Results tagged “sculpture”

The City of London has several sculptures at the moment. These sculptures interact with the buildings and the environment around them and each holds its own importance. Some of these have been built by well-known and iconic sculptures. Each one brings the city to life.

One of the most iconic pieces of art, reproducd on a large scale, spells out the word "Love". This sculpture is located on Bishopsgate.

Robert Indiana: Love

Numbers held meaning for the artist of the iconic "Love" sculpture, Robert Indiana. These numbers are located near Leadenhall Building and are in the shadow of the Lloyds Building. I like to name this one "fun with numbers" as I was taking my own artistic photographs with friends around the numbers.

Robert Indiana: NUMBERS

These three sculptures of prehistoric creatures (dinosaurs) dominate the area outside the Gherkin. They are made of steel and are the first outdoor project from artists Jake and Dinos Chapman. 

Jake & Dinos Chapman: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

This shiny globe, located near the Gherkin, is comprised of small metallic parts that and meaningless on their own, but they make up the whole. 

Ryan Gander: More Really Shiny Things That Don't Mean Anything

Twenty-Four Hour Flag is a work of art comprising of red kitchen chairs placed on the top of a building. The artist encourages people to look up to the sky in the city. String Quartet is a series of steel ribbons that break through the concrete near the site of the Cheesegrator; these are influenced by light and shadow.

Richard Wentworth: Twenty-Four Hour Flag; Shirezeh Houshiary: String Quartet

These two human-like iron figures dominate the pavement near the new Cheesegrator building. They seem to be in flow with the flow of humans walking on the pavement. The human-like figures are angled/leaning.

Antony Gormley: Parallel Field

This skeleton of a park bench demonstrates urban decay and loss, which is a popular theme for artist Keith Coventry. In addition to the bench, Mare Street, E8 is the bronze cast of the small trunk of a sapling growing out of concrete, that has been vandalised. These bronze casts are located side-by-side. 

Keith Coventry: Mare Street, E8 and Bench

These sculptures will be on display until May 2014.

'The Little People Project' began in 2006. I have yet to see these tiny sculptures in real life. I imagine that it would be difficult to locate them, and they would probably would not last long before being removed or trampled over. The artist behind these is known as Slinkachu, and his profile lists him as living in London. In an interview (1), the artist states that he wants people living in the city to take note of their surroundings. For more information about the artist, view his website: http://www.slinkachu.com/.

The Little People Project

'The Little People Project' features tiny plastic figures of people set around various world cities. Many times, these tiny figures interact with their environment. Some shelter under banana skins while others slide down railings. Others sweep up leaves or play on top of broken glass bottles.

http://little-people.blogspot.co.uk/

Inner City Snail

The artist also uses live snails in his artwork. He creates miniature sculptures and sticks them onto the backs of snails or paints the snail's shells. This project is known as 'Inner City Snail'. I like the idea of coming across one of these snails.

For more information and photographs, view the blog: http://innercitysnail.blogspot.co.uk/

1) Spotted by Locals. http://www.spottedbylocals.com/blog/street-art-at-its-smallest-the-little-people-project/ [29 February, 2012] 

I published a write-up about street artist Cityzen Kane earlier this year: Street Art: Cityzen Kane. This summer, Cityzen Kane was also a part of the Dulwich Street Art Festival and had some of his work showcased in the Dulwich Open House (covered here). Recently, the artist has just placed one of his pieces up on a wall near Shoreditch High Street station (photographed below). This is an awesome piece. 

New work by Cityzen Kane

Earlier this summer, a new piece appeared on Rivington Street where some of the artist's work has previously been installed. This piece looks like it has been inspired by science fiction and features a woman with a gun. It is a little different in style from previous work by the artist.

Cityzen Kane

As many of the artist's pieces are looking a bit worn now, it would be nice to see more of the artist's work back on the streets.

A few weeks ago, I visited Bristol to take part in the charity sculpture walk "Gromit Unleashed", and you may have seen my previous entry about locating the Gromit sculptures. (If you have not, you can have a read and view of the photographs here: Gromit Unleashed in Bristol, Part 2). For those who do not know, this charity walk features eighty unique Gromit sculptures; Gromit is the canine companion of Wallace in the British stop-animation films, "Wallace and Gromit". The creators of the films, Aardman Studios, are located in Bristol. The proceeds of the event will be donated to Bristol Children's Hospital. 

'Poochadelic' by Lisa Hassell

Local businesses, artists, and the public are contributing to this cause, and it has had a massive response. At the end of July, over 100,000 visitors have visited "Gromit Unleashed", according to the official website.

