mountains

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Craft Design

A Topographic Table Presents a Sculptural Interpretation of Yosemite Valley in Blue, Yellow, and Gray

Colorado-based company Beatnik Prints, owned by Christopher Warren, creates mountainous sculptures from multi-colored laser cut matte board. Segments are stacked and glued into dizzying forms that represent classic areas of the American west such as Devils Tower National Monument, Longs Peak, and Yosemite Valley. The latter is the subject of Warren’s latest work—a 3 x 4 x 2 foot wooden table with a tiny peephole that mimics “Tunnel View,” a popular outlook of the landmark from State Route 41. You can see more of Warren’s topographic designs including clothing, murals, and other two-dimensional works on the Beatnik Prints website and Instagram. (via Colossal Submissions)

Design

Mirage: Doug Aitken’s Mirrored House Creates a Kaleidoscopic View of the Surrounding Swiss Mountains

For this year’s Elevation 1049, a series of site-specific installations dotting the mountain town of Gstaad, Switzerland, the chosen theme is “Frequencies.” In response, Los Angeles-based artist Doug Aitken (previously) installed a house-shaped structure made almost entirely of mirrored surfaces that reflect the mountains, skies, and trees. Aptly named Mirage Gstaad after the region and its optical effect, the ranch-style structure echoes the snow-covered landscape while also disappearing into the surrounding environment. The structure’s angled walls and ceiling easily bounce light, which creates a kaleidoscopic view of the area’s mountain peaks when seen from within.

The materials for the structure were sourced locally and transported by truck to the site back in November before the snow season began. Aitken and his team tell Colossal that the location and materials were chosen in collaboration with local authorities to “be conscious of environmental issues, such as the fritting (the aluminium stripes) that were added to the reflective surface for the safety of birds.”

Having launched alongside the program at the beginning of February 2019, Aitken’s structure will continue to reflect the changing landscape of Gstaad for the next two years. Admission to the mirage and other Elevation 1049 installations is free. For locations and directions head to the project website, and for more of Doug Aitken’s work, follow his studio on Instagram. (via designboom)

Art

Impasto Mountains Rise from the Canvas in Richly Textured Paintings by Conrad Jon Godly

Conrad Jon Godly (previously) paints in thick, impasto strokes to form snow-capped peaks and mountain ranges in icy black, white, and blue. The textured formations on canvas have feathered edges that mimic the high altitude wind, a technique that makes you almost feel the subject’s arctic blast. The works are at once abstract and hyperreal. Blunt gestures of his paint knife obscure any sort of image at close viewing, and yet a pristine image of a mountain comes into view when one takes a few steps back.

Godly grew up in Davos, Switzerland amid the Swiss Alps, an environment that has become his muse. “My surroundings have a huge influence on me, artistically and personally,” he explains in the press release of his current exhibition To See is Not to Speak at JD Malat Gallery in London. “I don’t see myself as a landscape painter, I am interested in capturing the mood and feeling of light, or the reflection of the moon on snow.”

Godly had a previous life as a photographer where he learned how to harness light and understand visual texture. These lessons he brings into his large-scale canvases, which evoke the moody experience of cloudy mountain ranges covered in fresh snow. Currently the artist lives between Switzerland and Japan. His work is currently being exhibited at the Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City with JD Malat Gallery until February 10, 2019, and his solo exhibition with the gallery runs through March 2, 2019. You can see more of Godly’s paintings on his website and Instagram.

Art

Rugged Multi-Color Paintings by Dylan Gebbia-Richards Mirror the Textures of Molten Rock

Breathtakingly colorful textures pop out when viewers first witness Dylan Gebbia-Richards’s large-scale paintings which appear to escape from their canvas. His rugged works mirror the structure of natural forms such as molten rock or coral. “I see my works as their own landscapes,” Gebbia-Richards tells Colossal. “I allow chance, the driving force behind all natural phenomena, to sculpt the structures of my paintings.”

Gebbia-Richards gains his inspiration from the vastness of the natural world and his artworks explore aesthetics that merge between the microscopic and macroscopic. “I find the enormity of the natural world awe-inspiring,” he esplains. “Landscapes which are immense seem intimate simultaneously; counter-intuitively these large spaces create the feeling of an embrace.”

While Gebbia-Richards’ paintings vary in size, all are built to engulf the viewer. “Sometimes this is very literal like in my room-sized installations which encompass those inside,” he says. “But even with my smaller pieces, I’m looking for the work to expand outwards, attempting to generate the feeling of a place which is much larger.” Like observing a mountain range, the scale of his paintings inspire and delight, while his use of a bold color palette adds a hint of magic to each creation.

The artist’s works appear as if they have been created through a volcanic eruption. To imitate this process, he constructs his paintings by using colored pigment and droplets of melted wax. “I initially found dripping and splattering melting wax very satisfying,” says Gebbia-Richards. “I was interested in the qualities of the marks the melted wax produced, specifically the chaotic patterns of the splatters which sprung from the drip’s impact with the paper I was melting over.”

His paintings emerge by separating the dripping marks from their splatter. It is these random interactions between the various pigments, drip gestures, and the splatter which creates Gebbia-Richards’s layered textures that are signature to his practice. You can see one of the Colorado artist’s paintings at Looking For U at Unit London which runs until August 26, 2018. To view more of his work visit his website and Instagram.

Animation

A Mt. Everest Time-Lapse Combines a Decade of Himalayan Explorations

Adventurer and filmmaker Elia Saikaly has attempted to scale Mt. Everest seven times. Twice he has reached the mountain’s summit, while other times he has survived avalanches, an earthquake, and other life-affirming events during his climbs. Saikaly’s latest short film is a combination of footage from a decade worth of trips to Mt. Everest and the Himalayas. The collected time-lapse videos explore several aspects of the climb, from shots of lights inside the small tents pitched for frigid nights, to brilliant star formations and unexpected waves of cloud cover. You can discover more about his adventures, and the making of this video in particular, via his blog and Instagram. (via Vimeo Staff Picks)

 

Art

A Mountain of Nesting Heads at the Foot of the Alps by Andrea Casciu

Artist Andrea Casciu just finished work on this crisp new mural of nesting blue heads titled “The Soul of the Mountain” in Pinerolo, Italy as part of the Street Alps festival. He says the work is a metaphor of sorts that represents our relationship to the mountains through various “realities” we each encounter there. You can follow more of his work on Instagram. (via StreetArtNews)