March 22, 2014

The winning entry to build China’s Pavilion at the Milan Expo 2015 goes to…

The winning entry to build China’s Pavilion at the Milan Expo 2015 is a stunning reinterpretation of a public space. Designed in collaboration between Tsinghua University and New York-based Studio Link-Arc, the duo rejected the notion of a typical pavilion, and instead came up with a structure that resembles billowing fields of wheat. It’s a thoughtful and creative twist on the Expo’s theme, “Feeding the Planet – Energy for Life.” According to the architects, the 5,000-square-meter space entitledLand of Hope is centered around the idea that, “hope can be realized when nature and the city exist in harmony.”

The Pavilion’s floating roof plays a large role in capturing the spirit of the Expo. Conceptually, the undulating form merges the city skyline to the building’s north with the natural landscape to the south. It’s designed as a timber structure that references the raised-beam system found in traditional Chinese architecture, and is clad in bamboo shingled panels to reference the country’s terracotta roof construction.

Inside, there will be exhibitions and cultural offerings from the 40 Chinese provinces. The centerpiece of it all is the “field of hope,” a multimedia installation that’s a landscape of LED “stalks” meant to mimic the form of wheat. After visitors have taken in the Pavilion’s sights, sounds, and short films, they can stand on a raised platform outside and enjoy the expansive views of the Expo’s grounds.

Milan Expo 2015

March 19, 2014

Artist Creates Surreal Pictures With Shelter Animals To Help Find Them New Homes

Talented Hungarian photographer Sarolta Ban is back with more of her distinctive surreal images, but this time there’s a noble purpose behind her work – each image is meant to portray a shelter animal in a new light and help them find a loving home.

Everything seems to have begun with one image of a white dog that, according to Ban’s Facebook, she adopted. She went on to create a whole series of images featuring furry friends that are looking for homes.

She also started collecting images of animals from all over the world that are looking for homes. She plans to create beautiful images for them as well, and will gift copies of these beautiful images to the people that choose to adopt them.

“Abandoned dogs sadly have really few chances to appear on a photo that will help them get out of the shelter… [one] that stands out from the crowd, and ‘speaks’ to a person,” she explains on the project’s page.

If you enjoy her artwork, be sure to check out her page as well and buy a print or even get acquainted with a new furry friend!

Artist Creates Surreal Pictures With Shelter Animals

February 21, 2014

Architecture the Great! Office in Madrid helps employees feel apart of Great Mother nature.

It looks like something from the future but its 2014, its about time architecture looked as futuristic as this.

The brilliant aaerodynamic window tubed office, designed by Spanish architects Jose Selgas and Lucia Cano, allows its workers to feel as though they’re working in the middle of a Spanish forest. (This would have been the perfect back drop for the editors of Pans Labrynth).

Half of the office, which the two architects designed for their architecture firm Selgascano, is dug into the ground in a forest outside of Madrid. This ensures that the office stays cool even during the hot Spanish summers avoiding the feeling of being stuck in a green house.

A long window that curves up to the ceiling runs along the length of the office and eliminates the need for artificial lighting during the day. This window is also attached to a hinge and pulley mechanism that allows it to open up and keep the building ventilated. The other half of the building features an insulated fiberglass wall that helps shade the office’s workers from direct sunlight.

The office building’s sunken floor, along with the large and unusual window, means that employees sitting at their desks have an eye-level view of the forest floor. This is a company that really loves their employees!

This, combined with the view of the forest on one side and the sky above, make it seem like the office must be a fairly relaxing place to work.

Add Post Office In Madrid Lets Employees Feel Like They’re Working in the Woods

February 16, 2014

We love when people just get it right. Screw Formality. Do what you like.

Spanish artist Eloy Morales has created an eye-catching series of self portraits with an interesting catch – they’re not photographs, they’re paintings. Paintings of that quality? Lets all please take a moment and reflect on this genuine talent.

Finished? Okay… read on!

It has been the century/year/ month/whatever you want to call if, of the Selfie, the biggest craze in the western world. I know, its hard to say without cringing but we have all done it! Eloy Morales, turns his selfie style/self portraits into a blend of human figurative art and the traditional portrait by getting low down and dirty in some of the wet stuff… paint, people, paint!

