stavanger, norway, 1998

sources: top / bottom

liverpool, england, 2005

sources: top / bottom 2

cuxhaven, germany, 1997

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well, that’s if your local beach happens to be crosby beach in liverpool, a place which is now home to 100 of these 6ft+ iron men, scattered over a 2 mile stretch of sand and reaching out nearly a mile from the shore. this spooky crowd, previously installed on other beaches around europe but on a temporary basis, is called ‘another place’ and was created by antony gormley, the english sculptor also responsible for the angel of the north. following some controversy a couple of years ago the iron men are now set to stay on crosby beach for good, continuing to make nearby sunbathers feel uneasy.

while not as immediately frightening as the baby tower, there’s something brilliantly creepy about ‘another place’, a piece of art whose existence on crosby beach goes to prove there are some decision-makers who actually possess some taste.

check out the sculptor’s website for more similar work.

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i saw it for the first time a few years back and still remember how initially confused i was. maybe i blocked it from my mind to prevent nightmares. then this morning i, for some reason, had a flashback to that very day of discovery and actually got annoyed with myself for not writing about it sooner. anyway, better late than never. we’ll start the photos from afar and then get closer with each picture as i want to make the experience as creepy as possible for you.

žižkov television tower, žižkov, prague

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that last photo’s the clincher for me - creepy as hell - and the fact that there are 10 of these huge crawling babies permanently attached to a television tower in the czech republic really does make me happy. not since watching the tripods as a kid have i been so affected by a 3-legged structure.

on to the facts.

the tower itself, sans faceless toddlers, was built in the mid-late 80s and stands 216 metres tall. even without the babies it’d be a strange looking beast, but that didn’t deter the geniuses in charge of the tower from permanently attaching david cerny’s sculptures to its legs - in 2000 they were added as a temporary installation but the public loved them so much that they were kept for good.

on that note, i’d like to personally thank the people of prague for having incredible taste. this tower is a work of art.

after…

the chimney stacks of this heating plant in bagnolet, paris, were transformed over a period of 2 months in 2007 by trompe l’oeil specialist frederic garcia. the largest of the water drops are 1.1m in diameter and to ensure the accuracy required he was guided by an assistant at ground level using a walkie talkie.

the skill and patience needed to do something of this scale, successfully, is incredible. but then when you spend your life doing just that i suppose the practice goes some way towards easing the pressure. when i saw this photo a couple of weeks ago it instantly brought jean marie pierret to mind, a guy i could’ve sworn i wrote a post about last year (a post which seems to have slipped from this site entirely. if you can find it i’ll be impressed), and a guy who, along with the help of 8 mountain climbers, was responsible for decorating the enormous tignes dam in france with a gigantic and awesome picture of hercules…

if the sight of that painting doesn’t impress you, bear in mind that the dam’s wall measures 181m in height, that’s taller than the blackpool tower (never thought i’d use that structure as a comparison).

pierret was also responsible for painting one of the cooling towers at cruas power station, france in 1991.

pierret was helped by 9 people (one of whom i think was frederic gracia) to paint ‘aquarius’ on the tower, a feat which required 4′000 litres of acrylic paint.

oh, just out of curiosity, does anyone know whether the following advert was actually painted onto the hoover dam? i suspect not but there’s an outside chance.

sources: 1, 2

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As I imagine is the case for many deputydog readers, I’m fascinated by anything that goes above and beyond the norm. Having hosted experimental radio for nearly a decade, I’ve had opportunities to hear many truly strange sounds. These are a few standouts of the unlikely and just plain odd recordings I’ve come across. All are beautiful in their own ways– I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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How about an album featuring all-ice instruments? That’s the setting for Norweigan percussionist Terje Isungset’s 2002 disc “Iceman Is.” Recorded entirely within a studio constructed of ice (and kept at 17°F!), Isungset and sculptor Bengt Carling constructed a harp, trumpets, percussion instruments, and horns– all from ice. The result is as you might guess: fragile, organic, otherworldly. The best part is that Isungset recently re-released “Iceman Is” through his All-Ice label.

