Cooper Griggs

It’s Friday!

The New York Times is reporting that the NSA developed a way to spy on our emails even after the program allowing it to do so was shut down. Until December 2011, the agency was entitled to bulk-collect emails at will because it was subject to overs...

Kingyo Sukui (The Ark). Wood, net, aluminum, epoxy resin and acrylic, 2015. 73 x 75 x 38 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori (previously) returns to Joshua Liner Gallery this week for his second solo show, Goldfish Salvation. Fukahori has become widely known for his depiction of aquatic life painted with acrylic within layers of resin, most frequently the forms of goldfish as they swim through small wooden boxes or inside bamboo hats. He references dozens of live fish kept in aquariums in his studio as he works, with some pieces taking several months to gradually complete, layer by layer.

The exhibition’s title, Goldfish Salvation, is a personal reference to a time of self-doubt in Fukahori’s own artistic career, and an important revelation that led him out of it. Goldfish have since become a symbol of identity that represent both the strength and weakness of himself and rest of humanity. He shares:

In the aquarium, similar to human society, there is a story of birth and death. As long as they live, these goldfish will continue to soil the fish tank, and if not changed, the water will only get tainted leading to death for all the goldfish. This is quite true for the human species as well… The goldfish that I paint are not really goldfish, but representations of people. I feel as though the fish tank is only foretelling what would happen to the earth in the future. We as human beings are the main source polluting our own air we breathe.

You can see all of the pieces here, plus a number of large acrylic paintings by Fukahori at Joshua Liner Gallery in New York through December 19th. (via Hi-Fructose)

Kingyo Sukui (The Ark). Wood, net, aluminum, epoxy resin and acrylic, 2015. 73 x 75 x 38 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Kingyo Sukui, detail.

Kingyo Sukui, detail.

Kingyo Sukui, detail.

Four Seasons of Rain – Bosan (Autumn). Japanese bamboo hat, epoxy resin and acrylic on iron stand , 2015. 16 x 7.5 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Four Seasons of Rain – Setcho (Winter). Japanese bamboo hat, epoxy resin and acrylic on iron stand , 2015. 16 x 7.5 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Iwashirogamatsu. Epoxy resin and acrylic, 2015. 5.5 x 3.5 x 1.75 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Tsuzuki. Japanese Cypress sake cup, resin, acrylic, 2015. 3.5 x 3.5 x 2.2 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Kingyo-sake Kochomatsu. Japanese Cypress sake cup, resin, acrylic, 2015. 3.5 x 3.5 x 2.2 inches. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Spring of the Moon. Tub, ladle, epoxy resin and acrylic, 2015. 13.78 x 12.6 x 9.84 in. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Spring of the Moon. Tub, ladle, epoxy resin and acrylic, 2015. 13.78 x 12.6 x 9.84 in. Courtesy Joshua Liner Gallery

Following upon its initial successes with lettuce back in August, NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station are attempting to coerce a colony of zinnias to flower for the first time. The effort is part of the larger Veggie plant growth...

Look, there's already a taco emoji, so it doesn't seem far fetched to have one that represents a condom as well. After all, despite their obvious differences, they both have something in common: pleasure. That's why Durex, a brand of male contracep...

It’s not often we stop to consider feats of human strength and agility, but this is definitely worth an exception. On November 15, Théo Sanson completed what is likely a new world record for slackline, a 500-meter walk between The Rectory to Castleton Tower in Castle Valley, Utah. The cinematography does a fantastic job of capturing just how ridiculously far he had to walk. Filmed and Edited by Tim Kemple, Renan Ozturk and Anson Fogel of Camp4 Collective. Madness. (via Devour)

coolthingoftheday:

kamenrideraqua:

coolthingoftheday:

Johnathan the tortoise in 1900, and the same tortoise again in 2015.

he looks great, what’s his secret

Dermatologists HATE him

reblog-gif:

http://gifini.com/

Glass artist Satoshi Tomizu sculpts small glass spheres that appear to contain entire solar systems and galaxies. Planets made of opals, flecks of real gold, and trails of colored glass seem to spin and loop like twists in the Milky Way. While photographed here in a macro view, the pieces are actually quite small and include a small glass loop so each piece can be turned into a pendant. I can’t help but be reminded of this pivotal scene from the acclaimed Men in Black film.

Tomizu’s glass work recently won a Atelier Nova Design Award and appeared at the Handmade in Japan Festival. You can explore much more of his work in this Facebook gallery and on his website. (via My Modern Met)

(via theblessedone)

A popular photograph shows a Syrian child "surrendering" to a camera.

Translogic drives the Defiant EV3, a boutique three-wheeled electric roadster designed by Shockwave Motors founder John McMillian.Host Jonathon Buckley hops behind the wheel of the Defiant EV3 on this episode of Translogic. This three-wheeled roa...

Need to kill a few minutes while waiting for a bus or train? Instead of mindlessly staring at your phone or twiddling your thumbs, why not print out a quick short story. A small start-up in Grenoble, France aims to do just that with the Short Edition vending machine. The machines were conceived by Short Edition co-founder Christophe Sibieude who was standing in front of a traditional candy vending machine and questioned if there might be a better way to pass the time other than snacking.

