Art

Interview: The Artists Behind DRIFT Discuss the Unparalleled Potential of Technology in Cultivating Connections with Nature

“Fragile Future.” All images © DRIFT, shared with permission

Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta, the pair behind the Amsterdam-based studio DRIFT, have spent the last few decades exploring the intersection of technology and nature, an experience they recount in a new interview supported by Colossal Members. Their broad, immersive body of work harnesses the power of robotics, manufactured mechanisms, and even algorithms to visualize some of the most stunning and captivating biological phenomena and ecological cycles.

We believe that we live in a time where technology and nature are no longer opposites but are codependent entities. For DRIFT, inspiration and natural phenomena always stand at the epicenter of our works—technology is merely the means to bring our visions to life—whereas the internet allows us to share our visions with as many people as possible.

In this conversation, Colossal managing editor Grace Ebert speaks with the pair about the origins of their collaboration-driven studio, how recognizing and internalizing patterns can help us realign with the world around us, and why nature and the inevitability of change is the only guarantee.

“Shylight”

Photography

Highlighting Life in Ukraine, A Print Sale is Raising Funds for People Impacted By the Crisis

“Ukraine Runs Through It,” Justyna Mielnikiewicz

A print sale from the women-led nonprofit Vital Impacts (previously) is raising money for people affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine. The month-long fundraiser, titled Impact Now, offers more than 100 images from National Geographic photographers. Taken globally and diverse in subject matter, the collection includes a variety of landscapes and wildlife, in addition to stunning underwater shots by renowned photographers Paul Nicklen (previously) and David Doubilet (previously)—and multiple shots focus specifically on life in Ukraine. David Guttenfelder documents protestors from the country’s Orange Revolution in the mid-aughts, while Justyna Mielnikiewicz spotlights young dancers from Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in 2015, the latter of which became a hub for pro-Russia rebels the year prior.

Impact Now runs through April 20, and all profits will be donated to Direct Relief, which is providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine. You can buy prints here.

“Ukrainian Demonstrators in the Orange Revolution,” David Guttenfelder

“Dresses,” Amy Toensing

“Polar Bear Mother with Cubs,” Norbert Rosing

“Central Park on a Foggy Night, New York,” Jim Richardson

“Emperor Reflections,” Paul Nicklen

“Merced River Yosemite Valley,” Michael Melford

“Last Bell Kyiv,” Dina Litovsky

“Chance Encounter,” David Doubilet

“Yosemite Valley after the Storm,” Jimmy Chin

Illustration

Ethereal Digital Botanicals by Ondrej Zunka Explore Human Dependency on Plant Species

“The Fluffus Algae” All images © Ondrej Zunka, shared with permission

In a collection of otherworldly plants and flowers, digital artist Ondrej Zunka distorts the anatomy of botanical specimens into spiraling shapes and unusual textures. Titled The Fleur, Zunka’s renderings imagine 21 ethereal species—on his site, you can use a digital magnifying glass to view each work up close—that explores how all living creatures need biological variety in order to survive. “Habitats thrive with a diversity of plants that form complex communities, who both depend on and compete with one another in a natural symbiosis,” he says.

Zunker bases each creation on a real species, all chosen for their interesting qualities that he exaggerates or ascribes unearthly characteristics. One of the plants has delicate pistils that can’t germinate pollen if exposed to frost, while another only blooms once every 40 to 50 years. The peony-like “Toxic Exaryum,” for example, is described as having “a complex scent: its petals smell musky and sweet” and spherical growths that release “acidic compounds into the ground as they decompose.” Evoking a poppy, “Vomitus flos” is defined by its long, protective hair, while strange “The Odorata Cinere” has fringed petals in an ashy color.

One of Zunka’s main focuses is to reinvent the reproductive structure of plants, how their vibrant colors, scents, and nectar are intended to seduce insects during the pollination process. In some of his specimens, the stamen and stigma are elongated and twist out of flowers to create forms that ought to be part of another world. “They bloom only briefly, and only under the right conditions, making flowers an expensive resource for a plant to produce,” Zunka says. “It is my wish that these flowers inspire us to look for guidance in the infinitely beautiful and intelligent natural world. There is a lesson for us all there—in the way habitats always manage to remain balanced and functioning despite the chaotic diversity of plants.”

To view more of Zunka’s work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.

“Toxic Exaryum”

“Primula bros”

“Vomitus flos'”

“Pilosus torquent”

“The Punctatum Capillum”

“The Tulipa Nodatus”

“Lilium custodia”

“Connexa chamaemilla”

“The Cynara Serpentes”

Art Design

'Real Time' Uses Amusing Manual Techniques To Track the Passage of Each Minute

Part of a series of performances centered on cumbersome and surreal timekeeping devices, Maarten Baas’s “Sweeper’s Clock” chronicles two men as they track each passing moment with heaps of garbage. The aerially shot film follows the pair as they push lines of trash representative of the minute and hour hands around a large circle faintly defined in the landscape, keeping time as they go.

