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Alexander Jansson - Surreal Circus with Punk influences

In the work of Gothenburg, Sweden-based artist Alexander Jansson, we can observe the influence of a diversity of genres as distant as literature, cinema or painting itself.


Occasional animator (I recommend watching The Curious Kind by clicking HERE), and aesthetically reminiscent of Tim Burton. Like this short animated film, his digital work shows certain parallels.


These works are characterized by being characterized by misplaced and somewhat disconcerting beings. However, they gather the skills to finally end up finding each other, coinciding in space time in similar places.

In nebulous universes, in which after overcoming a thousand avatars they manage to feel comfortable in the presence of others. Who are sometimes visible and sometimes not, weaving their own destiny with dreams. 


The carnivalesque elements that he frequently employs, contribute to create a circus atmosphere, in which the range of taciturn and bohemian colors contribute to create compositions through which he conveys a sensation of intensity. Hypnotizing the observer, who is seduced and invited to explore each work in detail. 



Although he is mainly known for his commissions for covers and illustration of special editions. Works that over time he has also created his own creative identity as well as his own style that he called Greenpunk. 



The one that consists of applying a mixed technique formed by a collage to which he incorporates elements of his photos, models, drawings and paintings that he mixes in the same illustration. Almost handmade works with which she achieves digital images that stand out for being very natural, works that require a considerable investment of time. Completing them by adding scratches, dust and brushstrokes with which he enhances their formal finish in plastic terms.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Alexander Jansson - Circo surrealista con influencias Punk


Founder of his own studio called Sleeping House. Among his many works, the illustration of an anthology of works by Robert L. Stevenson, or the new edition of Anne E. Book of a biographical volume on the life of JRR Tolkien.

Basia Irland - Ice Receding/Books, frozen books with seeds against climate change

 

Throughout the history of mankind, seeds have been preserved in a natural way according to seasonal cycles. In cold periods the seeds were frozen. Germinating in their natural habitats when climatic conditions became warmer.


Using a language that combines lyrical, ethnic and scientific elements, the artist Basia Irland creates in 2009 the Ice Receding/Books project. For this project he was inspired by the observations and documentation provided by members of the Nisqually tribe.


Whose communities live on reservations in the U.S. state of Washington, and the natural processes from which they obtained their seed stocks. These seeds were then used in their crops.   

Using ice books to fossilize the seeds, made with large blocks of ice, which are extracted from the plates that are formed in the riverbed where members of the native community usually fish.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Basia Irland - Ice Receding/Books, libros congelados con semillas contra el cambio climatico


And where thousands of seeds are deposited after being trapped in the ice, just carve the ice giving it the shape of books. In whose frozen interior have been embedded variants of seeds of local species. These are finally distributed in different points of the forest, melting due to the exposure to the sun's rays, and releasing the seeds that will spread in their area of influence, germinating.


That first experience has been replicated in other parts of the world such as Spain, Mexico, England or Iran. Through the use of collective tools, teams formed by biologists, artists, botanists, as well as local farming communities, intervene on the territory using natural methods.


Ice Receding/Books is a multicultural proposal that reflects on how human intervention impacts the environment. And how their active presence has modified the methods of germination. 


Altering the landscape on which it acts having as main consequence climate change, and the deterioration of unique habitats. That unfortunately go from being in danger of extinction to disappear for good.



Creative Machines - Heart Beacon, a huge heart allows you to know your health status in an immersive way.

 

Installed at the entrance of the Emergency Coordination Center of the American city of Portland. The presence of the Heart Beacon has no medical function.


However, the users of the hospital grounds approach this huge reproduction of the main human muscle. They are attracted by the desire to know what their heart rate sounds like or what color it lights up when they take their pulse.


The installation, which has a strong playful component, has been created by the Creative Machines studio. It is an interactive proposal where through a system composed of diodes and sound effects.

The vital signs recorded by the sensors attached to its structure are reproduced. Conceived as a ludic artifact, the data collected are translated into a unique pattern linked to the vital signs of each subject that approaches this huge heart.


Composed of two candles covered with acrylic panels, the Heart Beacon's interior houses an encapsulated warhead that functions as an autonomous and immersive platform.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Creative Machines - Heart Beacon, un enorme corazón permite conocer tu estado de salud de forma inmersiva 


From which to convey a message of hope to the inhabitants of the city of Portland. Elaborated with the contribution made by the members of the community. Heart Beacon is a collective experience that combines art and active participation, using an accessible and playful language.


