sculpture

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Art

Human Metamorphosis Embodied in Rosemary Holliday Hall’s Oxidized Chrysalises

All images © Rosemary Holliday Hall by Aron Gent, shared with permission

Chicago-based artist Rosemary Holliday Hall envisions transformation through Encyclia Imagosis, a sculptural series that brings the physical processes of insect metamorphosis to a human scale. The four artworks consist of oxidized fabric stretched across metal structures, creating a translucent form that highlights the spacious shape of the wireframe. Similar to insect chrysalises, the meshy works serve as a symbolic site for change. “Encyclia Imagosis investigates various ways we make sense of the world and relate to ourselves and others through imagination, metaphor, and material,” the artist writes.

Holliday Hall envisioned the project as merging her own physicality with the metamorphic processes of “microbes, insects, pollinators, and decomposed, who construct and deconstruct our world, for inspiration into ways of being,” she says. “I made these sculptures to imagine what it would be like to be a caterpillar in a self-made structure, whose purpose was to hold my disintegrated body as it transforms into another body.”

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Holliday Hall says Encyclia Imagosis has become more immediate and visceral.

Some days, becoming unrecognizable to myself, it seems the world and our systems are slushy slop in individual COVID chrysalises, amidst a painful collective metamorphosis… Now, more than ever, we are faced with the fragility and interdependence of our own bodies and the systems we inhabit. I keep returning to the chrysalis, for both solace and inspiration in that, the chrysalis is a messy, painful, and disorienting space, but within the mush there are imaginal seeds for transformation.

For more of the artist’s projects that merge natural processes and art, check out her Instagram.

Art

Spirals and Loops Twist Through Wooden Sculptures by Xavier Puente Vilardell

All images © Xavier Puente Vilardell

Xavier Puente Vilardell (previously) transforms blocks of coffee-colored wood into eye-catching sculptural forms, some of which resemble architectural structures and other natural forms shaped by wind, rain, and the sea’s turbulent waves. The Brussels-based artist uses pinewood, a malleable material that enables him to make precise and curved structural forms. 

In a series of Youtube videos, Vilardell shows his virtual visitors around his studio, which features various axes mounted on the wall and a pile of wooden logs, a raw material from which he crafts his artwork. To create his sculptures, Vilardell uses traditional cutting tools and crafts each piece by hand. His skill and patience enable him to turn the blocks of wood into sculpted forms that twist in every direction, almost appearing to defy gravity. 

To view more of Vilardell’s spiraling sculptures, visit Behance and Instagram.

Art

A Kinetic Sculpture by Felipe Pantone Slides into a Hypnotizing Kaleidoscope of Color

“Subtractive Variability Manipulable 3” (2020), UV paint, PMMA, MDF, and linear slide bearings, 21.5 x 50.0 x 7.2 centimeters. All images © Felipe Pantone

Argentinian-Spanish artist Felipe Pantone makes the relationship between color theory and human action tangible. His latest kinetic sculpture, titled “Subtractive Variability Manipulable 3,” features three translucent slides that shift to create hypnotic gradients. In cyan, magenta, and yellow, each piece visualizes the variances of subtracted color when affected by human touch.

In a statement, Panton said he “evokes a spirit in his work that feels like a collision between an analog past and a digitized future, where human beings and machines will inevitably glitch alongside one another in a prism of neon gradients, geometric shapes, optical patterns, and jagged grids.” Many of his colorful works appear pixelated in the physical form of a mural or sculpture.

A limited-edition run of the artist’s kaleidoscopic sculpture will be released by Configurable on May 26. To see more of his vivid projects, head to Instagram. (via Street Art News)

Art Craft

Hundreds of Intricately Cut Layers Compose Impeccably Detailed Wildlife Sculptures by Patrick Cabral

All images © Patrick Cabral

Manila-based artist Patrick Cabral (previously) layers paper incised with decorative motifs and lacy patterns into dazzling sculptural portraits of wildlife. Ribbed tentacles with alternating gold and white dangle from an octopus, while elegant pieces comprise a rhinoceros’s exterior. Each multi-layered work contains hundreds of individual paper pieces that are entirely hand-cut.

The crowned lion (shown below) spans more than five feet and is one of Cabral’s largest projects to date. “Working on a piece like this is a paradox. It’s a lot of work that usually spans around 3 months. I love the whole process of cutting because it’s sort of meditative for me,” he writes on Instagram. “It’s opposite though once I started assembling the pieces together because it becomes really stressful (especially) on pieces as big as this.”

For more of the artist’s intricate compositions, head to Behance and Instagram.