Released in 2009, the video piece parallels other clever works in Baas’s Real Time series, including a painter manually unveiling a digital display and another showing the Dutch artist trapped inside a grandfather clock. Visitors to the international terminal of the Amsterdam airport in 2016 were also greeted with “Schiphol Clock,” an analog device suspended from the ceiling in which a man adjusted the time by hand. “The worker’s blue overalls, yellow rag, and red bucket pay homage to the famous Dutch artist, Mondrian,” Baas writes.

Watch more of the artist’s works at the intersection of art, film, and design on Vimeo. (via Laughing Squid)

Art Food

Oversized Snacks and Glitzy Flattened Pop Cans by Sam Keller Playfully Critique Consumption

All images by Tim Johnson, courtesy of the Sam Keller and Louis Buhl & Co., shared with permission

Los Angeles-based artist Sam Keller creates playful works centered around his interest in twisting new narratives from everyday objects. He transforms a flattened Coca-Cola or La Croix can into a beautiful gleaming object coated in Swarovski crystals and sculpts giant Cheetos in hollow spheres and small stacks. Each work sheds light on consumption and capitalism’s grip on society. “My use of unpreserved junk foods I’m hoping should prompt a re-examination of the foods we decide to consume as well,” the artist shares. “For the record, I stopped eating Cheetos years ago.”

While growing up in Brooklyn, Keller was drawn to the environment surrounding him, often finding and collecting objects from the streets, which still informs his work today. “My teenage bedroom was decorated with advertisements I removed from subway cars, a satellite dish that I painted on, and once to my parent’s dismay, I even brought home a toppled parking meter,” Keller tells Colossal. Today, he sources many cans from discarded waste around him, after which he flattens them and decorates them in colorful crystals.

The artist studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and focused on drawing found objects, food, and “off-shoot materials for their built-in language and cultural significance.” Except for high-end glass, many of the items he uses are relatively common. “It only takes two large bags (of Cheetos) to make a ‘Cheetosphere’ sculpture, so from a practical standpoint, a vitrine to protect one of those is the most expensive component,” he explains.“I’m always looking for new objects and materials to incorporate into my practice while continuing to evolve my existing ideas and interests. I feel like I’m chasing an indescribable vision in my mind, and I’ll only know when I get there.”

To view more of Keller’s artwork, follow him on Instagram or visit his website. (via It’s Nice That)

Art Music

In 'No Strings,' Willie Cole Transforms Instruments into Abstract Animals and Figurative Sculptures

“Piano Bird” (2021), piano legs, keys, and wiring, 34 x 32 1/2 x 42 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse. All images courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York, shared with permission

Artist Willie Cole is known for transforming discarded materials into sculptures with a tenor of interrogation. Much of his three-dimensional work revolves around found objects like high-heels, plastic bottles, or ironing boards that he turns into pieces of cultural commentary, addressing issues of mass production, historical legacies, and identity. The items tend to guide the formation of his assemblages, he says, sharing that, “the objects that I use I see as them finding me, more so than me finding them… I see an object and suddenly I recognize what I can do with the object. So in that sense, there is an energy or spirit connection to the object. I am exploring the possibilities of these objects.”

Cole’s solo show No Strings, which opens this April at Alexander and Bonin in New York, exemplifies this approach. The artist, who’s currently living and working in New Jersey, recovered guitars, saxophones, and pianos from Yamaha’s recycling program and through his usual alchemy, has created anthropomorphic creatures and abstracted figures from their parts: he converts hammers into tail feathers and spliced acoustic bodies into dogs and anonymous musicians. The pieces are expressive and tied to the endurance of America’s past, particularly drawing a connection between the guitar’s shape and the yokes forced on people who were enslaved.

In addition to the upcoming No Strings show, you can see a few of Cole’s sculptures in the ongoing Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at The Met, and explore more of his works on his site and Instagram.

“Yamaha Dog 1” (2021), Yamaha 3/4 size acoustic guitar parts, 23 1/2 x 12 x 29 inches. Photo by Joy Whalen

“Two-Faced Blues” (2021), Yamaha acoustic-electric guitar parts, 23 x 29 x 15 1/2 inches. Photo by Joy Whalen

“Yamaha Dog 2” (2021), Yamaha 3/4 size acoustic guitar parts, 18 5/8 x 11 x 27 inches. Photo by Joy Whalen

“Picker” (2022), Yamaha 3/4 size acoustic guitar parts, 27 x 15 x 15 inches. Photo by Joy Whalen

“Joy” (2021), Yamaha 3/4 size acoustic guitar parts, 44 1/2 x 22 x 7 1/2 inches. Photo by Joerg Lohse

“Strummer” (2022), Yamaha 3/4 size acoustic guitar parts, 28 x 16 1/2 x 15 inches. Photo by Joy Whalen