Category: Art

​Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragão uses recycled yarns to create intricate tapestries of ecosystems by hand, depicting the diverse world that exists underwater.

Barragão uses a variety of techniques including hand tufting, crocheting, embroidery, knitting and weaving, to create textured rugs, carpets, and wall hangings made predominantly from from wool that would otherwise have been disposed of. Her tapestries resemble the multifaceted layers and tactile structures of coral reefs: imitating fungi, algae, fringing reefs and marine crustaceans. Barragão works with both the familiar ocean color palette of blue and teal hues, and earthy, muted colors to portray the dying reefs. Reef ecosystems are susceptible to coral bleaching due to rising water temperatures—an issue caused by global warming due to climate change. “The textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world”, explains Barragão. “In almost every process chemicals are used… It is extremely harmful for our world and it affects different natural environments; particularly the ocean which absorbs 90% of the atmosphere’s pollution.” By upcycling the materials for her tapestries, Barragão aims to bring awareness to this predicament.

An annular Spanish villa was transformed into a large-scale installation by Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis for luxury watch label, A. Lange & Söhne. Titled ‘24 Hours’, the piece utilized the circular building and an abundance of natural light to create a luminous and reflective timepiece.

Designed by Belgian architects Kersten Geers and David van Severen of Office GDVS, the villa is part of Solo Houses, an ongoing project in the mountainous region of Matarraña in Spain. This architectural endeavor consists of 15 buildings to date, each designed by an emerging international architect. Geer and van Severen’s concrete and glass building was designed with environmental harmony in mind; “since the surrounding landscape is so impressive, we felt that the architecture should be invisible, merely emphasizing the natural qualities of the natural surroundings”, explain the architects.

The 45-meter diameter of the hollow circular building provided the perfect space for Marcelis’ timepiece, created to celebrate the release of A. Lange & Söhne’s Datograph Up/Down ‘Lumen’, in collaboration with Openhouse Magazine. ‘24 Hours’ draws together light, color and form in an explorative sundial that works by way of a cleverly placed obelisk. Situated at the center of the courtyard, the colored mirrored glass obelisk tells the time by casting light of different hues around the space throughout the day.

The Datograph Up/Down ‘Lumen’ by A. Lange & Söhne has more than one face. Changing with the light in the course of 24 hours, it reflects the vibrant atmosphere of every moment. From understated technicity through architectural elegance to a mysterious aura, it projects a captivating impression at any occasion—with a passion that never sleeps.

The creative practice of London-based artist Robert Dawson centers around disrupting the perspective of the viewer. Dawson’s abstract work, titled ‘Aesthetic Sabotage’, uses conventional materials like clay and canvas in unconventional ways, to create works where not all is as it seems.

Dawson’s patterned clay artworks draw upon familiar motifs such as the glass stained windows of churches, Chinese dinner plate designs, and ceramic tile patterns, as well as 17th-century English artworks. His designs experiment with repetition and abstraction of traditional decorative motifs, creating artworks with slightly odd perspectives that are often visually deceptive. Examples of this include his artwork ‘You Know It’s Gonna Be Alright’, a two-dimensional print on ceramic tiles that appears as a three-dimensional space. His artwork ‘Spin’, contains six dishes with Blue Willow pottery designs, that are designed in such a way that they appear blurred, as if they are spinning in motion. Thirdly, ‘In Perspective Willow 1’ is a Bone china porcelain plate on which a picture of a plate has been printed. Whilst the physical plate stands upright, the plate that has been printed upon it appears to lay flat—by shifting the vanishing point of the print, Dawson completes a beautiful Blue Willow trompe l’œil.

‘You Know It’s Gonna Be Alright’, print on ceramic tile. Image © Robert Dawson

‘In Perspective Willow 1’, print on Bone China. Image © Robert Dawson

‘Untitled’, ceramic, print and acrylic on hardboard. Image © Robert Dawson

‘170328’, clay, fabric printing pigment and emulsion on canvas. Image © Robert Dawson

‘170520’, clay and fabric printing pigment on canvas. Image © Robert Dawson

The work of Berlin-based conceptual artist Michael Sebastian Haas centers on kinetic installations that combine painting, landscape and architectural interventions with textiles. The most recent of these “evolving systems” is titled ‘Interface (Field of Blue)’, a temporary land art installation on the Greek island of Paxos.

Created as a part of Paxos Contemporary (P-CAP), a program which asked contributing artists to consider the island’s landscape as a new exhibition format—open at all times of the day, and accessible within a day’s hike. Haas describes the work as an “intense” and “private” way of approaching both the physical and emotional geography of a place. Situated at the head of Avlaki bay, the installation consists of 100 meters of steel cable anchored to the land and a piece of fabric 225 square meters in size which hangs from the cable. “Intertwined with the“Intertwined with the topography and daily wind climate, it shows a sequence of views over the day” topography and daily wind climate, it shows a sequence of views over the day”, explains Haas in his statement about the work. At the beginning of the day, the blue square seems to levitate above the bay. With the rising noon wind, the textile is lifted to a horizontal position, where Haas notes that it remains until late afternoon. As the sea winds calm in the evening, the square becomes a dark movement barely visible against the sky. “The ‘Interface’ is placed where the elements of sea and land face,” Haas concludes, “and where humans feel the need to leave and to arrive”.