Jeremy Deller - Sacrilege, the megalithic monument of Stonehenge as you have never seen it beforehand

 

After months of hard work in his studio, the artist Jeremy Deller has finally archieved to complete his announced reproduction of one of the monuments or relics of the ancient world, such as the set of dolmens that form the archaeological site of Stonehenge


Although as he himself confesses when he had the opportunity to visit it in a casual excursion, he did not harbor many expectations about it. This lack of enthusiasm regarding the contemplation of these ancient stones.


Perhaps it had to do with the fact that he had seen so many of them through the eyes of others that it did not cause him excessive motivation. Perception that changed radically when he had it and could become aware of its historical transcendence.

Entitled Sacrileg, it is a commission for the  2012, lying on the Glasgow Green. The full-scale representation of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.


It is an interactive outdoor installation, an inflatable toy for visitors to interact with through a creative formula. The instantly recognizable shape is created from an inflated plastic design. 


READ IT IN ENGLISH: Jeremy Deller -  Sacrilege, el monumento megalítico de Stonehenge como nunca lo habías visto


Employing the same technique as with the popular children's attractions. Imposing gray pillars and arches perfectly mimic every detail of the original monument. Creating the sensation that you have been transported back in time.


Artist Guy Laramee recycles books to become landscapes.

Books as creative material, apart from the narrative format we attribute to them as readers, can offer endless creative and plastic expressions, adopting in this way another narrative role. 


Resulting in many and varied ways of representing the same reality, the photographer and artist Guy Laramee, is an expert in capturing the essence of the landscapes he has the opportunity to visit. 

After photographing them, he locks himself in his studio and creates these surreal reproductions. The natural and architectural landscapes represented in these models belong to the Biblios and The Great Wall series. 


READ IT IN SPANISH: El artista Guy Laramee recicla libros convirtiéndolo en paisajes


They are sculptural works that reproduce landscapes carved in old books, in which no detail is missing. Revealing serene mountains, plateaus and architectural structures, which are integrated into these natural environments without altering them. 


Caras Lonut - Surreal nature inspired by Poe

 

In many of the works of digital photographer Caras Lonut two constants are observed, on the one hand we see nature represented by different species, sometimes following a crude and stark pattern.


Wild animals that are treated as pets, almost always accompanied by children, in a journey where the dreamlike atmospheres describe a magical universe. In which nature is always omnipresent.


The other is his peculiar treatment of color, a nuance that he undoubtedly achieves thanks to the application of a variety of filters. With which he treats each image after the editing he does with photoshop (of which he is a consummate expert). 



With which he achieves that the final composition of each piece has such a tenuous effect that evokes autumn afternoons that transmit serenity and invite to meditation. And that can remind us of some of the passages of Edgar Alan Poe's stories.


His imagination and his work are captivated by dreams and by the autumn and winter seasons, through which he analyzes the darker side of a subject's desires and dreams.


Born in Romania in February 1970, Caras alternates his professional career, in which he has done commissions for numerous publications. With his love for digital photography.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Caras Lonut - Naturaleza surrealista inspirada por Poe   


In these environments he has used a language where surrealism shares space and discourse with elements taken from the natural universe. Representing landscapes in which the nostalgia for a childhood that will no longer return, is blurred between strokes inspired by the memory of the dream and its traces imprinted in the subconscious.


Jean-Claude Claeys, the gangster's girl


Each illustration by French illustrator Jean-Claude Claeys, represents an act in a story where the protagonists. hustlers and femmes fatales play a game in hyper-realistic tones, where the bank always wins.


Influenced by filmmakers such as the well-known filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and the classic film noir genre classic cinematographer, of which he declares himself a follower incodicional. In his compositions, the treatment of shadows stands out.


This allows us to appreciate the details that make up each and every one of the illustrations that he approaches, always applying similar techniques. In which color is observed in a very discreet way in the composition of illustration, in whose realization occupies a second plane.

What is important is the gesture of the model he selects to star in his stories, in whose plot emerges a certain bohemian air as well as a purpose of amendment and redemption. The characters are characterized by transmitting a behavior that is at the same time cruel and disbelieving.


Jean-Claude Claeys was born in Paris, in whose streets he grew up spending most of his childhood, as well as his adolescence until he completed his education. This phase gave way to his work in the advertising industry. 


