Chris Whiteburch

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Art

A Giant Synthetic Crystal Explodes Through Gallery Floors at the School 33 Art Center in Baltimore

Points of Contention is a 2011 installation by Jonathan Latiano that was installed in a gallery space at the School 33 Art Center in Baltimore. The piece features an explosive crystal growth protruding from a rippling gallery floor that is meant to call into question the continued production of plastics, resins and polymers and their long-term impact on the geological landscape around us. Via a press release for the exhibition:

Driven by the exploration of time, motion and the physics of the natural world, Jonathan Latiano presents Points of Contention, a site-specific installation sculpture that investigates the increasingly blurred line between the organic and inorganic as well as the spatial boundaries of where the spectacle begins and ends. Convergent forms of crystalline growth and explosive impact reinforce the hundreds of shards of custom cut and painted elements used to create the centerpiece of the exhibition. Through the use of reclaimed and altered wood, plastic, Styrofoam and site-grown salt crystals Latiano explores the question: At what point do the controversies of the present become the “new norms” of the future?

Latiano will return to School 33 Art Center in September of 2013 as part of a collaboration with artist Jennifer Strunge who is known for her creation of totally bizarre and wonderful cotton monsters. Can’t wait to see what the two do together!

If you liked this piece, also check out the work of Chris Whiteburch, and the Inversion House by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. (via razorshapes)

Art

A Condemned House Explodes Onto the Streets of Austin

A few days ago I happened upon a rather unique art project called Last New Year in the Austin American Statesman, showing photos of a dilapidated home recently transformed with a number of installations by a small arts collective called Ink Tank. The premise for the project was fascinating: the ensemble imagined a fictional group of people living in the home who would react to the prophesied end-of-times 2012 date. One of my favorite pieces from the show is a giant installation called The Purge by artist Chris Whiteburch who decided to imagine how the house itself would confront the impending doom. The result is a structure purging its contents, all manner of debris and structural material shooting violently through a window into a giant wooden splash.

One of the most fascinating things about this project to me was its similarity to Inversion House, another modified house installation created by sculptors Dan Havel and Dean Ruck in 2005, roughly 150 miles east in Houston. The resemblance is uncanny in that they are essentially exact opposites. Via phone Whiteburch says the similarity is purely coincidental and that he wasn’t even aware of Inversion House until somebody mentioned it after seeing his work. Photos courtesy Julie and Adam Schreiber.