In the picturesque Donum Estate winery in California, Danish art collector Allan Warburg has curated an impressive sculpture park of artworks by internationally renowned artists, including Ai Weiwei, Yayoi Kusama and Zhan Wang.

The large-scale pieces in the sculpture collection are set amongst the striking landscape of the Sonoma Valley, where ancient olive trees, fields of lavender, and rows of grapevines that span hundreds of acres can be found. Amidst the rolling hills are notable pieces from famed artists, including: ‘Circle Of Animals’ by Ai Weiwei, a collection of sculpted bronze animal heads representing the traditional Chinese zodiac; Yayoi Kusama’s spotted ‘Pumpkin’ that sits perched on a square water feature, and Zhan Wang’s ‘Artificial Rock’, an enormous rock covered in welded sheets of stainless steel. “The sculpture collection at Donum expresses a sense of place and the important connection between art, nature and the human hand”, reads a statement from the estate. Donum Estate will soon offer weekly tours of the art collection by appointment.

‘Love Me’ by Richard Hudson. Image © Robert Berg

‘Pumpkin’ by Yayoi Kusama. Image © Robert Berg

‘Sanna’ by Jaume Plensa. Image © Robert Berg

‘Contemporary Terracotta Warriors’ by Yue Minjun. Image © Gregory Gorman

‘Composition with Long Verticals’ by Mark Manders. Image © Robert Berg

‘Maze’ by Gao Weigang. Image © Robert Berg

‘Held by Desire’ (The Dimensions of Freedom) by Marc Quinn. Image © Robert Berg

Using colorful waste products found on the beach, Hungarian visual artist Balazs Csizik has created artful compositions as a homage to the Suprematism art movement, and in criticism of pollution.

The photo artist and graphic designer used rubbish he found scattered across beaches, and before discarding them in bins, created something meaningful. Objects like colored plastic straws, bottle caps and jagged pieces were placed in a way “This series is based on feeling guilty about finding beauty in these colorful plastic pieces”that references the use of geometric shapes that are common to the Russian Suprematism art movement. Painter Kasimir Malevich is credited to have started the movement in 1915, which focuses on abstract art using basic geometric shapes—such as circles, squares and lines, in limited colors. Csizik hopes that the elements of his series may help to raise awareness of the problem of pollution. Finding colorful shapes in polluted areas does provide an element of aesthetics, one that reminds Csizik of his responsibility. “This series is based on feeling guilty about finding beauty in these colorful plastic pieces”, he explains, “Despite [that] they are garbage”. Guilt aside, another more pressing concern for Csizik is that the waste products more broadly “Represent one of the biggest challenges to solve for humanity: to reduce the pollution of the Oceans”.

American artist and filmmaker Doug Aitken has created a large-scale installation made entirely out of mirrors that takes the form of an American suburban home. ‘Mirage Detroit’ exists inside the former State Savings Bank, an architectural building in downtown Detroit, Michigan.

The project follows Aitken’s earlier ‘Mirage House’—featured previously on IGNANT—a site-specific mirrored sculpture of a home set in the middle of the Californian desert. However similar the two installations may be though, ‘Mirage House’ functioned as a polychromatic prism of desert colors in the vast natural landscape; whereas ‘Mirage Detroit’ is situated in virtually the opposite environment: in a contained space with Roman arches, a textured roof and no natural light. The century-old bank itself sat unoccupied in the midst of Detroit for several decades. Aitken collaborated with set designer Andi Watson to compose a light show that illuminates the installation, creating a fluid relationship with the surrounding man-made environment. Underneath ‘Mirage Detroit’, the white marble floor was lined with a bed of raw rock stones from a local riverbed. Speaking of the decision to situate the installation in such a location, Aitken explains in an interview: “It’s been bankrupt, it’s been dormant, it’s been crowded.” The aim therefore, was to breathe life into the space: “To give the architecture a heartbeat”.

Iranian artist siblings Icy And Sot create conceptual installations with artistic symbolism. Their works transcend their own experience of artistic censorship, to portray a range of political, social justice, and human rights issues.

The Brooklyn-based artists, who sought political asylum in America from their native hometown of Tabriz in 2012, use public street art, sculpture, murals, and installations as a means to envisage a world released from the grips of violence, war, and corruption. Dubbed by many as the ‘Banksys of Iran’, the repression of their controversial art and subsequent arrests by Iranian authorities, led to an opportunity to have their work exhibited in New York City. The emotional decision to follow through meant the brothers can never return to their birth country again. Three of their recent works—‘An Open Door’, ‘The Fence Between Us’, and ‘The New American Flag’—each depicts border control policies, alluding to the dangers of division and the anti-immigration rhetoric that is plaguing our world.