READ IT IN SPANISH: Jean-Claude Claeys, la chica del ganster


Stage that he combined with his incipient career as a comic book artist starting in 1975. From this distant date he has developed most of his career. In that his way of working is curious, since each project is triggered by a series of photographs from different periods.


Although preferably are those made in black and white those that inspire him the most, giving his work a bittersweet and taciturn sense of humor. Claeys also works regularly as a cover illustrator for Néo publication's crime collection.


Fab Ciraolo - Old School Heroes, mythological portraits of Pop Culture

 


The Chilean Illustrator Fab Ciraolo, distmitifica roles and icons, showing us some of the most ambiguous, frivolous, and even why not say it more bizarre aspects. Of many of the most idiotic personalities of the last one hundred years.


Discontrasting the character sometimes practicing the most militant iconoclasm. His is not only limited to a more or less subjective interpretation from a psychoanalytical perspective of the character. Regardless of whether this is confined to the world of fiction as in the case of Edward Scissorhands.


Emblematic character created by the famous film director Tim Burton. Or real personalities who, due to their transcendence or contribution in some social or historical field, have deserved Fab's creative attention.


Such as relevant and influential figures, each in their own facet, such as Cleopatra, empress of ancient Egypt, one of the first women leaders in history. Or the closest in time, the painter Frida Khalo. He portrays them preserving their almost mythological halo, but subtly incorporating elements that belong to a much more current context.



Adding elements of the contemporary culture that revitalize it, updating it for the new generations that observe it as if it were a figure that was relevant in another time and under another social and cultural prism. He reinvents himself by being able to identify himself with him.


Great fan of music, an element that he adds in the form of a fetish or tattoo to his compositions. In which through collage and nuances of Pop culture, he develops a language where the visual impact of the work leads the viewer to a state of mixed amazement and awe as well as admiration. Exciting sensation that far from being diluted in the innocent effervescence that underlies the background, feeds it by demanding the segregation of large doses of dopamine.


His relationship with art begins in childhood due to the influence of his father, selling his first work at the early age of ten. This makes him think that he can make a living from his art.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Fab Ciraolo - Old School Heroes, retratos mitológicos de la cultura Pop



Graduated in graphic design, discipline that relegates to the background in favor of the stroke of illustration. With whose works he has managed to make a name for himself thanks to the presence he has on the Internet. He combines his artistic facet with the musical, being a member of the band Oh Margot, with whom he has released an Ep at the end of 2001.


Starting from a quick sketch, he draws by hand, both in pencil and the part of color and shading using a mechanical pencil 01, adding the shadows and finally coloring with watercolors, temperas and acrylics, also oils, dry pastel and colored pencils. Once the preliminary version is ready, it is digitalized and the necessary filters are applied to complete the illustration.




Meags Fitzgerald - Photoboth: a biography, graphic stories inspired by the photomaton

 


The writing of a book is usually inspired by events, experiences or vicissitudes of which one is a first-person witness. Or by the knowledge provided by a third party such as a friend or access to a story read in the media. 


Sometimes one resorts to a historical ephemeris that, combined with a personal experience, generates the argument of a more or less plausible narration. This was the case of the cartoonist Meags Fitzgerald, who, due to her passion for taking passport-size photos of herself in photo booths, had the opportunity to get to know the origin of the story.  


READ IT IN SPANISH: Meags Fitzgerald - Photoboth: a biography, historias gráficas inspiradas por el fotomaton


She had the opportunity to learn about the origin of this element that has been part of the furniture of any self-respecting city for a good part of the 20th century. Being at present a vintage object that after being acquired almost as an antique can be found in private homes, or as an incentive in a bar.



Becoming the thread of a story presented in graphic novel format, where through the illustrations of cartoons. She tells us about her relationship with the photomaton almost becoming an obsession, which led her to make a diaspora around the world on a journey to find her identity. 


And whose adventures have been published in a volume entitled Photoboth: a biography, where parallel to this search. The story of this photographic device is told in a global key and from a domestic and personal point of view, a story dotted with numerous episodes of autobiographical character.



RO & AD - Moses Bridge, a bridge that crosses at the water's edge

 


Upon completion of its construction, the architects of RO & AD did not hesitate to baptize it with the title of one of the most quoted biblical passages. But nothing could be further from the truth: the Moses Bridge.