For those who have not yet been to visit the Gromit sculptures, there's only about a week left before they are taken away and auctioned. The trail finishes on September 8. If you missed them or will not be able to see them in their trail locations, they will all be in one place from 18-22 September in Clifton, Bristol. More information can be found on the official website: http://gromitunleashed.org.uk/

For those who will not be able to make it at all, please enjoy the photographs that I have selected along with accompanying text about the artist or Gromit. I've managed to track down all of the Gromit sculptures. (I actually do not have a favourite, but there are a few that I do like very much.)

'It's Kraken, Gromit!' by Filthy Luker

Filthy Luker is a street artist based in Bristol, and his artwork primarily features inflatible art objects. For example, he has put eye sculptures in trees, large plant vines emerging from buildings, and large banana skins on street corners. 

'Vincent van Gromit' by Laura Cramer; 'A Close Shave' by Harry Hill; 'Patch' by Emily Golden; 'Five a Day Dog' by Laura Cramer; 'Lodekka' by Ignition DG; 'Blossom' by Emily Ketteringham

Laura Cramer was influenced by the work of classic painters, and her Gromit is a tribute to artist Vincent van Gogh. Celebrity comedian Harry Hill's Gromit is shaved to raise awareness of baldness and fits well in the title to one of the animations. Emily Golden's is based on a patchwork design, and she wanted visitors to pick out their favoruite squares. The 'Lodekka' Gromit features a bus created by the Bristol Omnibus Company. Emily Ketteringham's Gromit is in full bloom, inspired by beautiful flowers. 

'Dog Rose' by Ros Franklin

Flowers were a popular theme for the Gromit sculpture. Ros Franklin's Gromit and the Gromit created by beautiful-pattern company Cath Kidston both feature flowers.

'Antique Rose' by Cath Kidston

Garden-designer Diarmuid Gavin was inspired to create a Gromit out of turf.

'Oops A Daisy' by Diarmuid Gavin

The Gromit by Tom Berry, located in Cheddar, is a maze. The maze is drawn to look like a forest. The maze can be started on Gromit's ear and finished on the tail.

'aMazing' by Tom Berry

Sarah-Jane Grace's Gromit is made to look as though Gromit is peeking out from a hedge.

'Secret Garden' by Sarah-Jane Grace

Cartoons also inspired some of the designs of the Gromit sculptures. Brookes makes political cartoons for The Times of Ed Miliband (as Wallace) and Ed Balls (as Gromit). 

'Two Eds are Better than One' by Peter Brookes 

Creator of Simon's Cat cartoons, Simon Tofield, covered his Gromit with his cartoon cat.

'Doodles' by Simon Tofield

The creator of Roger Rabbit, Richard Williams, created a rainbow Gromit; the cartoon rabbit is on the side of the Gromit. Zoo animals also features heavily in the designs of the Gromit sculptures. Gromit statues were transformed into zebras, tigers, and baboons. 

'Roger' by Richard Williams; 'Grant's Gromit' by Rosie Ashforth

Space was another theme for the Gromit sculptures. One Gromit was inspired by constellations, and a Gromit constellation can be found on the sculpture. The astronaut Gromit was a collaboration of Pixar and Aardman, and this looks very much like the character Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story.  Cheba was also influenced by space and stars for his 'Grosmos' sculpture; Cheba is another Bristol-based street artist.

'Canis Major' by Katy Christianson; 'Gromit Lightyear' by Pixar; 'Grosmos' by Cheba 

Have you been to see the Gromits? Have you taken part? Which one was your favourite?

GoGoGorillas is an outdoor animal art sculpture charity trail located in Norwich for eleven weeks this summer. The trail features fifty-three large gorillas (painted by local artists) around the streets in Norwich and sixty-seven smaller ones painted by schools and community groups.

At the end of the charity trail, the gorillas will be auctioned off to raise money for charities Break and Born Free Foundation. GoGoGorillas have been launched by Wild in Art; this group also brought previous events 'Go Elephants' and 'Stroll Discovery Trails', which I visited last year.

The gorilla sculptures also support tourism and local businesses. I visited them today, and many others had the same idea. Nearly everyone that I saw in Norwich today was looking for the gorillas. 

My favoruite gorilla was probably the Transformers gorilla (known as Optimus Primate), although it was a tough decision as they were all very good. I liked this one the best as it reminds me of watching these cartoons when I was younger, and I felt that it was a very creative actualisation of the gorilla sculpture.

'Optimus Primate' by Yewtek

In fact, heroes seemed to feature a lot in the designs of the gorillas. Fictional characters such as Superman, Batman, and Iron Man were transformed into gorilla sculptures. In addition to fictional characters, real-life characters also made their mark. Such real-life heroes include Olympic medalist Bradley Wiggins and local celebrity Alan Partridge. However, the unsung heroes were also noted, such as builders and military heroes.

