limee Young

Fantastic Kinetic Sculptures by Limee Young sculpture kinetic sculpture

South Korean artist Limee Young makes these diabolically complex kinetic sculptures using stainless steel components, embedded cpu boards, microprocessors, servos, and other mechanical doodads I’m not going to even pretend to understand. The devices seem to have no practical function other than being completely mesmerizing in a strangely perfect way. You can read a bit more about the devices on his blog and see a couple larger images on mu-um.