It has little or nothing to do with the ephemeris represented in the sacred text, not even in an aesthetic sense. Its inspiration must be sought many centuries later, specifically during the seventeenth century. The Netherlands built a series of moats and fortifications in the region of West Brabant


In order to provide protection against the incursions of the French and Spanish forces. One of these forts was known as Fort de Roovere. It was surrounded by a small fosse that served as protection against attacks and floods produced when the tide rose.                              

From a distance, the Moses Bridge is invisible to the eye. The flow around the fosse seems continuous, as the water level is parallel to that of the moat that crosses it, reflecting its natural environment. As visitors approach the fortress, the bridge is visualized as a break that divides the watercourse, creating a unique visual phenomenon.


READ IT IN SPANISH: RO & AD - Moses Bridge, un puente que cruza a ras del agua


The tank that divides the watercourse is a structure anchored to the bed by steel piles. Lined with wooden slats for the walls, which are made of the same material as the pillars. The bridge and its components are made of sustainable wood. 


The wood is Accoya, a type of material that, when properly treated, makes the bridge waterproof and reliably resists the erosion produced by the current. Protecting it from fungi and increasing its durability. Being an ideal material for a bridge of these characteristics. 


It has recently been recognized by the Dutch College of Architects as the best structure of the year 2011. In addition, the sponsors are among the finalists for the Dutch Design Awards 2011.

 


Suppose Design Office, Japanese avant-garde architecture that looks to the past

 


Inspired by the first recorded house in Japanese culture, built during the Yayoi dynasty (200 BC - 250 AD). Known as Tateana Jukyo house, the peculiarity of this type of archaic constructions.


It is that they were the result of digging in the rock, or houses that were built by digging a hole in the ground about seventy centimeters, covered in a second phase with a pyramid-shaped roof made of plant material. 


The young architect Makoto Tanijiri from Suppose Design Office, a studio specializing in single-family homes, asked his future residents, a young couple from Hiroshima. A solution that was practical, comfortable and respectful of their privacy.


It is a three-storey house with a living area of 100 square meters. Partially sunk into the ground, it is surrounded by an elevation built with the earth resulting from the hole, acting as an organic barrier and natural protection for the house.


In addition to marking the natural perimeter of the property. The structure of the building is supported by four steel plates. The problem of the lack of lighting on the first floor was solved by replacing the partition walls with large windows. 


READ IT IN SPANISH: Suppose Design Office arquitectura Japonesa de vanguardia que mira al pasado



From the center of the room is the staircase that allows access to the other two remaining floors, where the double bedroom and a space for the children's room are located. Finished in a claraboya that culminates the house.


Although what is most remarkable is its exterior facade, consisting of four sheets one on each side, black upholstered and whose first height has been installed terrace for solarium, a place of social character where residents have the opportunity to establish a dialogue with the outside. 





Alex Gross, The POP illusion of a cancelled future


Surrealism as an artistic current since its appearance coinciding with the dawn of the twentieth century, was already postulated as an expressive movement that transcended the purely aesthetic. Apart from having an evident connotation from its beginnings.


That linked it to a greater or lesser extent with the exploration of the unconscious, having therefore something more than a flirtation with the Vienna school and psychoanalysis, as a practice that in some way established the basis for describing the exploration of our oneiric universe. A nuance referred to by Andre Breton in his famous Surrealist Manifesto.  


It also had an interpretation or capacity so that many of the works could lend themselves to analysis or political-social readings, of which apart from their allegorical capacity. They became a chronicle of the episodes and events that we witnessed as individuals.



Describing with more or less fortune the patterns of behavior, that both in individual and collective terms we were acquiring. Opening highly suggestive debates in ethno-anthropological terms regarding our standards of behavior as human beings.


Within the prolific work of the artist Alex Gross, resident in the Californian city of Los Angeles, there is a tendency to apply this analytical approach. Exercise through which he makes us an inventory of an individualized society.


Based on the value of consumption and aesthetic values that atomizes the behavior of the individual, presenting him as a zombie illuminated by the religion of POP culture. Whose artistic component makes an appearance not only at the time of adding.


READ IT IN SPANISH: Alex Gross, La ilusión POP de un futuro cancelado 


Elements and objects belonging to the digital era, making continuous references to the increasingly pervasive technology and the excess of information. Transmitted in loop by the doctrine of the unique thought. Where temptation is represented by the head of the hydra that divides and multiplies, projecting from its eye sockets. 


Commercial brands alternate with icons of popular culture, and political figures that have marked an era, in compositions where surrealist, pop and figurative elements cohabit.