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Art

Dozens of Mirrored Prisms Respond to Movement with Dazzling LED Lights

Mirror Mirror, a recent commission by the Alexandria, Virginia’s Office of the Arts, is a reflective semi-circular structure which hides a prismatic array of mirrors at its center. The multi-colored panels are placed at sharp angles within the round sculpture, and refract dazzling, geometric patterns of light as the sun hits its interior. The work was produced by New York-based design studio SOFTlab, who was inspired by the lens used in the city’s historic 19th-century lighthouse. The Fresnel lens was an advanced technology at the time, and uses a series of prisms to create a bright and direct light source as a navigational aid.

In addition to reflecting Alexandria’s waterfront and the surrounding urban environment, the outdoor installation has LED fixtures that respond to visitors’ voices and bodies. Each vertical component of the structure is activated to produce light, allowing the work to be brilliantly illuminated, even after the sun sets. A demonstration of how the sculpture reacts to human movement can be seen in the video below. You can view more works by SOFTlab on their website and Instagram. (via designboom)

Design

A Cascading Metal Rainbow Fills a Bookstore in Suzhou, China with Layers of Transparent Hues

As a part of a larger project inside of a unique bookstore in Suzhou, China, architectural designers WUtopia Lab framed a reading room with a colorful structure referred to as the “Xanadu of Rainbows.” Made of one-centimenter thick aluminum sheets that have been perforated and cut into swooping shapes, the metal rainbow is created in a gradient that shifts through almost every shade in the ROYGBIV spectrum.

The word Xanadu is used to describe an idyllic space or place, which is what the architects sought to create with the vibrant, flowing design. The curved panels are installed along the ceiling and down the walls of the bookstore’s reading room and sections of the structure drip down like chromatic stalactites. In addition to creating an eye-catching aesthetic, the panels also functionally divide the open space into sections. To see more of WUtopia Lab’s interior and exterior work, check them out on Instagram. (via ArchDaily)

Art

Vibrant Gradients of Suspended Yarn Reflect HOTTEA’S Personal Memories

Eric Rieger, known by the moniker HOTTEA (previously), is a graffiti writer turned installation artist whose medium of choice is yarn. With it, he creates colorful large-scale works inspired by the moments, experiences, and people in his life. Whether flowing down from the ceiling of a gallery, or interlaced across the top of a pedestrian pathway, Rieger’s installations always hold a connection to his past and those who helped shape it.

“Color to me represents memories and experiences,” Rieger told Colossal, “so in a way it is always in play. It all depends on what really strikes me at the moment of the installation.” When asked about his process, the artist revealed that it’s largely inspiration and concept that dictates form. “I have always let life unravel itself naturally and that informs my artistic practice. I let the space and my thoughts guide me, and from there I create a design based on what I am going through at the time.”

Rieger credits his retirement from graffiti as the catalyst that got him to his current work. “Not being able to paint anymore inspired to me to create something totally opposite,” he said, adding that the two practices are very different. “As a graffiti writer I only painted at night, I kept it from my family and I only practiced my artist name. Doing work under HOTTEA, I create all of my work during the day to interact with people, I share it with my family and create installations inspired by them… everything that I was as a graffiti writer I didn’t want to be as HOTTEA.”

Rieger’s grandmother taught him to knit at a young age, which is part of the family influence expressed through his work and his identity as an artist. “The very name HOTTEA is derived from a memory I have of my mother ordering hot tea on the weekends at Baker Square growing up,” he explained. “The name reminded me of all the good times we had as a family there and when my parents were still together. HOTTEA brings me absolute pure joy – it’s something I will fight for till the very end.” (via My Modern Met)

Food

All-Natural Ingredients Create a Rainbow of Colors in Linda Miller Nicholson’s Playful Pastas

Linda Miller Nicholson creates spectacular pastas from scratch, ranging from her signature rainbow fusilli to Mario Kart-inspired red and white ravioli. She works with all natural ingredients like butterfly pea flowers (blue), beets and blueberries (purple), turmeric (yellow), and parsley (green) to infuse her flour, egg, and water mixtures with eye-popping colors. Because her pastas are freshly made, quick cooking time allows the colors to maintain their vibrance after boiling.

Nicholson shares behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube, and you can see more of her finished and in-progress pastas on Instagram. Nicholson’s debut cookbook Pasta, Pretty Please is available to order on Bookshop.org.

Agnolotti is my favorite Piemontese pasta shape, & I’ve finally made a how-to video teaching you the ins and outs of making it! Here’s the teaser, go to my YouTube channel (link in my profile) for the full-length tutorial. Of course it wouldn’t be saltyseattle’s if I didn’t add a ❌lattice❌pattern 😜.

A post shared by Linda Miller Nicholson (@saltyseattle) on Jan 31, 2018 at 8:43am PST

Art

New Prismatic Murals by Xomatok Cover the Streets of Lima With Bursts of Color

Visual artist and art director Xomatok (previously) has been busy in Lima, Peru, where he’s outfitted several walls, building facades, and random rock piles with his signature full-spectrum color gradients. The vivid interventions are in the district of Lima called Villa el Salvador, Xomatok shares with Colossal. And although the artist is often commissioned to add his color pops to outdoor areas, the pieces seen here are part of his personal work. You can see more from Xomatok on Instagram.

 

Photography

Vivid Rainbow Roads Trace Illuminated Pathways Across Forests and Beaches

Daniel Mercadante has a slate of unique films under his belt, made in partnership with his wife Katina, as The Mercadantes, including Ball and Breathe. More recently, Daniel has been exploring the still image in a colorful series called Rainbow Road. The Mercadantes were based in California for many years, but after a move to rural Connecticut, Daniel looked for a way to add some warmth to the chilly blue hour during the Northeast’s long winters.

Using long exposure photography and a  custom built lighting rig covered in colored gels, the process of creating the images is surprisingly simple: the roads are created by Daniel running around with the lighting rig. No other post-production manipulation occurs, other than basic color and exposure balancing. The photographer explains to Colossal, “after so many years focused on the moving image, I’ve struggled with singularly caught moments in still imagery—so I love how this project still requires images to be captured over 15sec-1 minute, so in some way they require the same passages of time that a shot in one of our short films might.”

In addition to their Connecticut Rainbow Roads (which Daniel divulges may have a distant relation to the Mario Kart pathways of his youth) the Mercadantes have taken this colorful project to Guatemala, where local kids chose the photo shoot locations. Daniel reports that they hope to continue traveling with their low-tech, high-color Roads. You can see more from the Mercadantes on Instagram and Vimeo.