mythology

Posts tagged
with mythology

Art Design

An Enormous Stylized Bird Sculpture Sprawls Atop a Mountain in India

A massive sculpture of a legendary bird has taken shape at Jatayu Earth’s Center in Kerala, India. Based on the epic story of Ramayana, Jatayu is a noble bird of divine origin who lost his wing and fell while fighting to protect a young woman named Sitha. The bird as recreated in concrete at the  Center is 200 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 70 feet tall, with stylized feathers and enormous curled claws. Its prone body is sprawled on a mountaintop with a 65 acre tourist destination campus.

Jatayu Earth’s Center is a collaboration between the Tourism Department of Kerala and renowned film director Rajiv Anchal and focuses on environmental sustainability in its design. The Center includes systems of rainwater irrigation, solar powered electricity, and planned organic farms. Learn more about visiting on the Jatayu Earth’s Center website. (via Design You Trust)

 

Art

Long-Limbed Mythical Characters Carved from Hawthorn Wood by Tach Pollard

Sculptor Tach Pollard (previously) works with sustainably sourced hawthorn wood to form lustrous sculptures of mythological figures. After carving the wood, the UK-based artist finishes it with blow torches to form the dark bodies that contrast with the pale, peaceful faces on each sculptural figure. Pollard draws inspiration from myths and spiritual traditions from around the world, including Inuit and Celtic traditions, and is particularly drawn to the notions of shapeshifting and sea creatures. You can see more of his mystical sculptures on Instagram and peruse works available for purchase on Etsy.

Art

PichiAvo Pushes the Boundaries of their Urbanmythology Style with New Solo Exhibition and Graffiti-Covered Greek Statue

Art center Centro del Carmen in Valencia, Spain is currently hosting Evreka, a large solo exhibition by local artist duo PichiAvo (previously). Through this landmark showcase, the artists present their renowned Urbanmythology style that blends the dynamics, immediacy, and uncompromising attitude of graffiti along with the traditional quality and timeless appearance of ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Dominated by a massive sliced and tagged Greek pillar, the immersive installation features ten new paintings, nine sculptures, and an outdoor monument to the local graffiti scene.

Along with the explosion of colors and graffiti elements on top of traditional Greek iconography, one of the main parts of the show is the “Reflectory room” in which the works are experienced through a mirror. The artists wanted to recreate the accidental and often concealed discovery of graffiti or street art in real life. Eight out of ten paintings exhibited in the show are presented through this concept. Sculptural pieces are scattered around them, with their biggest studio piece, a 40-foot-long column inspired by the temple of Zeus in Athens, laying through the length of the room.

 

All of the works in the show, except for the column, have been created especially for the show and are related to the Falles monument that they are currently finishing. Fallas de València is a traditional celebration held every year in commemoration of Saint Joseph, and it includes the year-long building and eventual burning of large-scale public statues. The peak of the event takes place around midnight on March 19, when around 400 Falles are burnt as huge bonfires through the city of Valencia.

Following the success of their friend Okuda San Miguel, who was invited by the Falles Festival in 2018 to build the Falla Mayor (previously), the art duo started working on their own statue right after the burning of last year’s works. Pichi & Avo partnered with the local Falles artisan firm Latorre y Sanz to execute the incredibly large-scale piece. Unlike previous years when artisans used mostly foam as a building material, this year’s sculptures are made from wood and cardboard, making the work more flammable and less pollutant.

PichiAvo’s Falles statue is set to be finished on March 15, 2019, along with the others included in the Falles Festival, and will be burned in a big celebration on March 19, 2019. Evreka will be on view at the Centro del Carmen in Valencia until May 5, 2019 and a show dedicated to PichiAvo’s limited editions will be on view at Plastic Murs gallery between March 7 and April 19, 2019. You can see more of the artists’ previous works on their website and Instagram.

 

Design

Birds and Faces Emerge From Dizzying Multi-Layered Gowns by Iris Van Herpen

Dutch fashion designer Iris Van Herpen (previously) blends cutting-edge technology and classic motifs in her thought-provoking garments. Van Herpen’s most recent collection, Shift Souls, was showcased at Paris Fashion Week, and featured dresses that play with structure and color to blur the boundaries between fashion, technology, and art.

In a statement on the brand’s website about the collection, Van Herpen explains that she was inspired by the fluidity of identity change in myths, particularly from Japan. The stories “gave me the inspiration to explore the deeper meaning of identity and how immaterial and mutable it can become within the current coalescence of our digital bodies.”

Many of the pieces in Shift Souls were created using laser cut fabric pieces to form abstracted birds and human faces, emphasizing the designer’s interest in the mutability of the human figure. Van Herpen also collaborated with artist Kim Keever to design fabric patterns based on his liquid color cloud photographs, as shown in the blue dresses below.

You can see more of the designer’s collections on Instagram, and watch a video of Shift Souls on the runway here. (via designboom)

Illustration

The Moon’s Magical Mythology Captured in an Illustrated Book by David Álvarez

In Noche Antigua (Ancient Night) an opossum and a rabbit work together—and against each other—to create and maintain the sun and the moon. The book, written in Spanish and illustrated by Mexico-based artist David Álvarez (previously) is based on elements from ancient myths in several Central American cultures. Álvarez captures a sense of quiet magic with the simplified forms and hushed tones of his illustrations, which seem to glow from the illumination of the moon. You can see more of the artist’s work on Instagram and his Etsy shop.

Art

Garment-Like Sculptures by Susie MacMurray Explore Perceptions of Female Identity

Chain mail, needles, and dishwashing gloves: though not the materials you’d expect a dress to be made from, British artist Susie MacMurray uses them in her garment-inspired sculptures. MacMurray’s first piece in this body of work was Gladrags, made in 2002 from 10,000 pink balloons. Since then, the artist has produced several other seemingly wearable sculptures including Medusa (copper chain mail), Widow (leather and 100,000 dressmaker needles), and A Mixture of Frailties (1,400 household gloves).

“They have all been more concerned with the perception of women, their power and their vulnerabilities,” she explains to Colossal. “I am interested in how human strengths and frailties can often be one and the same thing. I suppose you could almost call them portraits… Much of my sculpture and drawing practice is concerned in one way or another with the perception and negotiation of female identity, both internal and external.”

MacMurray was formerly a classical musician, and she retrained as an artist, graduating in 2001 with an MA in Fine Art. In addition to her garment sculptures, MacMurray also creates drawings and architectural installations. You can see more of her work on her website and Twitter. (via #WomensArt)