Link to All-Ice label page: http://www.all-ice.no/

If ice isn’t enough, there’s always Jamie Drouin and Lance Olsen’s “Snow:Field” double album, featuring recordings of the artists “interactions” with a field of snow. The second disc contains the remixes, for real.

Link to Lance Olsen’s blog, with sound samples of Snow:Field: http://www.lanceolsen.ca/index.php?itemid=143

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Not a fan of cold weather? Join Glenn Weyant sometime– if you don’t mind raising the ire of the US border patrol. Weyant’s “Sonic Anta” project documents his aural explorations of the US/Mexico border, literally playing the border itself with chopsticks and a cello bow. Never heard a virtuoso of corrugated fencing and barbed wire? Now’s your chance.

Link to Glenn Weyant’s Sonic Anta sound page: http://www.sonicanta.com/music.html

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Don’t think you have to freeze or sweat to death finding amazing music. Tom Johnson didn’t have to look any farther than the nearest piano to realize tremendous possibilities in sound. In fact, he played all of them– for his 1986 composition “The Chord Catalogue,” Johnson listed the 8,178 chords possible in a single octave. Starting with the 78 two-note chords, and continuing through to the single thirteen-note chord, Johnson reveals a set of natural facts under what listeners ordinarily think of as music. Think this sounds too simple? At present, Johnson is the only person who has mastered playing it.

Video of a performance of Tom Johnson’s “Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass”:

Link to “The Chord Catalogue” score: http://www.editions75.com/FreeScores/TheChordCatalogue.pdf

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Surprisingly, “The Chord Catalogue” doesn’t take much more than an hour to play. For those interested in loooong recordings, Masami Akita’s “Merzbox” may be just the ticket. Akita, well-known to fans of the harsh noise genre as Merzbow, is remarkably prolific– with full-length individual releases numbering well into the hundreds. The Merzbox, however, is still a jaw-dropping acheivement. Comprised of 50 separate CDs (or 52 for original limited edition buyers), the Merzbox takes a little over 2 days to play end-to-end. And it’s a punishing 2 days; full of Merzbow’s full-tilt white noise blasts, endless loops, distortion, and feedback. For noise fans, the Merzbox is a wonder that keeps on giving. For everyone else, it’s a nightmare in a box.

Link for Merzbox: http://www.xtr.com/catalog/XLTD-003/

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Then again, isn’t 2 days a little… short? Try locating a copy of Farmers Manual’s DVD “RLA,” which compiles every available recording of the improvisational electronic music cooperative’s performances into over 3 straight days of listening fun. It’s quite possibly the longest-playing single disc available so far. Since its 2003 release date, many more hours of performances have been located– hardcore fans can download them free from the band’s “RLA” website to keep their collection up-to-date!

Link to Farmers Manual RLA wiki, with legal downloads: http://rla.web.fm/twiki/bin/view/Rla

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Sometimes, the strangest recordings are also the most familiar. Take, for example, the “mic-in-track” recordings accidentally made available during Napster’s heyday. During this time, a default setting to name saved audio recordings as “mic-in-track” resulted in the ability of Napster users to download masses of such recordings, often to comical end. What did they hear? If you said “kids unaware anyone would ever hear them being silly with a microphone,” you’d mostly be spot-on. The Evolution Control Committee has a nice section of “mic-in-track” downloads, for the morbidly curious.

