Pinar's Blog – December 2011 Archive (48)

Can you identify a brand without a visible name or fully formed logo? Dutch designer Hendrik-Jan Grievink created a board game, aptly titled Brand Memory Game, that tests people's ability to distinguish brands through visual association, in which the names are muted from the image. It's surprising to realize how influential marketing tactics are, based on how easy it…

We discovered UK-based artist Philip McKay's work on our very own website when he submitted some of his stunning work to our Photos section. His digital artwork leaves a feeling of…

Artist Kurt Perschke has embarked on an international journey that brings a childlike joy to all who encounter his work. The Chicago-born artist's RedBall Project is simple in theory - place a giant, inflatable red sphere in public spaces. The ball stands out…

Macedonia-based artist Vasko Taškovski finds inspiration from horses to produce surreal fantasies. Using an array of vivid colors and varying landscapes, the painter transforms the ordinary creature into a robust yet agile stallion. Most fascinating about Taškovski's creations are the constructs and forms of the equestrian subjects.

In one of his elaborate paintings, the horse…

Lying on your back, you look up at the clouds. At first it's a game of "What does that cloud look like?" but it quickly turns to becoming "What do I look like?" and "Who am I?" Photographer Christopher Jonassen's series entitled Before We Begin encapsulates this act of looking up at the clouds for answers. The Norway-based photographer tells us that his inspiration for…

Poetry has found a new medium. Iceland-based poet, performer, and visual artist Ragnhildur Jóhanns constructs flowery paper art sculptures in her series entitled Sculptural Poems. Using the support of a book's form, the artist extends the text beyond the confines of the structure by adding poetic written words on strips of paper. The result is a feathery figure of…

Existential inquiries like "What is the meaning of life?" are thought-provoking questions that are difficult to answer. However, photographer Gilbert Garcin comically alludes to answering such philosophical curiosities through his strangely amusing imagery.

The France-based octogenarian began his career in photography after retiring from managing a lamp factory…

It looks like this guy went down the rabbit hole. Paris-born artist Jean-François Fourtou uses a mix of his childhood memories and inspiration from Alice in Wonderland to create a surreal series of his own entitled Mes Maisons (My Houses). The contemporary artist, who currently lives and works in Marrakech and Madrid, produces illusionary images that…

In this day and age, it's refreshing to see a positive perspective on a script that has the ability to cause unease in America. Political street artist Peter Fuss' billboard pieces entitled This Means Peace were first placed at a railway station in Gdansk, Poland in January 2008. His works are immortalized on his website and are just as powerful, nearly four years later.

The…

This is no ordinary path in a forest. For Tallin's 2011 European Capital of Culture and LIFT11, a festival showcasing 11 urban installations, Japan-based architect Tetsuo Kondo was formally invited to skillfully share his innovative designs at Kadriorg Park in Tallin, the capital of Estonia. The urban designer constructed a structural installation entitled A Path in the Forest for…

It's hard to believe that these detailed sculptures were once encyclopedias. Interdisciplinary artist Guy Laramee redesigns old volumes of information-heavy books that have descended into obsoleteness, going untouched in this present age of technology, into thoroughly sculpted landscapes. The meticulous carving involved in the textured detail of his creations are…

In celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the United Arab Emirates National Day, a magically divine light show was orchestrated by Obscura Digital, a creative agency based in San Francisco, which developed the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Projections Project. The company did its research and were clearly prepared to honor the rich history of Abu Dhabi in their light projections…

Though the Iraq War has officially ended, the War on Terror trudges on in the Middle East. The toll that any war takes on troops overseas is truly only known by the brave men who put their lives on the line. In an effort to try to document the impact serving in Afghanistan has on a person,…

São Paulo-based artist Lucas Simões has found an interesting way of depicting cinema in photography. There is a sense of motion in Simões' distorted line of images from his Quasi-cinema series. Using several shots of a subject on location, only differentiated by slight movements, the artist weaves the sequential waves of photos together, securely fastening it…

We've seen blue bodies of water, but nothing quite like this! Astrophotographer Phil Hart captured a mesmerizing series of images featuring an unbelievable, yet natural, blue sheen streaking through a sea of saltwater. The bioluminescence effect is the result of a defensive reaction employed by microorganisms in the Gippsland Lakes in Australia. Their radiant reflex is similar…

The visual power of transparent materials, like water and glass, often go unnoticed. Sometimes, it takes a photographer like Hélène Desplechin to show us the visible influence of these elements. Desplechin, who is based in Spain, has a wide portfolio of work that utilizes water's reflective and rippling nature. The illusionary quality of the translucent material distorts and…

Russia-based photographer Kirill Vorontsov has an eye for capturing enchanting, cinematic portraits. The 22-year-old photographer shoots many of his images in his native land of St. Petersburg, Russia. However, the young artist manages to represent a variety of locations, from natural forests to industrial cityscapes. His expertise really seems to lie in evoking a range…

We first shared Maria Netsounski's gravity-defying portrait series with you, but since she is also a skilled landscape photographer, we had to show you another side of her creative work. The Netherlands-based photographer travels the globe, capturing breathtaking shots of landscapes filled with…

Photographer Maria Netsounski, who also goes by "Bulka," has created a phantasmagorical series employing the art of mid-air suspension. Some images give the appearance of a moment caught in time when things have gone completely haywire. In one, papers get flung in the air while a levitating woman with a pain-stricken expression foresees her fall to come. Others appear more serene, as though the…

The ancient Japanese paper-folding art form, known as origami, is fused with modern sensory technology in this interactive light installation called Jelly Swarm. Vancouver-based Tangible Interaction has collaborated with origami expert Joseph Wu to conceive and produce the interactive display that features 94 paper-crafted jellyfish, which they refer to as "jellies."

Each jelly is…