Inside Outside. From left, ready-to-color versions of “Oath of the Pond” by Koichiro Takagi and “Pizza Face” by Ohara Hale. (Photo: UnBeige)
It’s that time of year again, when even those who haven’t stepped inside a classroom for decades feel the unbearable urge to stock up on school supplies. Break out that fresh box of Crayolas—or Prismacolors or Copics—for Outside the Lines, out today from Perigee. This “artists’ coloring book for giant imaginations” is the brainchild of Souris Hong-Porretta, who gathered line drawings (most commissioned especially for this book) by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Exene Cervenka, Gary Baseman, Ryan McGinness, Jen Corace, and 100 other creative masterminds ranging from animators to video game artists. We asked Hong-Porretta, a self-desciribed “art enthusiast, idea enabler, and yay-maker” to tell us more about the colorful project.
What led you to create Outside the Lines? My daughter, Lulu! She has lots and lots of coloring books and I noticed that she had a preference for coloring books with illustrations by established artists such as Keith Haring and Andy Warhol. After watching her scribble outside the lines of a Moebius coloring book, I thought it’d be cool if she could color artwork by our creative cabal so I wrote a list of folks I knew and one by one asked them if they would contribute work for a coloring book. I had several dozen yeses in a short amount of time—enough to motivate me to write a book proposal. The rest came together rather quickly.
How did you select the artists whose work you wanted to include? Nearly all the artists included in the book are personal friends. Some very old, some newer. A few are friends of friends. But nearly every artist in the book has a relationship with me by way of previous projects or a social tie. Also, because I had once worked for a lifestyle magazine called, Tokion, I was able to call upon friends I had made from the ’90s, before they were rockstar photographers, illustrators, fine artists, graffiti artists, musicians, and much more. continued…
I must admit I was a little nervous when I started drafting up my profile of bicycle builder and sometime artist Ezra Caldwell—as I admitted in a footnote, it’s a little nerve-wracking to portray a terminally ill Renaissance Man as a real human being (I also worry that the “Bike Cult Show Builder Profile” designation may have dissuaded some readers from the outset; biased though I may be, I’d recommend it to just about anyone). Nevertheless, I was glad to have the opportunity to share his story with those who may not have heard it before, and true to form, Caldwell sent a very nice thank-you note shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, Caldwell’s real-time autobiography continues to unfold on his blog, “Teaching Cancer to Cry,” where he recently chronicled his preparations for the Bike Cult Show (he’s also posted some photosfrom the show itself on his photography site). The two-day show was dedicated to him and served as the occasion to launch the charity auction of his last bike, the Ultimate Tight Ass (a.k.a. the UTA):
I put this thing together with the express purpose of building myself what I felt was the ULTIMATE mountain bike (the fact that it may well turn out to be the ultimate bike I build is a bit of a twist!), to ride until I was no longer healthy enough to do so, at which point I would auction it off for some sort of cancer related charity. In the end our decision was to donate the proceeds to the Visiting Nurse Service of NY Home Hospice Program.
London studio rAndom International has created a 20-metre tower of falling water at a former coal mine in Germany (+ slideshow).
The Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII by interactive design studio rAndom International features a rectangular frame from which four huge curtains of water fall to the ground and cycles up to 30,000 litres of water each minute. Visitors can view the rain storm from afar or step inside – if they don’t mind getting wet.
“It is a sensuous adventure: the sound of falling water, the humidity, the glimmering water walls in the sunlight,” said the curators. “The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.”
“By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, rAndom International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element,” they add.
The monumental Tower structure has been installed at the Zollverein industrial complex in Land Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, a World Heritage site that consists of a historical coal mine and a range of early twentieth century buildings.
The giant shower forms part of the music and arts festival Ruhr Triennale 2013 and intends to sit in contrast to the “solid and static architecture” of the former coal mine, the curators explain. Each year the international festival transforms industrial venues in the region into locations for music, art and performance events.
Here’s a video featuring the Tower:
The installation was commissioned by arts organisation Urbane Künste Ruhr. It is the first outdoor project by rAndom International and opened in Essen on 23 August. Tower will be open from 10am-1am every day through to 6 October 2013.
Formed in 2005 by former Royal College of Art students Hannes Koch, Florian Ortkrass and Stuart Wood, rAndom International has created a number of installations involving audience participation.