So far, eight of the minimalistic vending machines have been installed around the city, each of which has three buttons that correlate with how much reading time you have to spare: 1, 3, or 5 minutes. The stories print instantly on narrow receipt paper which makes for easy reading and storage. The randomly printed stories are written by the Short Edition community, and also include poems and other forms of experimental short fiction.

If you liked this, also check out the Biblio-Mat. (via Hyperallergic)

via http://handa.tumblr.com/post/3830143427/llbwwb-ramona-falls-by-gary-randal

The UK's last fifteen coal power stations are to be closed within the next decade under new government plans. In an announcement, Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed that in a push for more "secure, affordable, and clean energy...

by papryk

Firefighters, police and soldiers don't have many good options when they want to breach a door: blowtorches and lock picks are usually slow, while battering rams, explosives and guns aren't exactly subtle. The US Air Force and EMPI recently crafted...

“

Despite the rumors that tricked more than half the state governors in the USA into enacting racist anti-Syrian policies, there is no evidence that the Paris attackers came from outside the EU.

One attacker had a seemingly fake Syrian passport on his body, which is consistent with the idea that Daesh want to provoke racist retaliation against Muslims around the world, to convince moderate Muslims that there can be no peaceful co-existence with secular Western states. The tactic has been effective: the terrorists used it to recruit the majority of US state governors to support Daesh’s goals.

”

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EU official: all identified Paris attackers were from the EU / Boing Boing (via simsian)

i’d like to add these informative articles to this important news. truly worth the read, so please consider.

You Can’t Understand ISIS If You Don’t Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, by Alistair Crooke (2 parts, second one linked at the end of this one)

What ISIS Really Wants, by Graeme Wood

Little is known about anti-ISIS fighter Abu Azrael, who became increasingly popular on social media after attacks in Paris.

Photo by Scott Beale for Laughing Squid

Scott Beale over at Laughing Squid spotted this great bumper sticker the other day while traveling through Ohio. This is probably the first time we’ve stopped to appreciate a bumper sticker on Colossal, but the message is definitely an important one these days. Pick one up through Northern Sun for just $2.50. (via Laughing Squid)

Faig Ahmed distorts the patterns of traditional Azerbaijani rugs, dimantling their structure in order to build compositions that trick the eye by appearing to melt off the wall. By rearticulating the original design, he creates contemporary sculptural forms that look like digital glitches, patterns flatlining halfway through a tapestry or gradually morphing into a digital mosaic.

Ahmed explains that his fascination for textiles stems from their historical value, humanity utilizing fabric for nearly the entire length of human history. “Another thing that interests me is pattern,” says Ahmed. “Patterns and ornaments can be found in all cultures, sometimes similar, sometimes very different. I consider them words and phrases that can be read and translated to a language we understand.”

Ahmed lives and works in Baku, Azerbaijan and graduated from the sculpture department of Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in 2004. The artist previously focused on painting, video, and installation, but now currently focuses on textile and sculpture. Ahmed recently had a solo exhibition with Italian gallery Montoro12 titled “Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit,” and is currently in the group exhibition “Crafted: Objects in Flux” at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston until January 10, 2016. (via Booooooom)

WONDER, the first exhibition at the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum since its two-year renovation, brings together nine contemporary artists that each created room-sized installations inspired by the building in which they were produced. Jennifer Angus, Chakaia Booker, Gabriel Dawe, Tara Donovan, Patrick Dougherty, Janet Echelman, John Grade, Maya Lin, and Leo Villareal each work with objects that are often considered mundane, producing large-scale works from everyday objects like toothpicks and hoards of marbles. Each work in the exhibition demonstrates the labor that went into each piece, normalized elements that have been transformed into mind-bending arrangements.

John Grade created a plaster cast of a tree the same age as the Renwick building, rebuilding the tree’s form from 500,000 segments of reclaimed cedar. Tara Donovan also utilized wood in the form of toothpicks to build her mountainous works, building her towering heaps with other trash like straws and Styrofoam cups to prompt the audience to reexamine the daily detritus seen on city streets.

Other works like Gabriel Dawe’s “Plexus A1” and Janet Echelman’s “1.8” are much more colorful, Dawe’s rainbow weaving mistaken for a prismatic stream of light and Echelman’s red and orange sculptural waves brightly expressing the energetic power of one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history.

The Renwick Gallery was the very first building in the United States to be built specifically for the purpose of housing an art museum. You can see how WONDER transformed its newly renovated galleries through mid-2016, with a closing on July 10. (via Art Ruby)

jimbenton:

And God spake unto all of Creation

(photos by sporetown)

One day, eliminating pain may just be a matter of flicking on a light. Scientists have shown that you can implant LEDs that stop neurons from firing and cut out pain reception. The current technique (tested in mice) requires altering the neurons'...

nickacostaisme:

The storyboards for Apocalypse Now are just as incredible as the actual movie. 

In the wake of ISIS' coordinated attacks on Paris Friday night that left 129 civilians dead and scores more injured, the loosely-affiliated hacker collective known as Anonymous announced Sunday the launch of a massive cyber-campaign, dubbed #OPPari...