Category: installation

Chiharu Shiota

Sculpture Installations by Chiharu Shiota

Chiharu Shiota (塩田 千春 Shiota Chiharu?) is a Japanese installation artist born in 1972 in Osaka. She has been living and working in Berlin since 1996. Shiota studied at the Seika University in Kyoto and at various schools in Germany and is represented by ARNDT in Berlin and Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris.

Shiota’s oeuvre contains various art performances and installations, in which she uses various everyday objects such as beds, windows, dresses, shoes and suitcases. She explores the relationships between past and present, living and dying, and memories of people implanted into objects. To these Shiota adds intricate, web-like threads of black and red.

Mehmet Ali Uysal

Mehmet Ali Uysal, “Clothespin”, Wood and Metal, Liege, Belgium, 2010

Designed by Turkish artist Mehmet Ali Uysal. this unusual clothespin sculpture which adorns the Chaudfontaine park in the outskirts of Liege, Belgium was especially implemented as part of the Festival of the Five Seasons in 2010. The giant “clipper” appears to be holding on tightly to a mold of land and grass, its original appearance attracting the attention and curiosity of cyclists and various travelers.

Do Ho Suh

Do Ho Suh, “Some/One”, Stainless Steel Military Dog Tags, Nickel-Plated Copper Sheets, Steel Structure, Glass Fiber Reinforced Resin, Rubber Sheets.

Do Ho Suh’s “Some/One” was installed in the Korean Pavilion at the 2001 Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy.

“Some/One” evolved from my first sculpture, “Metal Jacket”. I had a dream one day after I finished “Metal Jacket” that I wanted to turn it into some kind of larger installation. The dream was quite vivid. It was night, and I was outside a stadium, approaching it from the distance, and I saw a light in the stadium. So I thought, ‘There’s some kind of activity going on there.’ And as I approached, I started to hear clicking sounds, like the sound when metal pieces touch together. It was like there were thousands of crickets in the stadium. And then I entered the stadium.

I walked slowly, but I went into the stadium on the ground level. And then I saw this reflecting surface and I realized I was stepping on these metal pieces that were military dog tags. And they were vibrating slightly, vibrating and touching each other. The sound was from that. From afar I saw the central figure in the center of the stadium. It tried to go out of the stadium but it couldn’t because the train of its garment, which was made of dog tags, was just too big. It was just too big to pull all the dog tags.

So that was a dream and the image that I got. After that I made a small drawing about this vast field of military dog tags on the ground and a small figure in the center. Obviously I could not create the piece exactly as I dreamt it, but that was the kind of impact I wanted to create through that piece.” —Do Ho Suh

Andy Goldsworthy

Sculptures by Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy, OBE, born in July of 1956, is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland.

Photography plays a crucial role in Goldsworthy’s art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, “Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit.”

Eduardo Catalano

Eduardo Catalano, Stainless Steel and Aluminum, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Inaugurated in April 2002, this gigantic flower by Buenos Aires-born Eduardo Catalano  has become one of the latest icons of Buenos Aires. Officially the flower goes by the name of Floralis Generica, but since nobody seems to be able to remember that ‘scientific’ name, it usually gets called the Steel Flower. The solar flower is 23 metres high and weighs 18 tonnes. When the petals are open they span 32 metres and when closed only 16 metres.

One of the fascinating features of this sculpture is that it acts like a real flower in that its gigantic petals are open during the day and then close for the night with a red glow emanating from within. There are four special nights a year where the petals remain open: 25th May, 21st September and the 24th and 31st of December.

The Steel Flower is made of stainless steel and aluminium and sits in the centre of a pool of water which reflects the flower and also protects it from vandals.

Alexander Liberman

Alexander Liberman, “Olympic Illiad”. Steel Sculpture, 1984, Seattle, Washington

“Olympic Iliad” is a 1984 steel sculpture by Alexander Liberman, located in the lawn surrounding the Space Needle at Seattle Center in Seattle, Washington, United States. Liberman, known for his use of industrially manufactured materials, cut giant steel cylinders at varying angles and lengths, painted them an industrial red, and assembled them to form an immense structure that one can walk around and underneath.

Arne Quinze

Arne Quinze, “The Sequence”, Brussels, Belgium, Wooden Sculpture, November 13, 2008-November 13, 2013

The Sequence is a monumental public sculpture designed by Belgian artist and designer Arne Quinze. The artistic intervention located in the heart of Brussels is made from wood and concrete connecting the Flemish Parliament to the House of Representatives physically and symbolically. Acting as a bridge between the public and the government neighbors, it promotes urban interaction and communication.

Quinze lives and works in Sint Martens Latem nearby Ghent, Belgium.

