BEAUTY: Sculpture-Installation--Luke Jerram

English multi-media artist Luke Jerram has created a jaw-dropping sculpture that is currently on tour:

"Museum of the Moon is a new touring artwork by UK artist Luke Jerram.

Measuring seven metres in diameter, the moon features 120dpi detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. At an approximate scale of 1:500,000, each centimetre of the internally lit spherical sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface*.

Over its lifetime, the Museum of the Moon will be presented in a number of different ways both indoors and outdoors, so altering the experience and interpretation of the artwork. As it travels from place to place, it will gather new musical compositions and an ongoing collection of personal responses, stories and mythologies, as well as highlighting the latest moon science.

The installation is a fusion of lunar imagery, moonlight and surround sound composition created by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award winning composer Dan Jones. Each venue also programmes their own series lunar inspired events beneath the moon.

From the beginning of human history, the moon has acted as a ‘cultural mirror’ to our beliefs, understanding and ways of seeing. Over the centuries, the moon has been interpreted as a god and as a planet. It has been used as a timekeeper, calendar and to aid nighttime navigation. Throughout history the moon has inspired artists, poets, scientists, writers and musicians the world over. The ethereal blue light cast by a full moon, the delicate crescent following the setting sun, or the mysterious dark side of the moon has evoked passion and exploration. Different cultures around the world have their own historical, cultural, scientific and religious relationships to the moon.

Over the coming years Museum of the Moon will be presented in art exhibitions, science, music and light festivals around the world. As the artwork tours, new audio compositions will be created and performed by a range of established composers and musicians, so adding to the Museum of the Moon collection.

Museum of the Moon will next be presented at:

Norfolk & Norwich Festival, UK. 12 – 21 May 2017
Oerol Festival, Netherlands. 9 – 18 June 2017
Greenwich+Docklands Festival, UK. 23 – 25 June 2017
Festival Les Tombées de la Nuit, Rennes, France. June – July 2017
Thinktank, Birmingham, UK. July – August 2017
GOGBOT Festival, Enschede, Netherlands. 7 – 10 September 2017"

Here is Museum of the Moon in its latest installation at the University of Bristol in The Great Hall...

...and then magically suspended over a side street in Rotterdam.

https://www.lukejerram.com/
https://my-moon.org/

BEAUTY: Installation--Simon Birch

Hong Kong-based artist Simon Birch has opened a massive art gallery-installation space in Los Angeles called The 14th Factory in collaboration with a host of other artists.

"The 14th Factory is a monumental, multiple-media art installation that will transform an empty industrial warehouse near downtown Los Angeles into a mythic universe created collaboratively through video, installation, sculpture, sound, paintings, and live performance. The 14th Factory weaves together elements of popular culture–science fiction, punk music, graphic novels, and film–with critical re-examinations of social and historical narratives, especially interconnections between East and West. Conceived by Hong Kong-based British artist Simon Birch, the vision of The 14th Factory is to create a new, independent paradigm for socially-engaged art, a kind of guerilla action where art occupies and re-energizes underutilized or even derelict urban spaces and gifts them back to the community in the form of a transformative experience.

Throughout its run, the project will feature collaborative works by a global community of interdisciplinary artists representing Greater China, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Entering The 14th Factory, the visitor becomes a central player in a contemporary hero’s journey, leaving the ordinary world behind and setting out on a voyage of adventure and, ultimately, of transformation. Along the way, the journeyer gathers allies, encounters obstacles and battles adversaries, until reaching the challenge and the ultimate prize: A gift that can be passed on to all."

Birch collaborated with Paul Kember of KPlusK, an architectural firm in Hong Kong to create The Barmecide Feast, an immersive replica of the last set seen in Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey," complete with underlit floor. Coincidentally, Kember's uncle and great-uncle both worked on the original Kubrick set!

http://the14thfactory.com/
http://www.simon-birch.com/
http://www.kplusk.net/contact.html

"Truth Is A Beautiful Thing" by London Grammar

The new London Grammar release will be out on June 9th, 2017.
In the meantime, here is a lyric video for the title track, "Truth Is A Beautiful Thing."

https://www.londongrammar.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Paul Schulenburg

Artist Paul Schulenburg paints fishermen and dock laborers from a voyeuristic vantage point. He celebrates not only the dignity of the intense labor required for the fishing industry, but also the beauty of the male form at work and at rest in these simple but majestic homoerotic images.

Top to bottom: A Tenuous Line; Back To The Harbor; By The Pier; Days End; Fisherman In The Shadows; Fresh Ice; Pensive Fisherman; Ready The Line; Shoveling Ice; Wait For The Next Boat

http://www.schulenburgstudio.com/index.html

BEAUTY: Ceramics--Brian Giniewski

These colorful drip vessels by Brian Giniewski are delightful. He starts with a gritty matte finish on his pieces and then layers on a colored slip meant to ooze and melt down the side when fired.

http://www.brianginiewski.com/

Parkorman by Dror

New York-based design firm Dror has designed an intriguing central park for the city of Istanbul

"Existing green spaces in Istanbul are few and far between. When considering the approach for a park located six miles north of the city center, we asked ourselves: how do we draw strangers-to-nature to this destination?

We set out to create a park that dissolves the anxiety and fear that often accompanies an unfamiliar environment through a network of conditions that fosters unconditional love. We imagined the most profound experience delivered through the lightest touch; an effort that preserves the lush forest and leaves every tree in place, as mandated by the city.

Our masterplan for Parkorman is a web of possibilities; a living system of places for visitors to explore. Instead of dictating one’s path through the park, visitors write their own experience. Numerous non-linear pathways, like calligraphy, weave through the existing woodland, surprising people with unexpected discoveries along their journey.

Five main zones, each with their own distinct qualities, are designed to provoke emotion. The Plaza, at the entrance of the park, presents nature as a place for collective experience and gathering. Interaction and play are encouraged through a series of interventions spread throughout: swings and hammocks sway above the bed of the forest (The Loop); giant ball pits, inspired by Turkish spice markets, invite people to dive in (The Pool); a footpath floats above the ground and twists around tree trunks into giant loops with trampolines at the center (The Chords). The Grove, a maze-like trail pollinated with sculptures that relate to the landscape, spurs exploration, while The Fountain of Clarity, a cube-shaped frame that sends water down all four sides and opens via hydraulic piston to envelop oncomers, prompts reflection.

Through the sum of these experiences, a more intimate relationship between landscape and being is forged, and nature is reintegrated into the city’s harsh urban lifestyle."

http://www.studiodror.com/for/parkorman/

"Santiago" by Emma Allen

Face and body painter Emma Allen used her lovely skills to make a fantastic short film that examines the evolution of our species.

"An animated self-portrait exploring the line of human evolution and a projection of a possible future.
As our evolution turns from biological to technological, are we now the bridge between the born and the made.
I painted this stop frame animation on myself using face paint, a mirror and a camera."

http://emmaallen.org/

BEAUTY: Painting--François Bard

French artist François Bard is clearly influenced by cinema and photography. There is a "Nouveau Noir" film-still quality to many of his images, giving the viewer the urge to see what came before and what could possibly come after...

https://www.francoisbard.net/