We love when someone sticks it to the man. We won’t dare to say “out of the box thinking” but this guy thinks differently. Get messy with art. Be Creative , thats what we love!

Don’t do it better, do it differently like Eloy Morales.

Check out his other work, it isn’t too shabby either !

http://www.eloymorales.es/

Eloy Morales… Take a bow son.

February 14, 2014

There is something beautiful about these photos by Ester Grass Vergara

Photos by Ester Grass Vergara. Amsterdam, Netherlands.

February 12, 2014

So we haven’t been here in a while… Here’s a few to get back into the game!

warning signs of art 1

warning signs of art 2

warning signs of art 3

warning signs of art 4

warning signs of art 5

warning signs of art 6

April 19, 2013

The Friday 5 – Explosions, Che Guevara’s and Automobiles

Andy Bartee’s Instagram image of the explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas has been published around the world. The photograph shows that you don’t have to have expensive camera equipment to get a dramatic news photograph, you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time

Aleppo, Syria: a boy holds a satellite dish as he travels on the back of a truck

Tokyo, Japan: An employee at a foreign exchange trading company looks at monitors

Gaza City, Gaza Strip: a woman takes photos of dummies representing Palestinian prisoners in the former Saraya prison, now a memorial centre

Caracas, Venezuela: a Che Guevara lookalike rides his motorcycle at a gathering in support of President-elect Nicolás Maduro

April 18, 2013

Shorts of the Week from Vimeo: Amar or Thrush?

AMAR

http://vimeo.com/19890458

Amar follows a 14 year-old Indian boy at the top of his class who would someday like to be a professional cricketer. He also happens to be his family’s main breadwinner, working two jobs six and half days a week. But, this film isn’t an analysis of Amar’s misery or an expose on his suffering. No, it’s instead a quiet celebration of the human spirit–of a boy whose tenacity and quiet resolve carry him through every day. The system may be broken, but Amar’s spirit certainly isn’t.

THRUSH

http://vimeo.com/21669396

Narrative has become somewhat of an over-looked aspect of filmmaking in recent years, with short films often seeming to focus on aesthetics first and then worry about story later. However, Gabriel Bisset Smith’s short Thrush appears to slap this theory in the face by almost scrapping visual style altogether and adopting a scrapbook look of one man’s photo collection. Opting instead to present a strong narrative with a personal feel to his film adding multitudes to his film’s effectiveness.

Which Short of the Week captured your attention more? The beauty and mechanism of life shown through Amar or the style, narrative and power of still movie making displayed in Thrush?

April 18, 2013

Warning!! These are not paintings!!

What you are about to see, are not paintings on canvas! Alexa Meade paints with acrylics directly on human flesh creating the illusion of painterly portraits.

“Alexa Meade is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC area. Her background in the world of political communications has fueled her intellectual interest in the tensions between perception and reality.

Alexa Meade’s innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.” (from her BIO)

Fake Painting Photographs by Alexa Meade

April 17, 2013

Glowsticks and Water = Beautiful Water Rainbows

What may look like an example of Photoshop trickery was actually created by throwing some high powered glow sticks into the waterfalls of California. Using long exposure that would range from 30 seconds to 7 minutes, San Francisco-based photographers Sean Lenz and Kristoffer Abildgaard transformed the waterfalls into nocturnal underwater rainbows.

“This project came from months of refining a simple idea that finally turned into a concept worthy of using for an entire series,” says Kristoffer. “We were both fascinated by artificial light such as glow sticks, lasers, flares, and being big on landscape photography we tied them together in hopes of creating something that we had never seen before,” added the artist.

Even though neon lights is something completely unnatural and unrelated to the settings of the photoshoots, the final results in their ‘Neon Luminance‘ series are very harmonious.

The ‘From the Lenz’ artist duo also worked on lighting the nature around the waterfalls, and used various head lamps, road flares and even taking advantage of the moonlight: “Although this series was meant to focus mostly on glow sticks in waterfalls, we are exploring the idea of creating artificially lit landscapes in general as well, such as mountains, lakes, tree lines, grass fields and caves,” Mr Abildgaard added.

‘From the Lenz’