SCULPTURE
Chicken wire doesn’t exactly bring awe and inspiration to mind. It’s cheap, pointy, a little hard to shape, and it’s generally used to keep chickens from making a mess everywhere. It’s more like a really tiny wired fence than anything else. London-based artist Benedetta Ubaldini, however, turns these scraps of metal into something truly fantastic. Ubaldini is a sculptor like no other. While we’re used to sculptures carved from the heaviest, most solid materials, she sculpts from simple material we see every day.
We’ve all been bored at work or school. It doesn’t take much. Maybe a day that’s just too beautiful outside or a stack of work we feel like we’ve done before can set the mind to wandering. Odds are good you might even be looking at this page because you’re bored at work. Don’t worry, we won’t tell. Daydreams can sometimes be the best. Ordinary objects spring to life. A paperclip is no longer a paperclip. Maybe it’s a weapon, a rope, or something you can bend into the shape of something else while the boss isn’t looking. Terry Border has taken these tiny moments of creativity and created little sculptures we couldn’t come up with on the most creative day.
Much like the floppy disk, the CD is on its way out. MP3s and their players, bless them, blew CDs out of the water when they gave us the ability to have our entire song collection on hand at once. Memory cards and USB sticks eliminated that awkward stage where CDs replaced the aforementioned floppy. There are teenagers alive who have never had to deal with these old relics physically. The floppy disk is just a little icon, the ‘save’ button on a word processor. Sean Avery, however, turns the CD into something more--by destroying it.
It’s barely February, but Valentine’s Day is almost here. Love or loathe the holiday, if you’re in New York City, it’ll be happening big this year. Pressure is on for anyone with a crush or wants to find a romantic way to celebrate. Anyone a little strapped for cash may already be lamenting over what they can get for their sweetheart. BIG (the Bjarke Ingles Group) has created something anyone can enjoy, whether they’ve got a Valentine or not. The spectacle they’ve created is part art installation, part technology, and all heart.
Believe it or not, our interests as children have shaped our careers, politics, and the passion we feel for certain causes. Just a quick look at our childhood heroes, favorite books, TV shows, video games, and other activities can say a lot about the person we grew up to be. Ryo Shimura found inspiration at a young age and a growing interest in the environment thanks to a single statue of a hippo he loved as a child. As a child the bronze statue of a hippo in a local park fascinated him, and as he grew, he learned about the great decline in hippo population. He also learned the unfortunate fact that much of it was due to poaching.
There’s nothing more thrilling than getting close to the big drop on a big roller coaster. Frightening loops and moving at breakneck speed are the highlight of any trip to Six Flags or Play Land for those with a taste for danger. Young and old line up to get the scare of their lives, and everyone has a favorite coaster. For those who want a more relaxing day off, however, most amusement parks and rides are a difficult place to be. The Crouching Tiger and Turtle, however, is a coaster that people to go at their own pace.
Frankenstein’s monster is one of the big bads at the spooky roundtable. In terms of notoriety, he’s up there with Dracula, but doesn’t quite get the same love. He’s misunderstood and tragic and his story’s just as interesting as any other Halloween legend, but he just can’t seem to get as much play. Maybe it’s because he settled down with his bride a while ago. Maybe it’s because he’s soft spoken. All the people at “It’s Alive!” know is that it’s time to pay him proper tribute.
It’s Alive! is a project that celebrates the 8 decades that Frankenstein’s monster has existed. Mary Shelley’s misunderstood creature and his creator have had innumerable incarnations over the years, and are part of some of the most retold stories in our culture. It’s Alive pays tribute with some more colorful depictions. Each artist involved with the project re-imagined 80 life size Boris Karloff Frankenstein busts. Painting and sculpting and reshaping the original image, each has breathed new life into some rather dusty bones.
While the visual of a huge cigarette hanging from the ceiling and letting its ash fall on delicate flowers evokes its own heavy set of thoughts from the casual observer, Yang Yongliang’s piece rewards the keen eye.
The photographer and artist cut out and layered image upon image of city buildings to create a hidden skyline within the cigarette’s ash. The pile collected on the ground consists of rectangular image cutouts, juxtaposed against the colorful yet sterile appearance of artificial flowers and grass.
Peaceful and foreboding, the piece is true to Yongliang’s usual use of structure in his photography. Infinitely intricate and neat in his creation of the cigarette itself, the natural twists and bends of the flowers and grass are jarring to the eye, although they are the softest part of the piece.
Are you seeing what I’m seeing? Look at the size of this ice cream sundae. The catch? It isn’t edible! No, not because you would get the world’s most painful stomach ache, but because it is actually sculpted of items such as wood, plaster, acrylic, and clay. Those things have never looked so great before.
Artist Peter Anton has done the unthinkable. He has created larger than life sculptures of everyone’s favorite deserts- such as a box of donuts, an ice cream sundae, and my personal favorite- the classic, but ever so good ice cream bar. Although the exhibit currently on display at the Allan Stone Gallery on East 90th is rather small, the works of art to be seen are anything but.
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