Art

Meticulously Crafted Steampunk Creatures by Igor Verny Feature Articulated Wings and Limbs

All images © Igor Verny

If Igor Verny’s dragonflies and birds have difficulty taking flight, they may need a few squirts of WD-40 to get their metallic wings flapping. The Russian artist (previously) assembles steampunk-inspired sculptures that are fully articulated and can be shaped into realistic poses of daily activities. Merging the organic and industrial, each polished insect and animal is formed with scrap metal and other discarded objects. To see Verny modeling his organisms’ movements, head to Instagram.

 

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A post shared by Igor Verny (@igorverny) on Mar 31, 2020 at 10:32pm PDT

Art

Living Chia Germinates from Clothing Abandoned on a Wash Line by Artist Bea Fremderman

All images © Bea Fremderman

Concerned with the ongoing climate crisis, Queens-based artist Bea Fremderman imagines an apocalyptic world of the not-so-distant future. Her living sculptures of everyday objects and clothing appear to have been abandoned suddenly, allowing nature to take over as quickly as humans left. “I think of them as relics of the future,” she told Cultured in 2019. “With my work, it’s not doomsday. It’s about starting over, dealing with what we have, and trying to make anew with what we know.”

Fremderman plants chia seeds among pant legs, hoodies, and a lone sock that crawl over the apparel and envelop it in a thick carpet. The roving sprouts transform the items and helps question human consumption. “At the core of my work is this issue of new nature— what things are left behind, what will outlive us, how we’ve changed the landscape,” she said. “We used to create things out of rock that would break down, and turn into sand, which comes together and becomes rock again, but now we have things that don’t break down.”

Find more of Fremderman’s germinating sculptures on her site.

Art

A Gleaming Series of Pressed-Glass Ducks Sculpted into Pools of Water

“Compassion” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted. All images © Jennifer Halvorson

In artist Jennifer Halvorson’s (previously) collection of lustrous glass sculptures, there sits a group of glossy ducks. In some of her pieces, the water the birds sit within pours over the side, and each shiny piece looks wet to the touch as if it has dripped or melted into its shape. 

Halvorson’s ducks are part of her pressed glass collection, which features a variety of light blue and chocolate brown sculptures that either are facing each other, swimming apart, or have their tails lifted up in the air as though they are diving to catch fish. They comprise her exploration into the history and process of factory pressed glass, and her work explores innovative ways of working with the medium.

Halvorson began her glasswork practice in 2007 when she was a Fulbright Fellow and began studying at Danmarks Designskole, a Danish Design School in Copenhagen. “For two weeks my glass course resided in Sweden, visiting various glass factories and studying at Riksglasskolan, the national school of glass in Orrefors,” she says. For Halvorson, the factory visits were influential in shaping her artistry. Developing an understanding of the medium and accessing production on a large scale enabled her to learn and appreciate a variety of glasswork techniques.

After her graduate studies, Halvorson was awarded a residency at Wheaton Arts in Millville, New Jersey, which houses the Museum of American Glass. Featured within the museum’s walls are historical machines and molds. “This was the first time I was taught and participated in a press production run,” says Halvorson. “Driving home to the Midwest after this residency, I stopped at Fenton Art Glass Company in West Virginia. At this time (2010), the factory was still operating, and I was able to view how efficiently the teams worked to create multiples.”

Three years since her visit to the company, Halvorson purchased a glass press machine—called Beatrix—from George Fenton, along with three cast-iron press molds. “Since then, I have learned how to operate the machine, acquired 15 molds, and received a grant to design and manufacture a new mold,” she explains.

Halvorson’s glass ducks are one of her most successful pressed sculpture series and originally were designed by the factory to cover a small dish. “Soon after the form is pressed, I alter the duck’s gaze to give the form a character,” says the artist.  “After the glass production group cools, I form groupings to create narratives.” Then, Halvorson warms the pieces back up and works in more detail by pouring more material. “The fresh ladle of glass contrasts the factory press glass process and aesthetic and also gives the ducks an amorphic water puddle to swim,” she explains.

From her explorations into traditional pressed glass, Halvorson currently is working on two larger compositions: a stepping sock and plant leaves. Similarly to her ducks, Halvorson will combine pressed glass-making with contemporary techniques, a process which she also will bring to her new co-teaching position at the glass design course at Ball State University. See more of her process on Instagram.

“Above and Below” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted, 11 x 9 x 4.5 inches

“Affection” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted, 11 x 7 x 4 inches

“Confrontation” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted, 15 x 9 x 4 inches

“Feast” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted, 12.5 x 10 x 4 inches

“Convention” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted

“Neglect” (2017), press glass, hot sculpted

“Devotion” (2017), pressed glass, hot sculpted, 8 x 7.5 x 4 inches