snakes

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Design Illustration

Mesmerizing New Serpentine Tattoos by Mirko Sata

Milan-based tattoo artist Mirko Sata (previously) has mastered the art of inking snakes, creating elaborate tangles of scales and tails that wrap around the arms and legs of his clients. Sata frequently works with opposing color schemes, creating novel contrasts between black and white or red and green in the otherwise minimalist line-based pieces. He’s also incorporated various floral motifs in place of the snake’s scales in a number of recent pieces. You can follow more of his work on Instagram.

Design Illustration

Serpentine Tattoos That Weave Black & White Ink by Mirko Sata

Milan-based tattoo artist Mirko Sata focuses on serpentine designs, snakes that twist around his clients’ arms, hands, and legs. The snakes he creates are typically done in just two shades— stark white and deep black. Layering and curling these creatures around each other, Mirko Sata produces a sort of yin and yang, placing opposite colors together with a force that seems to transcend traditional black and white tattoos.

Art

A Giant Twisting Serpent Skeleton Emerges from the Loire River in France

Completed in 2012, Serpent d’océan is a giant aluminum sea serpent skeleton by artist Huang Yong Ping (previously) situated off the shore of the Loire River where it empties into the Bay of Biscay just outside of Nantes, France. Measuring nearly 425 feet (130 meters) in length the curving skeleton mirrors the curves of the nearby Saint-Nazaire bridge and was created as a permanent work for the final Estuaire contemporary art exhibition in 2012. Via Nantes Tourisme:

By having a major figure from Chinese mythology appear on European shores, Huang Yong Ping examines, the notions of identity and cultural hybridity, as is often the case in his work. The environmental question is also very present in his art where he regularly exposes the paradox of the man sawing the branch he is sitting on, torn between creative abilities and destructive impulses. This is one of the many possible interpretations of this work: placed on the beach, the skeleton appears with the tide and, little by little, will be home to marine fauna and flora.

Depending on weather conditions, tide levels, or the perspective of a photographer, Serpent d’océan appears dramatically different from day to day, a phenomenon you can witness over on Flickr.

 

Art

A King Cobra Folded from a Single Sheet of Tissue Paper

This accomplished king cobra designed by Ronald Koh was recently folded by origami artist Matthieu Georger from a single piece of specially treated tissue paper. The detail is amazing, especially the hundreds and hundreds of scales that individually require multiple folds to create. The artist also folds a wide range of other exotic animals, mythological beasts, and insects worthy of a quick look.

Art

A Giant Aluminum Snake Skeleton Rises from a Pool of Water at the Queensland Art Gallery

Currently on view at the Queensland Art Gallery is Ressort, a 174-foot (53 meter) aluminum and stainless steel snake skeleton by French/Chinese contemporary artist Huang Yong Ping. The twisting metal sculpture was commissioned for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at QAGOMA which is the only major exhibition that focuses exclusively on contemporary art from Asia, the Pacific and Australia. The snake plays a prominent role in much of Ping’s artwork, as the symbol of the serpent is generally considered a good omen in Chinese culture. You can see much more of the artist’s work over at Kamel Mennour gallery. (via my modern met)

Photography

Guido Mocafico’s Magnificent Rectangular Serpents

Generally when you encounter a photograph of a snake it’s coiled up in a circle, a clump, or perhaps dangling from a limb, twisted into a naturally organic shape. Y’know, it’s snakelike. Photographer Guido Mocafico has taken a decidedly different approach with his Serpens series, choosing instead to place the snakes into rectangular boxes, snapping each photo from above at a precisely balanced moment, turning chaotic figures into something distinctly geometric. From Mocafico’s selection of different species to their gorgeous coloration and almost zen-like positioning, I’ve never seen anything like these. For more serpentine photography don’t miss the work of Mark Laita who travels everywhere to photograph the world’s deadliest snakes.