The Amazing Stuff

When you think of art, you probably imagine something hanging on a wall, but that’s not how Dutch artist Suzan Drummen creates. Her glittering installations, featuring thousands of shiny glass pieces, beads, and jewels, are laid out right on the floor in carefully arranged mandala and textile-like patterns. The bright colors and shining elements make them look magical, while their placement causes viewers to stop and rethink how they plan on navigating the space.

Drummen uses pins to attach items to walls, but the pieces on the floor are simply laid down. There’s nothing holding them in place.

This means that for all the work that goes into them, these installations are rather fragile.

Though they’re meticulously arranged, Drummen says that she never creates a plan for her pieces beforehand. She says everything is spontaneous: “I check the light, the route of the visitors, the colors, the height, etc., on [the] spot. The whole atmosphere actually guides me. Every space requires something else and the installation grows slowly.”

Needless to say, the process of creating these pieces is a time-consuming one.

And the art is not at all permanent, although Drummen has created some permanent installations.

The artist says that when people realize the pieces are loose, they tend to get very excited. She wants her work to draw people in and compel them to examine it from a closer perspective, inspecting all the tiny components.

Sometimes, Drummen uses other surfaces besides just floors and walls.

She occasionally uses participants who sit or lie on the floor and allow themselves to be adorned with glittering jewels.

If these bright, dizzying designs seem a bit overwhelming to you, that’s exactly what Drummen wants.

“From a distance they appear clear and orderly, yet upon closer inspection, the eyes become disoriented by the many details and visual stimuli,” she explains.

“That moment, of being able to take it all in or not, is explored, time and time again. The visual perception is challenged, requisitioned, and intensified.”

(via Bored Panda, Colossal, Irenebrination)

You can see much more of Drummen’s work on her website, including other types of installations and art forms. You can also see what she’s up to on Facebook.

Waiting for a train, even if you have a distraction, can lead to some surprisingly introspective thoughts. In the company of hundreds of faceless strangers, the mind has plenty of time to wander. There’s something about being in transit that turns everyday people into philosophers.

That’s the feeling that software developer Alan Donohoe and designer Steven Parker wanted to capture when they created The Waiting Wall and put it up for public display in England’s bustling Brighton Station. It looks like a board that would display arrivals and departures, but instead, it broadcasts deep, dark, anonymous secrets.

The idea came to Donohoe while he was waiting for a train in Brighton Station.

The pair asked people to divulge their secrets anonymously online so that they could be displayed on the board.

The finished product now hangs above the actual train times.

Many messages take on the lonely, melancholy tones of late-night confessions.

They speak of the fear, anxiety, and trepidation that we’ve all felt at one point or another.

These secrets tell stories of betrayal, infidelity, addiction, and personal failure.

We all understand the pain of these feelings in our own way.

Why such a melancholy topic? Well, Donohoe says that the project has two sides. On one hand, it’s a statement about feeling pressured by society to be happy at all times. He sees this as an impossible, unhealthy goal.

But at the same time, the brutal honesty of these confessions may help people feel less alone. We all have secrets that we’d rather not talk about, but at least we’re not the only ones.

Donohoe was inspired by the work of author and philosopher Alain de Botton, who proposed an electronic, global version of Jerusalem’s famous Wailing Wall that would be accessible to all people.

The creative developer hopes that his project will help people feel “comforted by having a space where they can share these thoughts.” He continues by pointing out that “some of life’s biggest questions don’t have any answers, but there’s some consolation in knowing that we haven’t been singled out for persecution, and that we’re all battling the same things.”

While there have been some instances of spam, Donohoe is happy with how honest and forthcoming most people have been.

He’s glad to give people a safe space to talk about the things that keep them up at night.

(via Distractify, Brighton Digital Festival, The Guardian)

The Waiting Wall will be on display through September 27 at Brighton Station, with regularly changing secrets supplied via the project’s website, where you can submit a secret of your own — anonymously, of course. It’s part of the Brighton Digital Festival, which celebrates digital innovation in Brighton and Hove.

The end of summer signals the beginning of Japan’s annual rice harvest in the Niigata Prefecture. The only bad thing about it is that people are left with tons of unusable straw, which is called wara in Japanese. So what should you do with all that waste? Make art, of course!

