aluminum

Posts tagged
with aluminum

Art

Entangled Figures Grasp a Small Footbridge Above a Philadelphia Street in Miguel Horn’s New Installation

All images courtesy of Streets Dept, shared with permission

Clinging to a concrete footbridge in Philadelphia are two groups of figures in tangled clusters. The striking installation is attached to a 20-foot walkway arched over 1200 Cuthbert Street in City Center and is the latest work of artist Miguel Horn, who is known for his fragmented sculptures and large-scale installations comprised of CNC-cut plates. Each of the forms in “ContraFuerte” features topographic layers constructed with thousands of stacked aluminum pieces—Horn shares much of his process from initial sketches to clay prototypes on Instagram—which fuse together to create figures that appear in the midst of struggle. Similar to the artist’s previous works that directly respond to their location, the oversized piece is designed to “grapple with the task to sustain, or raise up a bridge that spans the width of the street,” Horn says. (via Streets Dept)

Design

Sleek Furniture Collection by Hilla Shamia Harmonizes Cast Aluminum and Natural Wood

All images © Hilla Shamia

Starting with gnarly hunks of trees, Hilla Shamia (previously) seamlessly merges wood and aluminum into industrial-style furniture. The Tel Aviv-based designer pours the hot metal into leg molds that surround the organic material, preserving the wood’s shape and texture and ensuring that each console, bench, and stool is unique.

To make the tops entirely smooth, she uses molten aluminum to fill in the gaps and divets that are occurring naturally in the wood. “We focus on material research and development of forms, while drawing inspiration from the process of time and the supposed imperfections found in nature,” Shamia said in a statement. The result is a furniture collection that harmoniously fuses the warm wood with the cool metal.

To see more of her functional designs, head to Instagram.

Art

Human and Animal Skulls Encrusted in Delicate Floral Filigree by Kengo Takahashi

Kengo Takahashi uses ultra-thin aluminum casting to get the precise shape of real flowers for his series titled Flower Funeral. The detailed works combine hundreds of delicate metal flowers that form the shape of skulls, and each have a thickness of just .01 mm. The works also contain life-size aluminum flowers like chrysanthemums across their forehead and branched horns, and sculptural water droplets that rest gently on several of their petals. You can see more of the Japanese artist’s sculptures on his website and Instagram.

Art

The Walls of a Fortress City in Southern France Ripple With Bright Yellow Concentric Circles

James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Twenty years ago, the fortress city of Carcassonne in southern France was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In celebration of the important anniversary, Swiss artist Felice Varini (previously) was commissioned by France’s Centre des Monuments Nationaux to install a massive illusion of concentric yellow circles on the city’s border. The installation, titled “Concentric Concentric,” was installed this spring and will remain up through September, 2018.

Although at first glance the striking yellow marks appear to be painted directly on the surface of the ancient stones—a somewhat alarming gesture for a declared historic site—the circles are actually very thin pieces of colored aluminum, which were carefully adhered to the city’s walls and turrets by local art students. Varini’s bold installation has garnered quite a bit of attention, not all of it positive. In a video interview, included below, the artist explains how he conceived of this particular work. You can see more of his colorful illusions on Facebook. (via Arrested Motion)

James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Mike and David’s Adventures

James D. Morgan/Getty Images

James D. Morgan/Getty Images

James D. Morgan/Getty Images

Design

Designer Hilla Shamia Fuses Cast Aluminum and Tree Trunks to Create One-of-a-Kind Furniture Pieces

Product designer Hilla Shamia has developed a novel way to meld poured aluminum with irregularly shaped wood pieces to create sleek tables and benches. The process preserves that natural form of the tree trunk while still allowing the molten aluminum to flow into the crevices of the wood, slightly burning the area where the two materials meet. These remind me somewhat of Greg Klassen’s glass tables from last month here on Colossal. You can see more of Shamia’s work on her website. (via The Fox is Black)

Art

A Giant Aluminum Snake Skeleton Rises from a Pool of Water at the Queensland Art Gallery

Currently on view at the Queensland Art Gallery is Ressort, a 174-foot (53 meter) aluminum and stainless steel snake skeleton by French/Chinese contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping. The twisting metal sculpture was commissioned for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA which is the only major exhibition that focuses exclusively on contemporary art from Asia, the Pacific and Australia. The snake plays a prominent role in much of Ping’s artwork, as the symbol of the serpent is generally considered a good omen in Chinese culture. You can see much more of the artist’s work over at Kamel Mennour gallery. (via my modern met)