Design

A Geological Landmark’s Phosphorescent Glow Inspires the National Museum of Qatar’s Cavernous Gift Shop

Patches of natural and artificial light highlight the curved layers of the National Museum of Qatar’s recently completed gift shop. The massive undulating walls were constructed from over 40,000 pieces of timber that tower high above visitors’ heads and imitate the shape and feeling of the Dahl Al Misfir or Cave of Light. The Qatar landmark is an underground formation that contains a wealth of gypsum deposits, which illuminate the cave with a phosphorescent glow and often form clusters of rose-shaped crystals known as “desert roses.”

Koichi Takada Architects wanted to connect visitors to the museum back to Qatari desert landscapes, while also creating a natural extension of the “Desert Rose” concept created for the museum by French architect Jean Nouvel. In addition to the museum shop, the architects also designed its restaurants, including the Desert Rose Cafe, Cafe 875, and Jiwan Restaurant. You can see more of the firm’s previous projects on their website and Instagram, and take a look at the museum’s exterior here. (via designboom)

Design

A Retired Bike-Share Bicycle Upcycled to a Beetle-Shaped Mobile Library

Seeking to provide a new use for China’s enormous surplus of bike-share bicycles, LUO Studio recently designed a mobile library in the shape of a winged beetle. The studio’s founder Luo Yujie was inspired to create “Shared Lady Beetle” by a friend who teaches young children and often needs to educational supplies around. In a statement on the studio’s website the Shared Lady Beetle is envisioned as a “beneficial insect walking on the urban leaf.”

To create the mobile library, LUO Studio equipped a standard bicycle with two back wheels and an additional load-bearing wheel to accommodate the extra length of the design. Discarded iron sheets from automobiles form the library’s exterior, and the “wings” open to reveal three partitioned shelves that can accommodate books or other creative materials for kids.

The studio describes their mission as being “committed to creating more durable, friendly and quality space through creative thinking, craftsmanship spirit of devotion and caring for nature.” Luo is also the director at the Sustainable Village Studio of China New Rural Planning and Design Institute. Discover more of LUO Studio’s innovative and sustainable designs on their website, which features project descriptions in both Chinese and English. If you enjoy this project, also check out Weapons of Mass Instruction by Raul Lemesoff and Juan Martinez’s bicycle animals. (via designboom)

Art

Stretchy Monochrome Suits by Malin Bülow Tether Performers to Architecture and Each Other

Oslo-based artist Malin Bülow creates performative installations in which humans resist and submit to tension created by stretchy lycra suits. The monotone pieces have small openings at the stomach that allow participants to crawl in and easily conceal themselves, obscuring their features while highlighting their movements.

When affixed to buildings, the flexible fabric is manipulated and stretched during time-based performances, such as Bülow’s 2017 site-specific installation Firkanta elastisitet – Skulptur i spenn (Squared elasticity – Strained sculpture) with Store Salen at Kunstbanken, Hedmark Kunstsenter. For the installation, the artist covered the two entrances to the gallery with the suits, locking visitors inside for the full hour.

Other less claustrophobic installations have occurred outdoors, such as the 2017 iteration of the same performance at a former military building in Ski, outside of Oslo. In an alien-like performance that the artist describes as an “elastic sculpture” or “large-scale performative still life,” five dancers explore the tension of their tethers while attached to the structure.

Bülow hails from Switzerland and studied as a neurobiologist before receiving a Master’s degree from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway. You can see more of Bülow’s work on her website. (via Sophie Gunnol)

Art Design

An Enormous Stylized Bird Sculpture Sprawls Atop a Mountain in India

A massive sculpture of a legendary bird has taken shape at Jatayu Earth’s Center in Kerala, India. Based on the epic story of Ramayana, Jatayu is a noble bird of divine origin who lost his wing and fell while fighting to protect a young woman named Sitha. The bird as recreated in concrete at the  Center is 200 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 70 feet tall, with stylized feathers and enormous curled claws. Its prone body is sprawled on a mountaintop with a 65 acre tourist destination campus.