Here’s more information from rAndom International:
Tower: Instant Structure for Schacht XII
Commissioned by Urbane Künste Ruhr for Ruhrtriennale 2013, ‘Tower’ will be on view daily from 10am-1am at night, until 6 October 2013.
Known for their experimental installations that explore natural phenomena, London based studio Random International have created a monumental, performative structure at World Heritage Zollverein using its plentiful, native material: water (6 million cubic metres of which have to be pumped out of the former mines every year to warrant the structural integrity of the entire region).
Random are cycling almost 30,000 litres of water per minute to create a monolithic form, an ephemeral tower that appears and disappears instantaneously. The sound of the resulting rain storm is intensely loud and a sensation of moisture lingers in the air.
Through the senses, ‘Tower’ explores possibilities for engagement wit, and access to, an historic, industrial space at a scale that had not originally been intended for human and social use. In sharp contrast to the solid and static architecture of Zeche Zollverein, the ‘simulated structure’ of the Tower is transient, its watery presence a temporary spectre.
By bringing such large quantities of water into the controlled form of a building, Random International investigate if a structural purpose can wrought upon this otherwise chaotic element. The architecture of the space becomes performative, inviting those within it to experience the water of Zeche Zollverein in a uniquely physical and intimate way. And get absolutely soaked in the process.
About Ruhrtriennale
The Ruhrtriennale is the international arts festival hosted by the Ruhr metropolitan area. The venues of the Ruhrtriennale are the region’s outstanding industrial monuments, transformed each year into spectacular sites for music, fine art, theatre, dance, and performance. At the centre of all this are contemporary artists seeking a dialog with industrial spaces and between the disciplines.
A new artistic director every three years provides the festival with ever-new impulses. Under the artistic directorship of Heiner Goebbels, the Ruhrtriennale will become a laboratory and an open platform for current developments of the international world of the arts.
Max Büsser knows watches better than most but isn’t a trained watchmaker. He instead serves as a muse of sorts, the Johnny Knoxville of modern horology, tempting the friends he collaborates with to dare to dream as big as he does. The latest…
Cloud Pink est une installation artistique réalisée par le collectif coréen Everyware, composé de Hyunwoo Bang and Yunsil Heo. Il s’agit d’un écran en tissu que les participants sont invités à toucher alors que des nuages roses y défilent. Un pont numérique entre le rêve et la réalité à découvrir en images et en vidéo.
These skinny jeans are the perfect color wash! You can rock this pair going out on the town with friends. Simply throw on a black silk tank and a statement necklace. Or, you can wear this pair of skinnies for an every day casual look. My favorite thing about fashion is the versatility! This pair has an adorable ankle roll. This ankle roll directs your attention to the cute details. With the ankle roll, these skinnies look instantly polished.
Our second recent story from Japanese architects Studio Velocity is a house shaped like a fairytale tower with five different staircases connecting its two floors (+ slideshow).
House in Chiharada was designed by Studio Velocity in the garden of another residence in Japan’s Aichi Prefecture, so architects Miho Iwatsuki and Kentaro Kunhura specified a cylindrical volume that would contrast with the rectilinear structure of the existing building.
“To avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square-shaped volume of the main house,” explained Iwatsuki.
The first of the five staircases wraps the curved perimeter of the house, leading up to a first-floor entrance that is sheltered beneath an ultra-thin canopy.
Inside, a large circular room occupies the entire floor and contains a sequence of family spaces that are divided by four box-shaped volumes with various proportions.
Each box contains a staircase down to a different room on the floor below. Arched wooden doors lead inside, while square windows help to draw in extra light.
One staircase descends into the bath and washrooms, while the other three head directly into bedrooms. There are no corridors between these rooms, but extra doors give direct access to the bathroom from the other rooms.
“By intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together,” said Iwatsuki.
To allow this arrangement to work, the architects gave low ceilings to the ground floor so that each staircase needed only ten treads. Meanwhile, the upper level is a double-height space that brings light in through openings in the roof.
Additional doors allow residents to open their bedrooms out to the garden.
Here’s a project description from Studio Velocity:
House in Chiharada
Deconstruction of a multi-floored architecture
A site with a two-storey main house is split in half and a new house for a young couple is going to be built on the vacant area.
Although there is enough space within the surrounding environment and there are no approximate buildings, it is inevitable that the new house be built rather close to the main house. In addition, a multi-floor living space was needed due to the limitation of the site area.