On the last day of August, Niigata holds the Straw Art Festival, during which artists gather to create sculptures out of the material. These massive pieces adorn the fields until early November.

Amy Goda is one of the participating artists.

She’s an art student in Niigata, and she’s created several massive wara dinosaurs this year for the Straw Art Festival.

Of course, a few other creatures showed up, too.

The straw is attached to wooden frames, which gives artists the ability to create huge sculptures.

The technique for building them is similar to that of thatching cottages.

Success!

Some of the creations are insanely detailed.

Different methods are used to create different textures.

Here, the straw has been twisted and wrapped.

And they make for some great photos.

(via BoredPanda)

The sculptures are open to the public, and people are welcome to climb on them and interact with them when they visit Uwasekigata Park in Niigata City. You can see more images of the festival on Amy Goda’s Twitter.

Walking down the streets of Chiapas, Mexico, you might not even see the public artwork of artist Isaac Cordal. That’s because despite being in plain sight for all to see, his work is miniscule. He’s known for his tiny, cement figures placed in public, but tucked-away spaces like drainpipes, cracks, and other corners where most people wouldn’t normally look.

In Chiapas, he’s recently unveiled his latest series of sculptures that see tiny skeletons in clothing engaged in mysterious activities.

They lurk in patches of weeds, in cracks in walls, and in other forgotten places.

With their mournful postures, you can’t help but imagine some tragic story behind them.

Cordal doesn’t assign a story to each sculpture, but each one has a distinctly sad attitude, which is crafted on purpose. To Cordal, these little skeletons are symbolic of the disregard humans have for one another and the planet, which he feels can only result in destruction, death, and despair. In his artist statement, he says “you can empathize with their situations, their leisure time, their waiting for buses and even their more tragic moments such as accidental death, suicide or family funerals.”

They appear to be lost, timeless creatures watching the slow descent of their home into chaos and entropy.

Some of them seem to have a more direct commentary on modern culture.

This one, for example, is a commentary on the modern school system, which Cordal feels has moved away from knowledge and education and towards a colder, less personal, business-like atmosphere.

(via Colossal)

Besides Mexico, Cordal has also shown his work in other countries. You can see more of his work, including some non-skeletal, but no less mournful, sculptures on his Facebook and Tumblr pages.

While they’re a necessity in most modern cites and towns, utility boxes tend to look pretty…well…utilitarian. But that’s not the case anymore in Auckland, New Zealand, thanks to the work of artist Paul Walsh.

Chorus, the company that owns many of these units, has given Walsh permission to decorate their Auckland boxes. We think this quirky art is a great addition to the city!

So how did Walsh come by this sanctioned public art opportunity?

According to the artist, it all started in 2013. He painted an image of Grumpy Cat on the wall of his local dog park, and it quickly became popular with visitors. City officials weren’t having it, though, so they painted over it.

This sparked a slew of public backlash, and people even started a petition to have the painting restored. That caught the attention of a local newspaper, and that coverage then caught Chorus’ attention. Chorus contacted Walsh with an offer: if he couldn’t paint on the walls, he could unleash his creativity on their units around the city.

Taking them up on their proposal, he immediately got to work.

Walsh receives a small payment for each box, which covers time, materials, and travel.

This skilled painter uses Internet memes as inspiration for many of his pieces, since Internet service to the city’s residents is facilitated by the boxes themselves.

Without the boxes, there would be no memes at all. According to Walsh, “pictures of ‘AstroSloth’ and ‘Awkward Seal’ had probably already been transmitted through these boxes before I painted them on the outside.”

This one seems to have been inspired by a certain alien-looking kitty.

Other images are simply painted because they’re delightful.

The painted boxes have been a big hit, both with Aukland residents and people following the project online. Walsh says that he plans to continue painting in Auckland, but his ultimate goal is to start creating public art in other cities around the world.

(via BoredPanda)

You can see more of Walsh’s utility boxes on his website, where you’ll also find his illustrative and commercial artwork. And make sure you follow his projects on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with this artist’s many adventures.

Street art is being fought for and protected around the world. Check out what’s happening now in Brooklyn, New York: