animals

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Craft Design

A Reel-to-Reel Recorder Animates Wildlife Automata Using Carl Sagan’s Warning of Climate Disasters

May 9, 2023

Grace Ebert

A new advertisement for the United Nations Global Compact, the largest corporate sustainability program in the world, recalls the nearly 40-year-old speeches of the prescient American scientist and cosmologist Carl Sagan. Famously testifying to Congress in 1985 to alert of the dangers of a warming environment, Sagan was an unflinching advocate for transitioning the world away from fossil fuels and protecting the planet for generations to come.

In “Carl Sagan’s Message,” the Brazilian production company Boiler Filmes and ad agency AlmapBBDO bring the scientist’s words back to life alongside a menagerie of wildlife automata. As a reel-to-reel audio recorder plays his speeches, a kangaroo, elephant, moose, and more—all of which were created by artist Pablo Lavezzari—begin to wiggle. Each is part of a larger installation, a fitting metaphor for the connection of all living beings.

Throughout the nearly two-minute ad, Sagan warns, “We’re doing something immensely stupid…The abundance of greenhouse gases is increasing. One degree of temperature change is enough to produce widespread suffering and famine worldwide.” Unfortunately in 2023, the planet has already surpassed one degree, and we now face the immense task of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius. “40 years ago it was urgent,” the ad reads. “Now it’s an emergency.”

 

a gif of an animated elephant automata

a recorder connected to several kinetic animals

a gif of an animated moose automata

a child stands in front of an installation with a recorder and wildlife automata with tape covering the floor

 

 

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Art Craft

Marine Animal Masks by Liz Sexton Spotlight Beloved Species in Lifelike Papier-Mâché

April 28, 2023

Kate Mothes

A lifelike walrus mask.

All images © Liz Sexton, shared with permission. Photography in collaboration with Ben Toht

If you feel like a fish out of water, the saying goes, then you’re probably feeling a little confused or uncomfortable. St. Paul-based artist Liz Sexton gives the simile new meaning with recent marine-themed additions to her ongoing papier-mâché masks series, highlighting the distinctive faces of familiar creatures like walruses, manatees, and polar bears that find themselves out and about on dry land.

Sexton enjoys papier-mâché for its versatility and accessibility, using additional readily available materials like cloth, wire, and acrylic paint to build up each animal’s unique textures, patterns, and colors. Comprising her upcoming solo exhibition Out of Water at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum, the lifelike wearable sculptures draw attention to a variety of beings that rely on aquatic ecosystems for survival. Barnacles and belugas are photographed in atmospheric settings by the artist’s partner and collaborator Ben Toht, who captures each animal’s unique details and expressions.

Many of Sexton’s sculptures portray species that, in their native habitats, are under threat as they increasingly become entangled in nets and suffer the effects of the climate crisis. The delicate and often awkward balance between the human-made environment and natural ecosystems is highlighted in photographs of the masks in atmospheric settings by the artist’s partner and collaborator Ben Toht. The portraits playfully juxtapose the creatures with unusual locations like a grocery store freezer aisle, a campground, or a laundromat.

Out of Water opens May 6 and continues through September 3 in Winona, and you can find more work on the artist’s website and Instagram.

 

A figure wears a lifelike anglerfish mask.

A figure wears a lifelike barnacles mask.

A figure wears a lifelike beluga mask at the edge of a swimming pool.

A figure wears a lifelike marine iguana mask.

A figure wears a lifelike polar bear mask.

A figure wears a lifelike sea turtle mask.

A figure wears a lifelike trunkfish mask and waits at a train station.

A figure wears a lifelike manatee mask in a laundromat.

 

 



Art

Hera’s Poetic Portraits of Childlike Scavengers Foster Therapeutic Interactions Between Artist and Self

April 27, 2023

Grace Ebert

A large-eyed young woman looks at the viewer and wears a deer headdress

“The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 39.4 x 39.4 inches. All images © Hera, courtesy of Corey Helford Gallery, shared with permission

German-Pakistani artist Jasmin Siddiqui, who works as Hera and was half of the street art duo known as Herakut, brings a new series of scavengers to Corey Helford Gallery this month in tHERApy room 2. The solo show extends a body of work Hera presented in 2021, similarly depicting a large-eyed young woman donning the heads of wildlife. Defined by the artist’s graffiti style with drips, splatters, and sweeping spray-painted marks, the portraits connect adolescent wonder, innocence, and naivety to the broader human condition. “Each note I write and share with the world is actually a message addressed to that inner child, the vulnerable part that needs that extra encouragement, that talk of hope, of magic, and a little bit of escapism,” she says.

Having first picked up a can of spray paint 23 years ago, Hera considers these works a reflection of her evolution as an artist and person, saying:

If you will, you could see each piece as a therapy session, where the therapist would be Hera wielding brush and spray paint, and the patient would be Jasmin, the woman underneath the animal metaphor hats and masks. Describing my artwork that way makes it seem as if I had never stopped working in a duo.

tHERApy room 2, which also contains the artist’s new superhero sculptures, is on view through May 27 in Los Angeles. You can find more on Instagram.