'Iron Ape' by Martin Wall

'Drilla the Gorilla' by Jessica Perry and Maggie Campbell; 'The Ape'd Crusader' by Jenny Leonard

'Bradley Wiggins' by Martin Wall

'Poppyland Hero' by Derek Blois

Other gorillas feature local heroes, such as this one for the Geoffrey Watling Charity.

'Geoffrey' by Sandy Jones

In addition to hereos, there were several creative gorillas that were more than simply painted. The two below include one made of chrome and one made to look like a tree.

'Chromilla' by Phil Daniels

'Skull Island' by Beau Townsend

Various other gorillas that I discovered and photographed are included below for readers to see the range of different styles.

'Guy' by Bridget Parsons; 'Nelson' by Mik Richardson; 'Yo'Man' by Phil Daniels; 'Whoop! Whoop!' by Daniel Hanton

'Norvic' by Norwich School Design Department

Nature and animals was a popular theme for most of the gorillas, and I have included some close-ups of some of the artwork on some of the gorillas below.

'Jungle Jenny' by Jenny Leonard; 'Walk on the Wild Side' by Pat Kennewell; 'Butch' by Stuart Roy

'Gerald' by Nathan Smith

For those who want to visit GoGoGorillas, they will only be around for another week in Norwich. They will be auctioned in October. For more information, visit the official website here: http://gogogorillas.co.uk/

As you may have read from my previous entries, I enjoy visiting "animal parades" that are organised by a community to encourage an interest in the arts as well as to raise money for charity. There are a few of these taking place in the UK this year, and I have been looking forward to them since the beginning of this year. (Past ones that I have created entries for include Spot the Lions in Bath Using Mobile Barcode Technology, Visiting the 'Swans of Wells' Art Sculptures, Wow! Gorillas in Bristol, and Parading Artistic Elephants in London.)

Today, I went on a rhino-spotting walk around the city of Soutampton. I was not the only one; the warm weather did not keep everyone indoors. I had a lovely time discovering the rhinos. I've posted a few of my favourite photographs of these and managed to track down all of the ones in the centre of Southampton in a couple of hours.

Beatrix - Stewart Waite Davidson designed for Terence O'Rourke.

Go! Rhinos has been launched by Marwell Zoo for its 40th anniversary. The event was launched this weekend and continues until the 22nd of September. The rhinos will all be on display in the middle of October at Marwell Zoo. The charity helps the conservation of wild rhinos.

Glint. Sven Odendaal.

All of the rhinos have been designed by local artists, and each is unique. These include painted, mosaic, mirror, and electronic rhinos. One of the rhinos (located in Marlands Shopping Centre) could interact with visitors by making rhino noises when certain parts of it were touched; it also had LED lights on its head to make it light up, and its ears could move.

From top: Will Rosie for Skandia. Artism for Ordnance Survey. Laura Schillemore for Mazars. Damien Jeffery for 3663.

From top: Totton College art students for Totton College. Drew Saunders for Crest Nicholson. Sian Storey for Festival Place.

From top: Natalie Guy for Wave 105. David McDiarmid for Balfour Beatty Living Places. Sian Storey for Radcliffe and Co. Richard Taunton Sixth Form College for 'Mrs. Hearty' for Wessex Heartbeat.

Keep reading my blog over the coming weeks to see photographs of other animal parades. For more information about Go! Rhinos, visit the following official website for the event: http://gorhinos.co.uk/

I've been capturing some photographs across London of street art by an artist known as Jonesy. Jonesy creates sculptures and drawings (pasted up). There are several examples of his work dotted just off of Brick Lane and Sclater Street. A lot of these are located above eye level, and they are a bit unexpected. This artist also seems to create art related to environmental messages, birds, human head sculptures, and other installations which feature feathers. A few examples of his (or her) work are included below.

A green head on Sclater Street; a couple of drawings pasted up on Sclater Street; feathers and a bucket located on Brick lane; a steel paste-up located near Shoreditch station; a paste-up drawing on Sclater Street

Wooden and metal artworks located off Brick Lane; paste-ups located on Sclater Street

The artwork below was photographed early in 2012 in the courtyard just off of Brick Lane.

An environmental message

I am not able to find out too much about this artist around the Internet, so if you know anything more, feel free to make a comment.

I have been noticing street artist Dr. Cream's artwork around Shoreditch for the past several months now. In addition to a handful of paste-ups dotted around Shoreditch/Spitalfields, there are many colourful resin sculptures stuck onto various walls. Often, these appear in small clusters. The sculptures are a little smaller than the size of a golf ball. 

