ghosts in string and windows

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota creates immense installations with string, furniture, windows, and live people.

What I thought, on first glance, was a frenetic charcoal drawing, was actually a photograph of a white room, with a piano and chairs completely cobwebbed in black strings.  The strings are attached to the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the furniture; they wind around each other and are woven in such a way that they define space and become shapes - or beings - themselves.

Other recurring items she uses are old windows from Berlin construction sites, hospital beds, children's school chairs, and shoes.

...but it's the string that gets me.  A ball of yarn sitting on a desk is such a quiet, soft, unassuming thing.  This artist turns it into a horrible, anxious tangle, a web of uneasiness...it almost looks organic, like an intelligent, plotting Spanish moss, ready to grow around you and swallow you up if you stay too still, too long.

Life On Mars

VIMBY - Mars-1

Just ran across this great little spotlight on my friend Mario, AKA Mars1.  Over the years Mario's work has become increasingly more abstract, complicated, detailed, skilled and beautiful.  I can only imagine what he's cooking up next, as it will no doubt be other-worldy.

State of the Arts

I was lucky enough to make it down to Art Basel Miami earlier in December and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to share some first hand glimpses of the amazing sculptural works that were on hand. 

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 While this is only a VERY small cross-section of the sculpture that was represented, these very few examples still show the vast range of mediums, techniques and individual voices that can be conveyed in the dimensional form.

Nature is Ancient

Last week I stumbled upon the work of photographer Maleonn.



He works in a variety of styles, blending nature and open spaces with human strangeness and kitch. Some of his photos are black and white, and some are black and white with meticulous hand-coloring with watercolors.


Nothing is left un-damaged by his aging techniques, which leaves the viewer, after seeing his body of work as a whole, with feelings of another world...an expanse, a non-knowing of what is around him. It's all very moody stuff, I recommend it highly.

so softly

Lyndie Dourthe is a french artist who makes beautiful objects - and LOTS of them.


The appeal of her art is not only in the beauty of the objects themselves - small studies in color, texture, form - but the repetition of the forms, and how they are arranged; in identical boxes of the same color, in rows, or in giant masses.






Her sense of color is wonderful; the palettes soft and lush and feminine and downright gorgeous. Light and texture seem almost tangible in these internet photos - i can only imagine how these lovely pieces look in real life.

shards

Andy Paiko is a U.S. artist who blends form and function in his glass pieces.



Check out both his "Sculpture", as well as "Sculptural Vesselware" on his website, for striking designs, some holding organic shapes. I really like how layered and ornate the work is - a jar that only needs to be five inches tall has a gigantic layered finial on top, just to show off. Glass is a beautiful and difficult medium to work in, and I really appreciate this artist's work.




Special thanks to DF reader CuriousArt who turned me on to Andy's work!

play your hand

Dear readers, I am so sorry for our absence. Time moves so quickly sometimes, I cringe when I realize almost a month has passed with no update to this Dark Forest. It seems that both Chris and I fill our life to the very top with things, and we often discuss whether or not it is such a good idea to be so full of "to do". But that is for another day.

Today I am looking at the haunting work of Valerie Hammond.



Her works are mixed media - paper, encaustic, graphite, other things, all carefully rendered upon the page. The colors are natural yet dreamlike - I don't feel like they are connected to this world, yet incredibly grounded at the same time. In this series, she just does hand after hand after pair of hands - maybe a repetition, but of such an iconic and expressive form. It doesn't even need to be attached to an arm or a body to speak volumes.

I love the ferns, the flowers, the coral. All laying still on a washy field of color. For something so simple, and careful and centered, they really are very evocative.

haunted

Check out the photography of Lauren Simonutti. On her Flickr page, she asserts that her photographs are all done without the aid of digital effects - all manipulation is done in camera, or in the darkroom. Certainly refreshing these days.

Askewed View

Former Tattoo artist, Chris Conn Askew creates amazing narrative imagery that feels very much of a different time and place.



With technical proficiency and a serious handle on capturing the mood of the moment, you would never suspect that he has had no formal art training. From what I know of the tattoo industry though, is that working your way up through the ranks is harder and more intensive training than you would ever receive in any cushy institution . HIS SITE is still under construction, but there are plenty of images to chew on in his myspace gallery.