Jatayu Earth’s Center is a collaboration between the Tourism Department of Kerala and renowned film director Rajiv Anchal and focuses on environmental sustainability in its design. The Center includes systems of rainwater irrigation, solar powered electricity, and planned organic farms. Learn more about visiting on the Jatayu Earth’s Center website. (via Design You Trust)

 

Art

Lithe Black and White Figures Jump and Climb Across Walls in Illustrative Street Art by STRØK

Norway-born, Berlin-based artist Anders Gjennestad, who works as STRØK (previously), paints monotone figures often clad in striped shirts moving gracefully across unexpected surfaces. In a piece painted in Arendal, Norway (the artist’s hometown) three identical men appear to scale the wall of a generic-looking building, and in a mural in Paris leaping subjects seem to breakdance while they defy gravity. Gjennestad incorporates shadows for each figure that disrupt the viewer’s perspective, leaving one to wonder if the artist’s subjects are falling up or touching down. Most recently, the artist participated in Aberdeen, Scotland’s international Nuart festival.

In addition to his large-scale outdoor pieces, Gjennestad also creates figural works that fit inside galleries, often using rusted metal surfaces and dilapidated wood doors as his canvas. The artist’s forthcoming solo show will open May 10th at Galerie Mathgoth in Paris, and runs until July 9, 2019. Explore more of Gjennestad’s work and travels on  Facebook and Instagram, and find select prints in his online store. (via Lustik)

Art

Dramatic Decaying Flowers in Tiffanie Turner’s Solo Show “What Befell Us” Challenge Notions of Beauty and Perfection

In her latest solo exhibition, What Befell Us, California-based artist Tiffanie Turner explores notions of aging, imperfection, and perishability. Massive flower blossoms including dahlias, garden roses, ranunculus, and strawflowers are formed from Italian crepe paper and span more than five feet across. While in her previous work Turner strove for the ideal phenotype of each flower, in What Befell Us the artist pushes past perfection to investigate our collective relationship to flaws and damage.

The artist shares with Colossal that she felt strongly pulled to focus on climate change and environmental peril in her latest show. She expresses concern that humans’ resistance to perishability with plastic and preservatives also hastens irreparable damage to the earth. And, as a woman experiencing aging in a superficial society, Turner saw personal parallels with our global obsession with freshness and perfection. She explains:

When I started to choose my specimens for this show, instead of superimposing formal imperfections onto these pieces, I sought out flowers that are beautiful even though they are not perfect. For example, the two strawflowers in the show are two sides of the same coin. One is still bright and colorful, but its center is deformed as it starts to lose moisture. The other is older, its petals slumped back from the fading, greying center. Each are “imperfect”, but both are undeniably still beautiful. Why just keep trying to create more beauty. Why can’t we just see more things as beautiful?

What Befell Us is on view at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco through June 15, 2019. Follow along with Turner’s latest work via Instagram. And if you’re inspired to create paper flowers of your own, the artist’s in-depth instructional book is available in The Colossal Shop.

Craft

Candy-Colored Plants and Animals from the Imagination of Hiné Mizushima

Vancouver, Canada-based textile artist Hiné Mizushima (previously) brings a cuddly, colorful approach to creepy-crawly plants and animals. Fungi, insects, and single-cell organisms get a felted makeover in pastel hues with embroidered, stitched, and crocheted details. Mizushima often optimizes her works for display either by allowing them to be worn as brooches or by affixing them to plaques or in bell jars to showcase at home.

In addition to her stationary creations, Mzushima also creates animations, including a recent music video commission for They Might Be Giants, which engages the traditional Japanese needlework technique kogin. You can see more of Mizushima’s felted flora and fauna on Behance and Instagram, and purchase prints of various pieces on Etsy.