Sectional model
Therefore, to avoid facing each other, a round-shaped volume was chosen against the corner of the square shaped volume of the main house. It was arranged so as to create a valley-like space in between the two buildings spreading open towards the outside. The round shape is set on an irregular shaped site, creating various shaped gardens around it that can be shared with the main house. Each room on the first floor in the round-shaped building has a door that opens to the gardens.
A number of small rooms and a bathroom are located on the first floor, and a single large hall where everyone can gather is arranged on the second floor. Downstairs and upstairs are relatively close by lowering the height of the slab (the upstairs floor) that lies between the two floors, and therefore, the garden grounds can be seen even from the centre of the second floor through the enclosed staircases and downstairs rooms.
Entering through the entrance on the second floor, enclosed staircases are arranged within the living room that is filled with natural light from a high ceiling; the enclosed staircases look like slender structures of various heights. The space seems like being on a street in a town, and makes you feel that it is on the ground level although it is upstairs of the multi-floor building.
Each of the four enclosed staircases connects to an individual room on the first floor. When you look up at the open ceilings from the children’s room or the bedroom (inside of the enclosed staircases) that almost reach the roof, the sky can be seen and natural light pours down from skylights above the openings in the enclosed staircases. It was intended with this house that a person be able to feel the ground and sky throughout, though it is a multi-floored building.
Elimination of the discontinuity between multi-floor stairs that usually exists might result in the unfolding of a united and continuous new living environment. By interrelating with each area, including the outside, and by intersecting the living space from exterior to interior and from upstairs to downstairs, the hierarchy between the first floor and the second floor disappears and individual functions and sceneries mix together.
When creating the poster ads for its new series Educating Yorkshire, Channel 4’s in-house agency 4Creative turned to the pupils featured in the programme for help…
Educating Yorkshire, which starts this Thursday on Channel 4, follows the award-winning documentary series Educating Essex. The series will again explore life in a school, but this time is travelling up north, to Thornhill Community Academy near Dewsbury. To help market the show, 4Creative approached the children that will star in it, asking them to create the ads.
The kids rose to the challenge, producing over 100 drawings and paintings. A selection were then chosen to be featured on posters – shown below are four of them. As you might imagine, both headteacher Jonny Mitchell and previous series Educating Essex come in for some gentle ribbing on the ads…
There is also an online gallery on the Channel 4 website where more of the drawings can be viewed. Find it here.
Credits: Agency: 4Creative Creative directors: Chris Bovill, John Allison Creatives: Pablo Gonzalez de la Pena, Molly Manners, Emily Grover
The London office of ad agency JWT is staging an exhibition of animated GIFs by some of the leading artists in the field who will be talking about their work at an event on September 11
The show, called Loop, will feature work from an international selection of artists (including Paolo Ceric, work shown top, and Robin Davey, work shown above), all of whom exploit the limitations of the animated GIFs to great effect. Their work will be presented as framed still images which visitors can bring to life using the Blippar augmented reality smartphone app. In fact, Blippar will work on the images on this blog post – just download it here and point your phone’s camera at the images on screen.
The show was put together by JWT creative Yoni Alter. “There’s some amazing talents creating GIFs on Tumblr and I thought that work deserves to be seen by everyone, besides it’ll be cool to get the GIFs out of the web into the real world,” he says. “But how do you exhibit GIFs in a gallery if you don’t have many screens? We worked on some projects with Blippar before and thought it would be good for that.”
“What I like about these GIFs is how they get the most out of the limiting format,” he says of the selection. “The repeating sequence in each GIF lasts for around one second but you can watch it for hours: One constant and hypnotising action.”
CR readers can attend an evening event at JWT in London on September 11 when several of the artists will be talking about their work. All you have to do is Blipp this invitation and follow the instructions to RSVP
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
It’s that time of year again, when even those who haven’t stepped inside a classroom for decades feel the unbearable urge to stock up on school supplies. Break out that fresh box of Crayolas—or Prismacolors or Copics—for Outside the Lines, out today from Perigee. This “artists’ coloring book for giant imaginations” is the brainchild of Souris Hong-Porretta, who gathered line drawings (most commissioned especially for this book) by the likes of Shepard Fairey, Exene Cervenka, Gary Baseman, Ryan McGinness, Jen Corace, and 100 other creative masterminds ranging from animators to video game artists. We asked Hong-Porretta, a self-desciribed “art enthusiast, idea enabler, and yay-maker” to tell us more about the colorful project.
Images courtesy of Ezra Caldwell
