Juan Fontanive

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Follow Nectar-Hungry Birds as They Soar Through New Automated Flip Books by Juan Fontanive

Artist Juan Fontanive (previously) constructs ornithology-oriented flip books which constantly loop with the help of a few hand-built mechanics. The still images are sourced from 18th and 19th-century natural history illustrations, and when combined imitate the motion of a bird in flight. Although these works were completed this year, Fontanive has been working on the series since 2004 while he was studying at the Royal College of Art. Previous animation explorations have featured butterflies and birds drawn with graphite and colored pencil. You can see more of his automated sculptures on his website and Vimeo.

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Art

Bird & Butterfly Flip Book Machines by Juan Fontanive

Artist Juan Fontanive (previously) constructs perpetually looping flip book machines that depict flying birds lifted from Audubon guides and illustrations of butterflies. Part film and part sculpture, almost every aspect of the flip books are assembled by hand from the minutely toothed gears, clips, nuts, bolts, worm wheels and sprockets to the carefully screen printed imagery. Of the curious devices Gild Williams remarked, "Fontanive’s artworks seem strangely possessed, producing curiously moving animals that are neither living nor dead, or creating ghostly systems which seem to float mid-air and follow a pace and logic of their own." You can see much…

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Art

Bird Flipbook Machines by Juan Fontanive

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, artist Juan Fontanive has been exploring moving images and kinetic sculptures. My favorite of his lastest works are these three flipbook machines using drawings, acrylic paintings, and collages of birds. Two of the original machines above, Ornithology and Colibri are…

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