• February 16, 2017.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
• February 16, 2017.
Gilles Cenazandotti Polar Bear, 2016.
Fusing a story of sustainability and animal welfare, the chromatic and playful sculptures fabricated from found objects ponder the future of the environment. Each of Gilles Cenazandotti‘s sculptures and assemblages are composed of polyurethane material culled from the Mediterranean Sea. The style of sauvegarde art, or safeguarding, is a unique environmental method that draws upon the French artist’s love for the environment and his love for forming art from unconventional materials. Formerly the head of a design company, the artist quit his day-job and sold the company four years ago in order to create detritus-amassed art.
Gilles Cenazandotti Black Panther.
“I imagine this universe in my sculptures, of the cities moving to what is necessary to the survival of the men. What will it occur when the tide will overflow of our rejected products? When will pollution touch so many species that life will be decreased? This science fiction is near where one already sees the animals changing territory. One can wonder what they will become, like so many already disappeared species, if they do not find any more spaces to live.”
Gilles Cenazandotti Baboon, 2015.
Gilles Cenazandotti, Briquets Triptych , 2016. 47.25 x 11 inches each. Lighters Found from the Sea on Altuglass.
Remarkable work, and work with a very strong message. We need to stop being unthinking apes and be mindful humans. All of the work is deeply poignant, but it’s the lighters that get to me. FFS, is it that much to expect people to not treat our oceans like a convenient trash can?
Gilles Cenazandotti at Contessa Gallery.
Via The Creators Project.
© C. Ford.
Oh man, it’s amazing that you can manage to forget the godsawful stench of gesso in between uses. If anything can turn you off doing art work, it’s that fuckin’ goop. Ugheeesh. (Yes, I messed with the photo, it doesn’t actually look like that, just smells like that.) What does it smell like? Rotten horseradish soaked in formaldehyde and pissed on by cats for 6 months. Ugh.
Escargots. Jacques Collin de Plancy – Dictionnaire infernal.
I’m being much too distracted by the Dictionnaire Infernal right now. How did I not know about the Snail Telegraph? The original text from Dictionnaire Infernal:
Escargots. On ne voit nulle part que ces honnêtes créatures aient jamais figuré au sabbat. Mais il paraît qu’elles ont aussi leur côté mystérieux, et qu’elles pourraient, quand les études dont s’occupent les savants auront abouti, faire concurrence au télégraphe électrique. On a donc proposé en 1850 un procédé qui se mûrit, c’est la boussole pasilalinique-sympathique. Si vous trouvez ce nom bizarre, l’agent de cette boussole ne l’est pas moins ; c’est l’escargot. Deux amis séparés par de grandes distances se seront munis chacun d’un escargot de même espèce, les auront magnétisés ensemble pour établir la sympathie ; puis l’ami resté à Paris chargera son escargots des nouvelles qu’il veut transmettre à son ami installé à Pékin, et ce dernier répondra de la même manière ; par quels moyens faciles ? nous l’ignorons ; mais en mars de la présente année, les journaux disaient qu’on était à la veille de résultats satisfaisants, et les spiriles affirment que cette découverte se rattache à ce que nos pères appelaient la magie naturelle. Un Américain prétend même que les escargots magnétisés parleront, ou bien un esprit, de ceux qui tiennent aux tables, pourra parler pour eux.
Wool Pekoe, © 2017, 7’H x 9’W x 5’D.
Michelle Stitzlein does amazing and wonderful large scale sculptures out of recycled and found goods. Wondrous and beautiful work, go have a wander at her galleries, which are full of stunning pieces!
Posting about incense yesterday reminded me of two old Vantine Incense tins I have. They both had a bit of incense still in them, and it still smelled fine. There’s still a bit of the Wisteria left, but it’s all crumbled.
© C. Ford.
