Tristram Lansdowne’s Surreal Watercolor Mirage Of Landscape And Architecture

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Tristram LansdowneTristram LansdowneTristram Lansdowne

Tristram Lansdowne’s watercolors are investigations of landscape and architecture in relation to ideas of permanence and function. Geological and botanical frames of reference add temporal concerns to Lansdowne’s exploration of the metaphorical power of ruins.

The watercolours present richly described scenes in which various tropes of landscape and architecture have been assembled to create conflicted systems, developed according to a logic dominated more by historical glitch than any autonomous idea of form and function. Both enchanting natural phenomenon and deluding vision, the mirage serves, here, as false refuge but also as an opportunity for divination, for time travel. Vestiges of architectural modernism appear, but only as specimens in a larger natural history that includes 17th century geological theories and Romantic totems. This is a world comprised of art historical flotsam, predicated on faulty idealism and mistaken identity, where everything is an invasive species.

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The Light Sculpture Of Joanie Lemercier

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The work of artist Joanie Lemercier resembles Tron type imagery that has come to life.  This piece’s materials, however, are really rather simple: paper and light.  Lemercier folds paper into variously sized pyramids which are then arranged as a composition on the wall.  The composition is visually mapped and a light projection is layered onto the installation.  The result is a futuristic glowing geometric pattern.  Lemercier is a member of AntiVJ – a “visual label”, a collective of artists that focus on light and perception in regards to art.  If you enjoy the work of Joanie Lemercier, check out the work of fellow member Olivier Ratsi.

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London’s Veronica Falls, Waiting For Something To Happen

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Roxanne Clifford from Veronica Falls performs at the Troubadour on March 29, 2013. Photo by Saunter Lee

“I’m Broken Hearted, Dearly Departed”, sang Roxanne Clifford as Veronica Falls played their very first single, ‘Found Love in a Graveyard‘ to a very happy crowd at the Troubadour in West Hollywood this past Friday night. Their new album, Waiting for Something to Happen released this past February on Slumberland Records is definitely a step in the right direction. A lot more polished and confident then their first release, the band had plenty to celebrate on this second to last show of their US tour.

“We’re not used to the heat, it’s pretty crazy”, said drummer Patrick Doyle as they launched into ‘Bad Feeling‘, another song from their self-titled debut. Funny enough, I don’t think it topped more than 70 degrees on the day of the show, but I guess living in the UK, every day in LA seems like a hot one. The band played a mix of new and old songs that kept everyone dancing and head-bopping through their 50+ minute short set. Standouts from there new record were the title track, ‘Waiting for Something to Happen’ as well as their new single, ‘Teenage’. Closing the show with their cover of Roky Erickson’s ’Starry Eyes’, the band immediately left the stage and almost instantly came back out to chat and take photos with the crowd.

Check out their new video for ‘Teenage’ shot entirely on 8mm film and be sure to catch them when they tour Europe this month and next.

 

Jason Hackenwerth’s Massive Balloon Sculpture

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These are much more than simple balloon animals.  Jason Hackenwerth‘s creations float like giant swimming organisms.  His newest creature, Pisces, which recently debuted at the Edinburgh International Science festival is particularly massive.  Pisces is built of thousands of balloons blown up and tied together.  It took three of members of the festival six days to blow up all of the balloons for the 40 foot structure.  The piece now hangs in the Grand Gallery of the National Museum of Scotland through April 14, 2013.

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A Sound Art Installation Powered By Cigars

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Ronald van der Meijs Ronald van der Meijs

Dutch artist Ronald van der Meijs’ ”Play it one more time for me La Ville Fumée” is a sound-art installation that works on hand made cigars and refers to the history of Eindhoven city, when it was one of the largest cigar-producing cities of Europe. At that time the city was also called ‘La Ville Fumée’. The installation is in many ways about nature versus culture. The technique used here has an almost machine like character, that is controlled and monitored by a natural and traditional item: the hand made cigar. Because each cigar has its own strength by the natural and traditional way of making, they all have their own fire rate. It is precisely this fact that the installation is not working in a predictable way but rather relates to a more or less natural rhythm. The installation has 4 tuners each control a recorder by means of pistons containing the hand-rolled cigars. There are 4 different recorders: a bass flute, alto, tenor, and a soprano. The pistons with the cigars and the recorders are both controlled by 2 abstract lungs. This sound-art burning cigar installation can be seen as a tribute to the former tobacco industry of Eindhoven city and its thousands of workers and craftsmen. The sound composition is a requiem for the former cigar production industry of Eindhoven. (via)

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Hilary Brace’s Shifting Cloud World Drawings

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In reviewing Hilary Brace’s drawings, the New York Times said, “once in a while you come across an art of such refined technique that it seems the product of sorcery more than human craft…” Starting with the smooth surface of polyester film darkened with charcoal, Brace works in a reductive manner by removing charcoal with erasers and other hand made tools. Despite the photographic veracity of her technique, Brace composes her images without premeditation, through an explorative process that allows them to unfold in unanticipated directions. Her subjects are based upon clouds, water, mist and mountains, but she takes these forms to sublime and unimaginable new heights. As Christopher Knight remarked in the Los Angeles Times, her work is “like a Vija Celmins drawing made Baroque, [it] conjures ephemeral poetics of light and space.” For all their vastness and grandeur, Brace’s drawings are relatively small and intimate. As Leah Ollman observed in Art in America, these drawings “put those two realms – the private and the cosmic – within reach of each other.”  (via)

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Yulia Brodskaya’s Intricate Illustrations Made of Paper

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Russian graphic designer and artist Yulia Brodskaya draws with paper instead of on it.  Her highly detailed pieces are constructed of rolled, folded, and carefully placed strips of color paper.  The intricate curls of paper are intriguing in themselves while creating a larger image – it took me a moment to realize what I saw in the top image.  Brodskaya’s process and style has garnered her some serious attention.  Her long client list includes companies such as Starbucks, Anthropologie, Penguin Press, and HOW Magazine. [via]

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Snowflakes In An Electron Microscope

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By way of the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center in Maryland comes a series of snow crystal photographs taken by a Low Temperature Scanning Electron Microscope.  The results are a stunning indication of the intricacies of natural forms sculpted by nature. The images resemble geometric columns and detailed shards that could have been created out of clay or concrete by a master sculptor. “Samples of snow, ice and associated life forms are collected by dislodging the crystals or biota from the face of a snow pit or the surface of the snow onto copper metal sample plates containing precooled methyl cellulose solution. Within fractions of a second these plates are plunged into a reservoir of liquid nitrogen which rapidly cools them to -196°C and attaches these pre-frozen materials to the plates. Due to the low surface tension of liquid nitrogen and the extreme hardness of materials cooled to these temperatures, very fragile samples can be shipped by aircraft, in dry shipping dewars from study sites throughout the US.”(via)

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