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Visual Bits #409 > Freedom To Paint: Murals & Graffiti
Paper from the Past: Collage by Lars Henkel
Maybe it’s a stretch, but something about the linear and technological elements in Lars Henkel’s excellent collages reminds me of Marcel Duchamp’s famous The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. Perhaps it’s the fact that the technical elements in his work don’t quite make sense (many aren’t even connected to anything), or that there is a distinct lean towards early 20th century imagery and a beige color palette. The many levels of detail certainly lead us to believe that there is more going on than meets the eye. [Read more...]
Real Cities Become Floating Islands in the Sky
If you remember the 80s cult classic The NeverEnding Story, you’ll recall the desperate part of the film when the world of Fantasia begins to crumble away, leaving little more than a small island of rock remaining to stand on. Now, award-winning art director Reinhard Krug has created a series of imagination gripping images which seem to bring that story to our world, manipulating aerial photographs of major cities so they appear to be floating on rock. Here the resemblance to the NeverEnding Story ends, however as Krug’s images are far more serene – placing the cities gently in a sky of puffy clouds. [Read more...]
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Beautiful Toilet Paper? Re-Imagining Everyday Objects
Yes, you are looking at beautiful sculptures made from toilet paper. Sakir Gökcebag, a Turkish artist based in Germany, often creates his work out of commonplace objects and in this case he has taken the everyday roll of toilet paper and created delicate designs by draping the ribbons of the (hopefully) soft quilted paper. [Read more...]
Tents are Art Too!
The Occupy movement put down roots all over the world at its peak, especially in the USA where finding a city center without encampments was unlikely last year. The Occupy movement has definitely lost some steam, or even disappeared all together in many places. In Denver, Colorado, a law has been passed making it illegal to camp on city sidewalks. Meanwhile in Germany, a different version of Occupy blew up in protest of Stuttgart21, the new train station and urban development project starting in Stuttgart, Germany. [Read more...]
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A German Bridge Built of Legos? Street Art from Megx
Now here’s how to give your city a facelift! A street artist known as Megx recently converted a grungy looking bridge in Wuppertal, Germany, into a seriously colorful illusion. Painting the bridge in large blocks of red, yellow, green and blue, he made it appear to be built out of Legos. Want to see more of this artists work? Check out megx.de. [Read more...]
The Bridge to Utopia: die Brücke’s Wild Expressionism
One of the most organized expressionist groups was “die Brücke” (the bridge), which was established in 1905 in Dresden by 4 young artists – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Max Pechstein. The groups name was most likely inspired by the work of F. Nietzche’s (1844-1900) “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” (1882) in which he describes humanity as a bridge, a transition to a higher ideal. As the Brücke members themselves wrote in a letter in which they invited Emile Nolde to join: “One of the main purposes of our group is to gather all the revolutionary and restless elements, as our name suggests”. [Read more...]
Hey Robot, Make Me A Sandwich!
Robots have come such a long way in recent years, it seems like it won’t be long before they’re helping out in every household. The idea of having a helper around is pretty intriguing, but we don’t want then to always do the same thing, like a dishwasher or a toaster; we want something smarter, far more helpful and talented. While robots have long been doing things that humans can do by following a set of strictly defined programs, it hasn’t been until recently that they began doing tasks using their own senses and choices. [Read more...]
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Soviet Propaganda Posters of the Second World War
These incredible posters produced by the Soviet Union’s Moscow based news agency, TASS, during the Second World War, show the history of the conflict from a particularly vibrant and often gruesome Soviet perspective. The large prints, reaching between 5 and 10 feet tall, were displayed in shop windows throughout the war, with nearly a poster produced for every day of Russian involvement (1941-1945). Like an artistic journal, the posters (displayed here in chronological order) are especially interesting in the way the they track the progress of the war and the attitudes of their creators as the conflict progressed. [Read more...]
In Afghanistan Troops Eat the Meals of Home
Since the war first began in 2001, many soldiers of the almost 50 nations in Afghanistan have survived on pre-packaged meals filled with as many calories as possible and seasoned with the unique tastes of home. Called an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) in the United States, these hardcover book sized packages serve two functions: to nourish the hard working troops and to give them a happy reminder of home. Each country’s MRE includes staple ingredients to fill the belly, along with tasty dessert items and the obligatory moist towelette. [Read more...]