Some of the sculptures feature a snail-like figure wearing a jester's hat with the words "Rolling Fool". Others depict a portrait of a bearded man wearing glasses and a hat. Others contain words (such as "Jester Quest") that users can look for on YouTube and other websites to see short animations that the street artist has posted featuring these resin sculptures.

To see some of these videos, visit Dr. Cream's video channel on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/DrCreamFilms?feature=watch

I've photographed various sculptures below. Most of these were discovered on Brick Lane or Ely's Yard.

This year, the Weston-super-Mare sand sculpture exhibition is Hollywood-themed. The sand sculptures are made as a tribute to Oscar-winning films as well as to actresses/actors and film directors of the award-winning films. There's even a sand platform and Oscar trophy where visitors can stand and pretend that they are presenting or being given an Oscar. Visitors to the exhibition can also see how sand sculptures are created.

I visited the exhibit a few weekends ago. Although the poor weather has caused much damage to the sand sculptures, the talent and hard work put into some of the sand sculptures could be seen. The damaged ones were being repaired when I was there, and hopefully these now would have been fixed. (Apparently, the ice conditions this spring meant that the sand expanded as the weather and the sand warmed up.)

A sandy Gollum from the 'Lord of the Rings' films

A sandy tribute to the 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

From top: 'Toy Story', Alfred Hitchcock with birds, 'Up', Marilyn Monroe, and 'Ice Age'

Harry Potter and his friends made from sand; Dobbie is under repair

The massive sand King Kong

Have you been to see the sand sculptures in Weston-super-Mare? What did you think? Which one is your favoruite?

Giant metal orbs with wings and large eyes appeared in London last year. These were designed to deter illegal parking, according to the article by Londonist (1). Twenty-two of these have appeared on the street overnight in south London. The one below was photographed in Corbet Place, on top of a wall/building, off of Brick Lane. Imagine going back to see your car and seeing a giant metal orb on top of it. The orb looks like it's about to fly away with the car.

Earlier this summer, I made a trip to visit the large (five foot) swan sculptures that have been decorated or painted by local artists to raise money for charity. Throughout the summer, the swans were located throughout the city of Wells, and some could also be found in the surrounding villages. You can read about the swans and see photographs of the swans in my original blog entry here: Visiting the 'Swans of Wells' Art Sculptures

During the Olympic games, several large-scale works have art have popped up across London to signify the equipment used in the games. Giant shot puts, javelins, and bows and arrows are now located in various parts of the city. The works are known as "Gifts from the Olympic Gods" because of their large scale and historical significance of the games as having begun in ancient mythological Greece. The giant shot put looks as though it has been thrown by one of the gods and landed in the middle of London, embedding itself into the pavement.

On Friday last week, the "Wow! Gorillas" sculptures, which I first became acquainted with in Bristol last month (Wow! Gorillas in Bristol), were on display near Tower Bridge. During my lunch break on Friday, I took a walk across the river to have a look and get a few photographs. Upon seeing each one, I remembered where I saw it in Bristol, and they brought back so many memories of that weekend and the people who admired them.

In short, Wow! Gorillas is a charity event that aims to provide funding for gorilla conservation. The event brings community, business, and the arts together. The gorillas were painted by artists in Bristol. Similar large animal sculptures were seen in London and Bath last year. (I blogged about these here: Spot the Lions in Bath and Parading Artistic Elephants in London.)

The gorilla sculptures were only in London for a few days, and at mid-day, many tourists and workers on their lunch break swarmed to get photographs. (The riverside walk is always popular over lunch with many City workers getting a breath of fresh air, exercise, and with tourists visiting Tower Bridge). In my short time there (twenty minutes), I saw many smiles and photographs being taken of the sculptures. One of the sculptures was being painted; on the partially-white-gorilla-canvas, a portrait of a gorilla beginning to take shape. The artist, Nicole Antrobus, specialises in painting wildlife; her website can be found here: http://www.wildlifeartistlondon.co.uk.

A few months ago, I came across an article about an artist who creates tiny sculptures from the tips of pencil leads. Dalton Ghetti, based in Connecticut, uses needles and razor blades and a steady hand to carve the sculptures. The work is never sold; it is given away to friends. 

Right before Christmas, I saw some pretty cool sculptures in Selfridges. They were inspired by pixels are were made up of many tiny ceramic cubes. I would have bought one, but I could not justify spending quite as much as they were asking for one, particularly as I'd be worried about it somehow getting shattered.

There has been a growing trend in pixelated artwork and design and a re-emergence of 1980's-style game and technology-inspired concepts. In movies, Scott Pilgrim vs The World had a 1980s 'geek' and old-style game console feel, and the 1980s Tron film inspired a remake and made a comeback to the cinema last year.