Carved-Out Caves in New Mexico

Imagine creating your own cave – I don’t mean simply finding a pre-existing cave and decorating it in your own style.  I mean actually digging the space out of a hillside; and as you are doing it carving intricate patterns onto the walls to form beautiful, naturally lit, subterranean halls and corridors.  Created entirely by hand, by one man with no formal training; this is a form of archeological self-expression – an intricate and vast sandstone grotto in the desert of New Mexico.

This is the art of Ra Paulette – there not a lot more for me to say about this, but to simply leave you with a few images and a link to his website, here; and to a trailer for what looks like an interesting film about the man and his process, here).

Ocean Atlas by Jason DeCaires

At sixty ton’s and five meters tall, Jason DeCaires‘ latest underwater sculpture is ‘Ocean Atlas’ and is the largest submerged sculpture in the world.

Resting under the pristine waters of the Bahamas (just off Nassau) this Atlas is not a muscle bound Titan holding up the Earth, but a boy kneeling on the sea bed, supporting the weight of the ocean on the arch of his back.

It is intended to become the center of an underwater sculpture park and the foundation of a new artificial reef.  It is intended to help support threatened marine life but also become an attraction in it’s own right, drawing people away form the overstressed natural reefs.

As mentioned on Jason DeCaires website:-

One of the greatest benefits of artificial reefs is that they have lifted the pressure off natural reefs which, over the past few decades, have been over-fished and over-visited. By diverting attention to artificial reefs, natural reefs have now been given a greater chance to repair and to regenerate.

Building Sculpture

Using derelict buildings seems to be becoming a trend in the art world – or has it always been so and I’ve just missed it!

In 2007 Richard Wilson created a piece called ‘Turning the Place Over‘ for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture Year.  It was a huge, rotating, circular section in the side of an old multi-storey building.  At one moment in its rotation it looks quite normal, but then it becomes completely disorienting as it slowly spins round and out of its correct position.  Here’s a video – it’s definitely worth a look!

Another building sculpture I’ve noticed recently is ‘From The Knees Of My Nose To The Belly Of My Toes‘ by Alex Chinneck (the link goes to an article on designboom) where the whole front of a terrace house in Margate appears to have slid off the building as if it was made of rubber.   Follow the link and you’ll find an interesting little video on the construction of the artwork and to quote the little girl in the video – “the house is very, very cool and very, very artific.” – although, some clever dick in the comments noticed that the satellite dish was facing the wrong way.  There’s always one!

To See A World In A Toilet Roll

This is the intricate work of French artist Anastassia Elias – she creates little worlds confined by the cardboard tube of a toilet roll.  These tiny scenes (from animals in the wilderness, to fun-fairs, to miners digging the wall of the tube) are cut out of paper which has the same shade of gray as the cardboard, making the scenes appear to be a part of the roll.  They are then carefully glued into place with the aid of tweezers.  When lit from behind the scenes have a wonderful sense of depth and life.

The majority of her work is in the field of painting, but for me the toilet rolls stand out a mile – you can see more of what she does here.

How To Spook Sheep

Buy a load of steel tubes, weld them together in an arty  tree-like way, plonk them in the middle of nowhere and let the wind to do the rest.

I can’t post video on here because I’m too stingy to pay for the privilege, so have a look at this posting on the 2Modern blog – The Singing Ringing Tree.