Food

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Art Design Food

Thin Strips of Metal and Spaghetti Connect in Architectural Collars and Headdresses

Paris-based designer and artist Alice Pegna revolves her practice around structures. She’s concerned with both the relationship between individual components and how a larger framework responds to its environment, and her pieces tend to amplify the connection between adornment and the human body. “The structure is an integral part of the universe,” she tells Colossal. “It is not always visible, yet always present, material or immaterial, just like our body, our thoughts, and our life.”

This interest culminates in her architectural body of work that’s comprised of sculptural garments, headdresses, and accessories with sharp points and acute angles. Previously working primarily with uncooked spaghetti, Pegna’s new collection incorporates thin strips of metal that similarly hug the wearer’s form with geometric detail. The pieces were created in collaboration with the Phoenix Alternative Model association for Paris Fashion Week 2021 and worn by models with physical disabilities to highlight their figures. All of the works, which are photographed against stark black backdrops on minimal mannequins, rely on negative space to alter how the body is viewed without obscuring it entirely.

For more of Pegna’s intricate constructions, visit her site and Instagram.

 

Food Photography

Aerial Photos Document the Expansive Greenhouses Covering Spain’s Almería Peninsula

A follow-up to his series focused on the glow of LED-lit greenhouses, Tom Hegen’s new collection peers down on the landscape of Spain’s Almería peninsula. The German photographer is broadly interested in our impact on the earth and gears his practice toward the aerial, offering perspectives that illuminate the immense scale of human activity.

In The Greenhouse Series II, Hegen captures the abstract topographies of the world’s largest agricultural production center of its kind, which stretches across 360-square kilometers of rugged, mountainous terrain in the southern part of the country. The sun-trapping structures house plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and watermelons that provide fresh produce to much of Europe year-round.

While 30 times more productive than typical farmland in the region, the facilities also function at a cost to the local ecosystems. “Groundwater is being polluted with fertilisers and pesticides. Some 30,000 tons of plastic waste are created each year,” Hegen tells Colossal, noting that the greenhouses are made almost entirely of plastic foil, which is shredded and discarded nearby once it’s no longer useful. “From there, wind and erosion transport it to the (Mediterranean Sea).”

Hegen will speak about using aerial photography to foster connections with the larger world during a TedX event this May, and you can keep up with his latest projects on Instagram and Behance.

 

Art Food

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

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 smashed cans from discarded waste around him 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)

 

Animation Craft Food

Diced Wool Vegetables and Spools of Sauce Layer Onto Andrea Love’s Fibrous Pizza

The miniature woolen oven mitt that Andrea Love (previously) uses to pull her handmade pizza from the oven is the only item in her stop-motion tutorial that’s true to form. An addition to the Washington-based animator’s quirky fare, the short film shows a flattened crust whirling in the air before landing on the tabletop and being topped with fiber-rich ingredients like spools of sauce, mushrooms, black olives, and cheese produced from diced yarn. Dive into Love’s world of felt-fueled cooking above, and watch her making-of video to go behind the scenes of her fleece kitchen. (via The Kids Should See This)

 

Art Food

Realistic Garnishes Top Sushi and Other Fishy Sculptures Carved Entirely from Stone

Mari Hamahira’s sushi appears like tender slices of tuna and creamy sea urchin, but its texture is nothing like the soft, rice-based bites. From rough slabs of stone, the artist carves lifelike nigiri and rolls of gunkan-maki that are assembled into deceptively realistic sculptures and garnished with scallion rings, wasabi, and tiny mounds of roe. The coloring of each work is derived entirely from the material’s natural pigments, whether through smoothing and polishing or combining powdered granules into new hues.

Mixed within the delectable offerings are more unsettling pieces that include human body parts like fingers, brains, and ears. A critique of consumption and wastefulness, the series is in response to the artist’s work in the seafood industry, where he witnessed creatures harvested for their meat and then subsequently thrown away without being eaten.

Hamahira’s sculptures are on view through February 27 at Joshibi University of Art and Design, and you can see much of his stone-carving process on Twitter. (via Spoon & Tamago)

 

Craft Food

Boinggg! Ceramic Vessels Undergo a Playful Remix with Coiled, Undulating Handles

Miami-born Kassandra Guzman diverges from the sleek, straight lines of minimalism in favor of squiggles and waves. She’s the ceramicist behind the Seattle-based studio Kuu Pottery, where she creates wide-mouthed vessels and playful vases mimicking bananas and other fruits. Part of her Boinggg! collection, many of the amphora and mugs have classically shaped bases with atypical handles that coil in lengthy runs and create undulating bows.

Guzman has a few projects in the works, including an illustrated series and a new body of ceramics printed with decals. See a larger collection of the artist’s pieces and browse available vessels in the Kuu shop. (via design milk)