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Art

Ghostly Portraits Painted Onto Layers of Netting by Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew

Thai artist Uttaporn Nimmalaikaew paints portraits on layers of fine netting or tulle, deftly producing an analog 3D effect with subjects who appear to be sitting in chairs or lying down on beds. When circling the paintings they morph and shift, changing form depending on the viewer’s distance and location to the piece. These subjects are often his family, a way for the artist to pause his loved ones’ aging process and preserve them in time.

Nimmalaikaew first discovered the technique while a student at Silpakorn University in Bangkok after a stray speck of paint landed on a mosquito net in his studio. Witnessing the dimensionality the surface afforded the paint, he began to explore new ways in which to paint on the utilitarian material.

For each piece Nimmalaikaew begins with a digital drawing which he then prints life-size to determine the subject’s form and texture. He then begins to paint the layers with oil paint in a style that he calls “tulle-painting style.” In an 2014 interview he explained, “Over time, I have learnt that the tulle demands a different way of creating realistic light and shadow for the material. The top layer gives details for the optical illusion. Then I connect each layer with clear co-polymer line to make it all fit together and create depth in the image.”

You can see more of the 33-year-old artist’s work on Yavus Gallery or the artist’s Facebook. (via Juxtapoz and Booooooom)

 

Art

A Monumental Sculpture of Colorful Twine Netting Suspended Above Boston

One hundred miles of twine compose this public sculpture of suspended netting above Boston, a structure that spans the void of an elevated highway that once split downtown Boston from its waterfront. The artist, Janet Echelman (previously), designed the artwork titled As If It Were Already Here to reflect the history of the installation’s location. Echelman also intended the piece to be a visual metaphor—a way to “visually knit together the fabric of the city with art,” she explains.

The installation is 600 feet at its widest, including over 500,000 knots for structural support. Each time one section of the sculpture sways or vibrates in the wind the other parts follow suit, undulating as a single form 600 feet in the sky. As the day progresses the 1,000-pound structure’s webbed surface begins to glow, becoming a beacon in the sky rather than blending into the blue above it. In addition to moving with the wind, the structure also glows in response to sensors that register tension and project light onto the sculpture.

As If It Were Already Here is just one of Echelman’s enormous sculptures, she’s also installed pieces in Montreal, Seattle, and elsewhere. Echelman received the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Harvard University Loeb Fellowship, a Fulbright Lectureship, and was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for “changing the very essence of urban spaces.” You can see Echelman speak about her other environmentally-responsive sculptures in her TED talk here. (via Beautiful Decay)

Art

Giant Suspended Net Installations by Janet Echelman

In the late 1990s artist Janet Echelman traveled to India as a Fulbright Scholar with the intention of giving painting exhibitions around the country. She shipped her painting supplies ahead of time and landed in the fishing village of Mahabalipuram to begin her exhibitions with one major hitch: the painting supplies never arrived. While walking through the village Echelman was struck by the quality and variety of nets used by the local fisherman and questioned what it might look like if such nets were hung and illuminated in the air. Could it be a new approach to sculpture? A new chapter in her artist career was born, and the artist has since dedicated her time and energy to creating these massive net sculptures in locations around the world.

Echelman is currently embarking on her largest piece ever, a 700-foot-long sculpture that will be suspended over Vancouver next month in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the TED Conference. In collaboration with the Burrard Arts Foundation, she’s currently seeking funding via Kickstarter to make it happen. There’s all kinds of great prints, postcards, and shirts available so check it out.