Rokosny

Nicolai Howalt’s ‘Car Crash Studies’ are vivid, intense and somewhat disturbing. This work is a thought provoking photographic study of cars, which have been involved in serious and potentially fatal accidents. With this series, Nicolai Howalt moves between documentation and abstraction. Confronting the viewer with the human fear of trauma and death, he leaves us with a duality of feelings we experience when becoming witnesses of accidents or catastrophes from a distance. Many images seem more like landscapes, with their highly enlarged details of dents, cracks and scratched metal. ‘These ‘color plains’ become the ultimate instance of beauty created from suffering, pain and destruction.’

All images © Nicolai Howalt

hallekiefer:

DAT SQUINT

GIF: Maps On The Web

Vince Miklos collects GIFs of Empires, from the Roman to Soviet. [io9]

With a remarkable gift of capturing vivid and powerful pin sharp scenes, once again Berlin-based photographer, Matthias Heiderich, drew our attention to himself. The series ‘Reflexiones’ has emerged in April and May of this year, during a trip to Spain. He visited places like Madrid, Santiago de Compostela, Aviles and Bilbao to document contemporaneous architecture. Places also marked on his route were developing areas in the south of Madrid, Ciudad de la Cultura in Santiago and Centro Niemeyer in Avilés. He tells us his approach towards the depicted subject was as always, ‘rather of artistic than handcrafted nature, which means, I take more liberties with pictorial design as it would be possible for an architectural photographer’. This way he composes captivating images of minimalist nature in which an aesthetic idealization is more important than the realistic representation of the building. Seemingly effortlessly Matthias Heiderich succeeds in a game of loud and strong, sometimes subtle colors, capturing the selected objects in a unique and thrilling way.

All images © Matthias Heiderich

James Nizam composes his fascinating photographs with an inclination towards the natural magic of abandoned places, the position of the camera and perspective, with a great sense of light and shadow and technology. Nizam’s work is a complex study of a physical and temporal perspective of space itself. For his work ‘Curious Perspectives’ he sawed geometric shapes in abandoned huts working with a certain readymade structure and light. For his impressive light sculptures, he uses small mirrors, with which he can direct the light in certain directions. Nizam’s work occupies a complex physical and temporal space where perspective is both, a precise science and a natural magic. It is exactly here, in Nizam’s own view, that the unique position of the lens in time and space may capture our curiosity.

All images © James Nizam | Via: designboom

Texas State Senator Wendy Davis had a moment in the spotlight Tuesday evening, as her 13-hour filibuster against a bill to restrict abortion rights made her an instant hero to many on the left. She also wore some awesome pink running shoes.

Now, the shoes--which were apparently comfortable enough to allow Davis to stand for those 13 hours without a break--are getting their due. The Mizuno Women's Wave Rider 16 page on Amazon has become a home for dozens of tongue-in-cheek "reviews" of a shoe that found itself entwined in abortion politics.

Here's a typical example:

The most popular thus far:

Of course, some people view the success of these shoes at outrunning patriarchy as a threat, and think you shouldn't buy them.

And then, there are the people who are not in on the joke at all and just want to tell you about their experience with Mizuno Women's Wave Rider 16 running shoes.

Read the full range of reviews, and "reviews," here.

We already introduced ‘Aérial’ by Baptiste Debombourg some time ago. His latest artwork called ‘Flow’ is a sign of resurrection, rebellion, the sudden mirror of our mass consumption society that kills its own producers. Debombourg used hundreds of cracked windshield arranged in such a way that they resemble a catastrophic flood of polluted water rushing inside the gallery. It almost feels like ignored vomit being spewed out from on high. The installation criticizes consumption in which neither human beings nor – even less – objects are respected. As stated in the official press release: ‘We do not swim in a sea of windscreens, we remain under the glass, suffocating as if under ice, devoured by our own creations.’

All images © Baptiste Debombourg

Vinz created some more "Honest and Free Ads" playing on the slogans of real products and ultimately reminding us that happiness is free.

Two Triangles, 2013

Gorgeous site-specific installations by one of my favourite artists, Vancouver’s James Nizam. The last time I featured his work it went on to be one of the most popular posts of 2012. See more of his work below!

View the whole post: James Nizam over on BOOOOOOOM!.

‘Something is transformed into something else that it’s not.’ Fascinated by his environment, South African artist Dillon Marsh photographs cell phone masts that were set up in and around Cape Town, disguised as trees. Dillon Marsh prefers and focuses on images of man-made, unusual structures. He places every tree in the center of a frame, almost like a scientific botanical illustration. With its desaturated and slightly yellowish coloring the photographs look like images from the 19th Century. What Marsh photographs is of certain importance to him and he tries to give each project a different feel and mood. ‘I choose objects that can be found in multitude within their environment so that I can depict a family of objects in a series of photographs. By displaying each project as such, I feel I am able to show both, the character of the individual members, and the characteristics that make these objects a family.’ 