Andy Scott

Andy Scott, Structual Steel with Stainless Steel Cladding, Falkrik, Scotland

The Kelpies are two towering horse-head sculptures, standing next to the Forth and Clyde Canal, in Helix park, in Falkrik, in Scotland. The sculptures form a gateway at the eastern entrance to the Forth and Clyde canal, and the new canal extension built as part of The Helix land transformation project. The 300-ton, 30-meter sculptures were created by Glasgow artist Andy Scott,inspired by the shape shifting mythological creature by the same name that haunts the rivers and streams of Scotland and is known to posses the strength and endurance of 10 horses – quality that is analogous with the transformational change and endurance of Scotland’s inland waterways. The Kelpies represent the lineage of the heavy horse of Scottish industry and economy, pulling the wagons, ploughs, barges and coalships that shaped the geographical layout of the Falkirk area.

Kinetic Sculpture “Octo 3″ by Anthony Howe

 

Art in Movement: Kinetic Sculpture “Octo 3″ by Anthony Howe, Stainless Steel, 25 Feet High, 30 Feet in Diameter.

Anthony Howe (born 1954, Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American kinetic sculptor who creates wind-driven sculptures resembling pulsing, alien creatures and vortices. He makes use of computer-aided design, shaping the metal components with a plasma cutter, and completing his work by use of traditional metalworking techniques. “Multiple axis finely balanced forms, both symmetrical and asymmetrical, conspire to create a visually satisfying three-dimensional harmony.”

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Matthew Harding

Sculptures by Matthew Harding, Australia

While diverse in materials and processes, Australian artist Matthew Harding’s  works demonstrate a common theme and investigation into the experiential aspect of form and materiality. He creates objects to be interacted with, touched, sat on, objects that reflect and morph; objects which have a vital and poetic relationship to the environment they are in and the people who interact with them.

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei, “Circle of Animals/ Zodiac Heads”, Somerset House, London, England, 12 Bronze Casts, Each Ten Feet Tall.

Despite acclaim in his home country – receipt of the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Lifetime Contribution in 2008; his close work with architects Herzog & de Meuron in designing the “Bird’s Nest” National Olympic Stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games; his reputation as one of China’s top artists; and his father’s status as one of China’s most renowned poets – contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has frequently found himself at odds with the Chinese government.

Such is the case in 2011 as his “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” went on view in the courtyard of London’s Somerset House. What was originally scheduled as a press call to interview Ai Weiwei and an opportunity to photograph the artist with his “Circle of Animals” was altered to a sans artist event due to his disappearance in early April of 2011. Ai Weiwei’s whereabouts were unknown. Although no explanation was given for his disappearance, it was widely believed Ai Weiwei was detained by Chinese authorities in response to the online publication of a photograph featuring Ai Weiwei naked except for a toy horse covering his genitals along with a caption in Mandarin that could be interpreted as “Fuck your mother, the party central committee.”

In 21 June 2012, Ai Weiwei’s bail was lifted. Although he is allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he is still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is “suspected of other crimes,” including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. As of 2014, he remains under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continues to criticize through his work.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang:  Installations

Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou, China. He was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Theatre Academy from 1981 to 1985, and his work has since crossed multiple mediums within art including drawing, installation, video, and performance.

Cai began to experiment with gunpowder in his hometown Quanzhou, and continued exploring its properties while living in Japan from 1986 to 1995. This inquiry eventually led to the development of his signature outdoor explosion events.

Drawing upon Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues as a conceptual basis, his artworks respond to culture and history and establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them. His explosion art and installations are imbued with a force that transcends the two-dimensional plane to engage with society and nature.

 

Chris Burdon

Chris Burdon, “Urban Light”, Installation of 202 Restored Cast Iron City Street Lights, 2008, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Standing in front of LACMA, “Urban Light” consists of 202 restored cast-iron street lamps, most of which used to light the streets of Southern California. Burden began collecting street lamps in 2000 without a specific work in mind. Ranging from 20 to 30 feet tall, there are a total of 17 different lamp styles represented in Burden’s sampling. Photos do not do this installation justice; you have to be there at night to experience it fully.

James Turrell

Light Installations by James Turrell

A MacArthur Fellow in 1984, James Turrell is an American artist primarily concered with light and space. He received his BA degree from Pomona College in the field of perceptual psychology.in 1965 and also studied mathematics, geology and astronomy at Pomona College. He began making artwork using light projection while enrolled in the graduate Studio Art program at the University of California, Irvine in 1966. Later in 1973 he received an MA degree in art from Claremont Graduate University and an honorary doctorate in 2004 by Haverford College.

Turrell is also known for his light tunnels and light projections that create shapes that seem to have mass and weight, though they are created with only light. Turrell’s 1968 projection of a suspended luminous pink pyramid, Raethro Pink, was acquired by the Welsh National Museum of Art. His work “Acton” is a very popular exhibit at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It consists of a room that appears to have a blank canvas on display, but the “canvas” is actually a rectangular hole in the wall, lit to look otherwise.

“I had an interest in art, but my first interest was in light. I was fascinated by light.”

-James Turrell