The back of the temple incense reads:
To scent the house with the fragrance of Vantine’s Temple Incense, place a burner in the reception hall. The fumes will quickly pervade the upper rooms with a delightfully soothing Oriental fragrance. Temple Incense may also be used to scent the contents of the wardrobe. To do this, place the burner in the center of the floor of the wardrobe. Do not allow the clothes in the wardrobe to come in contact with the burner.
Vantine’s Temple Incense adds greatly to the fascination and coziness of the open fire place when a handful is scattered over the glowing embers. The fragrance of the incense blends delightfully with the pungency of burning wood.
In using Temple Incense on the veranda, on the lawn, or outdoors otherwise, use several burners in order to secure the desired degree of fragrance.
Cones come in six fragrances: Pine, Wisteria, Sandalwood, Rose, Violet, and Jasmin and the three superior odors, Orange Blossom, Lilac, and Narcissus.
Very much a different time. A. A. Vantine & Co. is mostly forgotten today, except by collectors, but it was a highly successful business, and when it came to incense tins and burners, they had the best. I’d love to have a huge collection of the incense tins, but they are not easy to come by. I was lucky in finding these, the store owner didn’t seem to know or care about their value.
Blacksmithing is by no means a dead trade, but if you watch or have watched shows like Forged in Fire, you’ll notice the modern forge has quite a few degrees of separation from the bellows and hammering of forges past. When I first got into blacksmithing, I wanted things to be modern. “This trade won’t die if we just keep moving forward!” I’d think; but all the automatic power hammers in the world won’t make you a better craftsman, and if all your fires are perfectly electronically heated, what will you really know about the giants whose shoulders you’re standing on? This is a guide on what you’ll need to set up your very own forge – the right way.
Barett Poley has a good article up at Make, all about setting up your own forge. I’d love to do this someday, and it’s definitely a doable project.
Absolutely delighted by this. Watch! Via Great Big Story.
At the corner of Gregson and Peabody streets in Durham, North Carolina, lies a railroad trestle with an infamous history. The 11-foot-8-inch underpass, also known at the “can-opener bridge,” has seen hundreds of truck collisions over the past eight years. And Jürgen Henn has captured nearly every one of them with a surveillance camera and posted them online. A local celebrity, Henn and his 11foot8 website provide a delightfully painful reminder to pay attention to what’s around you—and to never underestimate your truck’s clearance height.
Via Great Big Story. I do love the Crash art, but I’m odd that way, with my collection of swarf, and other odd things which always end up in my pockets during a walk.
Steve Warburton is an artist in Australia, with a very interesting perspective. The work is evocative, and I find many of the pieces to be of an expansive nature – for me, they are pieces to ponder, not just savour, and allow all the different layers of associations to come up. There’s a distinct sense of dystopia in many of the pieces, but they are all the more beautiful in their poignancy, and the hope that we do not follow such paths to their inescapable conclusions. Definitely worth spending some time, going through the galleries!
I didn’t include much here, because the galleries are set up for viewing, not borrowing, so have a wander, expand your mind, and let your imagination take you on a trip. Steve Warburton.
Signe Baumane wants to make a new film, and the bits I’ve seen are captivating, to say the least. Watch the video, and if you have a bit of pocket change to send Signe’s way, that would be fantastic! Or just spread the word. Or both!
Charly sent photos of more of his mom’s (and his) work in knipling. Absolutely gorgeous doves! Charly says: These two doves were made in 2011. The first one is my mothers design. After she made it, I asked her if she could do another one with my design, and she did. My input included not only new outline, but I also suggested the use of different colours and different lace /knotting. The difference in style is quite apparent. The first dove is what would be called “traditional” style, because in this style are made laces, collars, doilies etc.
Pictures are behind glass, so I had to adjust colour saturation and levels to bring the colours out so the pictures look like the real fabric and not too grey. They are actually larger than life on screen, in reality they are only approximately 35 cm (14 inches) diagonally. For completeness’s sake I am also including the templates, I think you might find them interesting.
I definitely find them interesting! Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved.