All images © Dillon Marsh | Via: beautiful/decay

Why should a butter knife not be made of butter? I mean, it’s called a butterknife, right? In an almost childlike manner Derek Paul Boyle discusses the power of opposition. Why should you look at the ground and not see the sky? He is fascinated by and tempts him at the same time to break through a specified condition and to contradict expectations. Why does something always have to follow a supposedly fixed definition? Boyle plays downright with the viewer and the created contradictions. He himself says: ‘I am interested in the power of contradiction, the lure of anticipation, and incompatible states of the self – what was once bound is made free, the known made unknown. In a wavering step between angst and serenity, fear and pleasure, I want to give form to anxiety, a shape to tension.’

All images © Derek Paul Boyle

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Are those your drums? The Late Show host likes drums so much that when musical guests finish up their sets on the show, Letterman often asks the drummer about them.

(via @hodgman)

‘Bang’ is Ai Weiwei’s contribution to this years Venice Art Biennale. Consisting of 886 traditionally handcrafted wooden stools ‘Bang’ seems like a huge ongrowing organism, like a cluster, caught in a room. In China every family typically had at least one of theese wooden stools that was passed on by every generation. But since the cultural revolution the wooden chair has almost vanished from everyday life and plastic and aluminium have superseded wood as the common material for furniture. The Curator of the german pavillon, Susanne Gaensheimer states: ‘The single stool as part of an encompassing sculptural structure may be read as a metaphor for the individual and its relation to an overarching and excessive system in a postmodern world developing at lightning speed’.

All images © Roman Mensing | Via: designboom

And now for a Feast.

Warp Records’ Chris Clark has long had a healthy sideline in remixes, and this September the best of those will be bundled together on the double album Feast/Beast. Clark’s sound has taken some twists and turns since 2001′s Aphex Twin-indebted Clarence Park, and there’s no better way to show this than with his mangled productions for other artists.

Reworking a truly diverse range of artists from electronic legend Amon Tobin and ex-Vex’d man Kuedo through to electro-pop superstars Depeche Mode and trip hop veterans Massive Attack, the scope of the double-album is easy to visualize. Clark says it best himself: ”In some ways these remixes represent the range of music I have released over the [last] 10 years in my albums, but they are more unhinged—there is more freedom involved when using other people’s material. And particularly when friends are involved, it can push you into electric new terrain.”

Feast/Beast is due out on September 16 via Warp Records. [via Resident Advisor]

Tracklist:

Feast

01 The Beige Lasers – Smoulderville (Clark Remix)
02 DM Stith – Braid Of Voices (Clark Remix)
03 Amon Tobin – Kitchen Sink (Clark Remix)
04 Nathan Fake – Fentiger (Clark Remix)
05 Clark – Alice (Redux)
06 Kuedo – Glow (Clark Remix)
07 Barker & Baumecker – Spur (Clark Remix)
08 Silverman – CANTSTANDTHERAIN (Clark Remix)
09 Rone – Let’s Go (Clark Remix)
10 Nils Frahm – Peter (Clark Rework)
11 Glen Velez – Untitled (Clark Remix)
12 Clark – Absence (Bibio Remix)
13 Clark – Ted (Bibio Remix)
14 Vampillia – Sea (Clark Remix)
15 Prince Myshkin – Cold Caby (Clark Remix)

Beast

01 Massive Attack – Red Light (Clark Remix)
02 Battles – My Machines (Clark Remix)
03 Letherette – D&T (Clark Remix)
04 Clark – Growls Garden (Nathan Fake Remix)
05 Aufgang – Dulceria (Clark Remix)
06 Maximo Park – Let’s Get Clinical (Clark Remix)
07 The Terraformers – Evil Beast (People In The Way) (Clark Remix)
08 Clark – Suns Of Temper (Bear Paw Kicks Version)
09 Health – Die Slow (Clark Remix)
10 Depeche Mode – Freestate (Clark Remix)
11 Mr. Boggle – Siberian Hooty / Fallen Boy (Clark Remix)
12 Drvg Cvltvre – Hammersmashed (Clark Remix)
13 Milanese – Mr Bad News (Clark Remix)
14 Feynmann’s Rainbow – The Galactic Tusks (Clark Remix)

“Witness”, photos by Troy Moth. Victoria, BC. See more below.

View the whole post: “Witness” by Troy Moth over on BOOOOOOOM!.

A mammoth recently found in Siberia was so well preserved that when researchers were chipping it out of the ice, liquid blood flowed out.

Semyon Grigoriev, chairman of the university's Museum of Mammoths and head of the expedition, said: "The fragments of muscle tissues, which we've found out of the body, have a natural red colour of fresh meat. The reason for such preservation is that the lower part of the body was underlying (sic) in pure ice, and the upper part was found in the middle of tundra. We found a trunk separately from the body, which is the worst-preserved part."

The temperature was ten degrees celsius below zero when the mammoth was found, so the discovery of liquid blood was a shock. "It can be assumed that the blood of mammoths had some cryo-protective properties," Grigoriev said. "The blood is very dark, it was found in ice cavities below the belly and when we broke these cavities with a pick, the blood came running out."

More photos and information here. Bring on the mammoth clones, John Hammond. (via @carlzimmer)