 

A large-eyed young woman looks at the viewer and wears an elephant headdress

“A Brain That Rarely Forgets Needs a Heart That Readily Forgives,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 39.5 x 31.5 inches

A large-eyed young woman looks at the viewer and wears a crow headdress with rats climbing on her body

“There’s Great Kinship Among the Outcasts,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 31.5 x 31.5 inches

A close up view of a large-eyed young woman who looks at the viewer and wears a deer headdress

Detail of “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 39.4 x 39.4 inches

A large-eyed young woman looks at the viewer and wears a fox headdress, a book in her lap

“Reading Together Was Like Sharing an Imaginary Friend,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 39.5 x 31.5 inches

Two images, on the left a painting of a woman wearing a deer headdress facing a man with a similar buck garment, who is cradling a raccoon baby. On the right is a woman facing the viewer wearing a green hat with several tiny deer on her head

Left: “Never Be King Just for Yourself,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 47.2 x 31.5 inches. Right: “Thoughts Are Free,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 63 x 47.25 inches

A large-eyed woman with wings balances on a pedestal facing two other creatures

“Year After Year Magic and Nature Conferred About the Uncertain Future of Humans and Always Ended Up Granting Them More Time,” acrylic paint, spray paint, charcoal on canvas, 39.25 x 39.25 inches

 

 



Art

Thousands of Meticulously Layered Strips of Metal Bring Selçuk Yılmaz’s Big Cat Sculptures to Life

April 27, 2023

Kate Mothes

“Jaguar.” All images © Selçuk Yılmaz, shared with permission

Thousands of thin, intricately placed metal strips form powerful wildlife portraits by Selçuk Yılmaz (previously). Adding new meaning to “big cats,” his recent series explores the legendary power, courage, and resilience of jaguars, lions, and the prehistoric saber-tooth tiger. A painstaking process of hammering, layering and welding individual pieces links realistic representation and the addition of artistic elements, such as the regal adornment on the forehead of the lion, which is titled “King.”

Minimal, abstracted contours delineate the form of Yılmaz’s saber-tooth tiger, a huge cat that roamed what is now North and South America for millennia until they became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Combining a realistic face with a simple outline, the artist draws attention to its snarling expression and the fact that we can only imagine what the early mammals actually looked like. In “Jaguar,” a lifelike portrayal of a muscular feline interacts with the light through layered textures. “Since light and metal have opposite properties, they can create an interesting balance and contrast when they come together,” the artist tells Colossal. “It gives the feeling that light has a soul.”

Find more of Yılmaz’s work on Instagram and Behance.

 

A woman stands beside a metal sculpture of a lion's head. The lion has a crown-like adornment on its forehead.

“King”

An abstracted metal sculpture of a sabertooth tiger with a realistic face and outlined edges.

“Saber-tooth Tiger”

A detail of a metal sculpture of a sabertooth tiger's teeth.

Detail of “Saber-tooth Tiger”

A detail of a metal sculpture of a sabertooth tiger's eyes and nose.

Detail of “Saber-tooth Tiger”

A metal sculpture of a jaguar's head in profile.

“Jaguar”

A metal sculpture of a panther in profile, with light shining on it and reflecting onto the face of the artist, who faces the sculpture.

The artist with “Jaguar”

An artist welds a sculpture of a sabertooth tiger's face in his studio.

“Saber-tooth Tiger” in progress

 

 



Art

Faunwood’s Adorable Menagerie of Miniature Ceramic Critters Is Primed for Adventure

April 14, 2023

Grace Ebert

A photo on a white backdrop of a ceramic critter with another on its back

All images courtesy of Antler Gallery, shared with permission

Eugene-based artist Miranda Zimmerman, a.k.a. Faunwood, brings a playful ceramic menagerie to Portland this month for Slither, a nearly sold-out solo show at Antler Gallery. Informed by Faunwood’s background in evolutionary biology, the adorable creatures meld art and science and are miniature renditions of amphibians and mammals, all stylized with the artist’s use of wide eyes and mottled glazes. The hand-sculpted characters are expressive and reflective of the organisms’ real-life anatomy, and their unique dispositions emerge through the firing process. “Every ceramic critter I make comes out of the kiln with its own little personality and sass, sometimes completely different from what I’m expecting,” the artist writes on Instagram.

Slither is on view through April 23, and you can find more from Faunwood on her site. (via Supersonic Art)

 

A photo on a white backdrop of a colorful ceramic snake

A photo on a white backdrop of a ceramic critter

A photo on a white backdrop of a ceramic critter

Four photos on white backdrops of ceramic snakes, pigs, and other critters

A photo on a white backdrop of a ceramic critter

 

 



Art Craft

Elegant Animals Commune and Contemplate in Hand-Carved Wooden Sculptures by Nikichi

March 29, 2023

Kate Mothes

A carved wood sculpture of two polar bears embracing.

All images © Nikichi

From the long, graceful turn of a rabbit’s ears to the cozy embrace of polar bears, Nikichi summons the emotional nuances of intimacy, solitude, and contemplation in his delicately carved sculptures. Carefully exposed wood grain shapes knees and cheeks, paws clasp together in repose, and winged visitors perch on delicately-hewn noses.

The Hokkaido-based artist has been sculpting animals for around a decade, interested in the ways that people relate to fluffy, recognizable creatures like bunnies and cats by anthropomorphizing their expressions and actions as a means of understanding and connecting to them. He fuses human and animal characteristics to explore what he describes as “the story of human sociality and life by overlapping the wildness and instinctiveness of animals,” populating a harmonious, mythical world.

Find more of Nikichi’s work on Instagram.

 

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized rabbit meditating or praying.

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized cat wearing a red top.

A carved wood sculpture of two polar bears embracing.

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized rabbit with a rose in its mouth.

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized rabbit with a butterfly on its nose.

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized rabbit wearing wellies and holding a bird in its paws.

A carved wood sculpture of a stylized animal-human figure with a yellow dress and bare feet.