Mahmoud Hassan lives and works in Nasr City, Egypt. One of his more recent projects is a series of images for Faber-Castell’s line of coloring pencils where various objects and animals are seamlessly fused with colored-pencil tips. All of the images are rather amusing but the one where the Dachshund’s rear end is transmorgified into a pencil tip is my favorite. The expression on the dog’s face is simply delightful. It’s as if he’s eagerly waiting for a chance to be rubbed onto a piece of paper.
Japanese artist Maiko Akiba gave us a glimpse of the future with her series “100 Years Later”. The series features artificially aged everyday gadgets, clothing, and objects. Among the aged objects are: a digital camera, shoes, a coat, jewelry, boots, an accordion, a vending machine, and a calculator. The aging was artfully done with what Maiko calls “aging paint” which is basically fake rust and artificial moss/lichen. It’s basically a homage to today’s accelerated culture where the hottest gadgets today become obsolete in a matter of months.
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Bakonyi Bence is a Hungarian photographer who is known for his strikingly crisp and realistic images with a surreal twist. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in photography at Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. In his series “Nameless”, a bunch of objects (plus a rather small dog) is captured as they fall. The whole series elicits a feeling of wonderment. Bakonyi currently lives and works in Shanghai, China.
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Takahiro Iwasaki is a Japanese srtist whose sculptures are in every danger of being stepped on. His small, colorful, and delicately-made constructs are usually found on floors amidst haphazardly strewn towels. You might need magnifying glass to truly appreciate Takahiro’s work. His topographical maps carved out of electrical tape are my personal favorites. They’re accurate right down to the ravines, buildings, and peirs found on a real topographical map. His work has beed displayed at galleries around the world. Recently, he had a collection of his works on display at the 7th Asia Pasific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Queensland.
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The skewed, top-down perspective isn’t something new in the world of photography but Christian Åslund’s wide angle shots certainly gave it a new twist. His series of photographs for the shoe brand Jim Rickey had models lying flat on the streets of Hong Kong pretending to walk, sit, and hang on to perfectly upright objects. The height from which these photos were taken sets it apart from other series utilizing this unique perspective. This amusing series is a tribute to the old-school 2D computer games.
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Maskull Lasserre is a is a singularly talented wood carver currently based in Montreal. He was born in Canada in 1978 and spent a bit of his childhood in South Africa. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Art and Philosophy as well as a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Sculpture. His latest series “Fable” feature macabre carvings of animals, skeletons, and even a hangman’s noose cleverly incorporated right into everyday wooden furniture. He said: “When the remnants of life are imposed on an object, and that’s true especially with the carving work that I do, it infers a past history or a previous life that had been lived, so again where people see my work as macabre, I often see it as hopeful, as the remnants of a life. Despite the fact that the life has ended, at least that life had a beginning and middle as well, so often by imparting these bodily elements to inanimate objects it reclaims or reanimates them in a virtual way.”
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Michael Johansson’s art would appeal to those afflicted with OCD. Luggage of the same hue arranged in a perfect cube appeals to a disorganized traveler like me, but it’s not only luggage that falls prey to Michael’s symmetric prowess. He does kitchenware, electrical gadgets, garden tools, and appliances too. Clearly, he spent a lot of time playing Tetris as a boy. Michael lives and works in Sweden.
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Jessica Drenk is a South Carolina-based artist whose unique, nature-inspired sculptures are made from an altogether ubiquitous material. Wooden pencils. She stuck hundreds of pencils together using wood glue and artistically cut and shaped them to vaguely resemble driftwood, stalactites, stalagmites, and shells. She said: “By transforming familiar objects into nature-inspired forms and patterns, I examine how we classify the world around us. Manufactured goods appear as natural objects, something functional becomes something decorative, a simple material is complex, and the commonplace becomes unique.”
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OaKoAk is a French street artist who sees the humorous potential in the most inconsequential everyday objects. His imagination turns cracks, peeling wall paint, railings, and other random objects on the street into hilarious works of art. Her work is not only brilliant, it also brings a smile. He said: “I saw shapes everywhere, and wanted to realize them.”. This is one street artist I’ll definitely be watching out for.
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Anamorphic sculpture itself resembles abstract art, but when reflected against a cylindrical surface, it reveals a remarkably detailed image. Creating this effect is by no means a mean feat. Jonty first scans the object, distorts it using 3d software, and created a mold out of steel, copper, resin, or perspex. But even with the help of computers, it takes an artists eye to hammer out the finer details of the sculpture. Jonty Hurwitz was born in Johannesburg in 1969. He now lives and works in London.
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