dandelions

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Art Craft

Meticulously Sculpted and Tarnished Dandelions Preserve the Herb’s Ephemeral Nature in Metal

Staining friend’s hands with dandelion heads and blowing their wispy seeds are a common childhood pastime and a simple joy that Shota Suzuki channels in his delicately constructed sculptures. The Kyoto-based artist painstakingly carves copper, brass, and silver into barbed leaves and feathery seeds to recreate the ubiquitous herbs in each state of bloom and decay.

To tarnish the textured metals and alter their colors, Suzuki uses combinations of vinegar, copper sulfate, and acetic acid to create purples and blues. For the black components, he oxidizes pieces in dissolved sulfur. Suzuki’s coloring techniques are rooted in traditional Japanese patina methods including niiro, which historically used daikon juices to alter the metal, and are the most demanding part of his process. “The chemical modification is very sensitive and is affected by everything from the weather conditions to the dirt on my hands. It’s hard to make the same color every time,” he says in an interview with Kyoto Journal.

Each dandelion is the product of hours of research, which begins while Suzuki walks around his neighborhood and spots weeds in sidewalk cracks or garden flowers. He then works from memory and occasional glimpses of photos of the chosen plant, forgoing sketches and models to create pieces that merge scientific accuracy with the artist’s vision, which he explains:

I’ve never practiced the art of ikebana, but there is an element of it that comes through. My work does not portray a plant as it would be in its natural environment. Rather I manipulate it in a way that I find to be beautiful. I think the composition especially, like the placement and length of the flowers and stems of the plant, is really important. So in that respect, it is rather similar to ikebana.

See more of Suzuki’s botanic sculptures, which include violets, cherry blossoms, and seaside daisies, on Artsy, and follow his latest works and updates to his shop on Instagram.

 

Art

Delicate Miniature Sculptures Made From Dandelion Seeds by (euglena)

Blowing the white fluffy seeds off a dandelion is a universal childhood experience. Who hasn’t delighted in watching a gentle breeze carry the bristles off into the distance. But for this Tokyo-based artist who goes by the name (euglena), the fluff serves a different, artistic purpose. She harvests them to create impossibly delicate sculptures that beg to be observed up close. Just don’t sneeze.

(euglena) uses dandelion seeds to create abstract shapes and forms that somehow manage to balance and maintain their figure. It’s difficult to fully appreciate the artist’s work in photographs because the element of air and movement is so important in the work.

In the video below, you can see the sculpture sway back and forth: a reaction to the movement and breathing of visitors observing her work.

Most recently, (euglena)’s work was on display at the 2019 Japan Media Arts Festival (through June 16, 2019) where she won Best New Artist. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with her work. (Syndicated from Spoon & Tamago)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by (euglena) (@__euglena) on Nov 7, 2018 at 6:38am PST

Art

A Fleeting Dandelion Wish Processing Facility Appears For Two Days Outside of Los Angeles

A recent two-day installation in Commerce, California afforded visitors an opportunity to evaluate and deposit their secret wishes. Dandelions, which was organized by the anonymous artist group The Art Department, took place in an administrative building at the Laguna Bell electrical substation from May 11-12, 2019. The cavernous space was transformed into a secret wish processing facility, where visitors submitted their wishes for questioning and analysis before receiving a dandelion to send their wish in a whoosh down a chute of either slam dunks or long shots. Writer Renée Reizman, who had a chance to visit the fleeting facility, explains the guided performance art in depth on Hyperallergic. Explore more of The Art Department’s previous projects on their website and Instagram.

Art

Patiently Arranged Dandelion Works by Botanical Artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc

Self-taught botanical artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc uses a steady hand to arrange dandelion blossoms in artful imitations of their flight through the air. His monochrome works are each reminiscent of a universal childhood urge to scatter a dandelion’s seedlings with a single blow, eager to watch the feathery pieces take flight in the wind. With this in mind he carefully dissects a dandelion’s fluff, placing the individual seeds in concentric patterns. In many works gold leaf is used to single out some of the miniature components, adding another layer of precision to his patiently executed fields of flora.

His solo exhibition, The Imaginary Herbarium, is currently on view at Galerie Bettina in Paris through February 15, 2017. You can see more of his works on his Instagram and website. (thnx, Laura!)

A video posted by Duy Anh Nhan Duc (@duyanhnhanduc) on Jan 25, 2016 at 6:31am PST

 

Art

Dramatic Stainless Steel Wire Fairies by Robin Wight

UK sculptor Robin Wight creates dramatic scenes of wind-blown fairies clutching dandelions, clinging to trees, and seemingly suspended in midair, all with densely wrapped forms of stainless steel wire. The artist currently has several pieces on view at the Trentham Gardens and sells a number of DIY wire sculpting kits from his website where he also discusses in great detail how each piece is built.

 

Design

OLED Dandelion Lights by Takao Inoue

These beautiful lights were designed by cinematographer Takao Inoue as part of a small exhibition on display at Milano Salone earlier this year. The lights are made from real dandelions that have been suspended inside an acrylic block with a miniature OLED light embedded within the stem. You can read more on Spoon & Tamago.