Link to “mic-in-track” recordings (scroll down): http://evolution-control.com/culturejamming.html

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DaveX blogs about experimental music and sound art at Startling Moniker. In addition to hosting a long-running radio program of the same; he is a professional, licensed raconteur.

unfortunately the surreal scene above was actually an art installation by kaarina kaikkonen on the streets of helsinki, simply rows and rows of clothing suspended above the roads. i hope it stayed. kaikkonen seems to have a thing for 2nd hand clothing: she also assembled 3000 men’s jackets and placed them neatly on the steps of helsinki cathedral in 2000 (see below). unfortunately some of the dye from the jackets seeped into the stone underneath leaving a permanent reminder for years to come.

‘way’ - helsinki cathedral, 2000

this is ‘prada marfa’, an unusual building located in the desert near marfa, texas on an otherwise desolate stretch of highway 90. behind the glass a selection of shoes and bags, presumably more expensive than the structure itself, have sat untouched since 2005.

very few people have ever been inside prada marfa and money has never been handed over inside the premises as it’s actually a spooky piece of art / clever promotional stunt erected by michael elmgreen and ingar dragset, 2 berlin artists seemingly intent on playing with the public’s minds.

from the artists…

‘..the combination of a vast, open desert landscape in an un-populated area and a luxury goods store is completely unthinkable. nature suits fashion as a visual backdrop, as one often sees in advertisement. the minimal, corporate prada design and the desolate surrounding ranch land make a great impression together, but simultaneously the two forces also render each other useless.’

sources: 1, 2

believe it or not, the photo above is of a train interior in japan.

with the results looking nicer than most nurseries, the japanese have taken the idea of ‘child-friendly public transport’ to the next level with these 2 beauties, both designed by eiji mitooka. he was the artistic force behind ‘omoden’ (toy train) and ‘ichigo ec’ (strawberry train), a couple of regional trains which travel on a daily basis on the 14.3km kishigawa line in japan. the japanase are intent on making train travel a more comfortable experience for everyone, women and children especially, and the results are incredible.

both trains contain hundreds of toys, tv screens showing cartoons, immaculately clean wooden flooring and cots for younger children. call me cynical but i can’t imagine anything like this emerging in the uk unless it was an attraction at a theme park.

here’s more of the stunning ‘toy train’…

here’s a video of the toy train…

and here’s the ’strawberry train’ which runs on the same line…

incidentally, the last station on the kishigawa line (kishi station) has a stationmaster named ‘tama’. he’s a cat. here he is…

only in japan.

sources: 1, 2

1. willard wigan (website)

using a hair plucked from a dead fly as a brush, birmingham willard wigan paints miniscule sculptures he has carved from grains of rice and sugar. each ‘brushstroke’ is applied between heartbeats and he has said that the pulse in one of his fingers can ruin his work.

below is the titanic on a pin.

earlier this year a 70-piece collection he sold was insured by the new owner for £11.2million.

2. jin yin hua (website)

the slim photo above is of a 1/2 inch strand of black human hair. on it has been painted the portraits of 42 u.s. presidents. the top portrait can be seen below - click on it for a larger version which is magnified x 1′000′000.

the artist, jin yin hua from china, has painstakingly created over 100 micro-paintings and carvings during the past 10 years.

3. ee jin teo

to ee jin teo, a piece of micro-art on a grain of rice must seem cumbersome. he decided to go a few steps further and created what he calls ‘quantum art’ by reproducing william blake’s ‘ancient of days’ out of nanocrystals (really really small stuff). ‘this photoluminescent version of Blake’s painting was created in porous silicon by focused helium beam writing and subsequent electrochemical etching in hydrofluoric acid’. by the way, 1µm is 1′000th of a millimetre.

4. mykola syadristy (website)

unbelievably, the tube in which the rose above is contained is actually a hollowed out human hair, also polished inside and out. the diameter of the rose itself is a hefty 0.05mm. below is another piece by the ukrainian. the gold mosquito sculpture is life-size.

5. eduard ghazaryan

85 year old ghazaryan is a micro-sculptor with over 600 pieces to his name, one being the world’s smallest working violin (above). the body of the 7mm violin is sculpted from gold, the fiddle from a hair, and it actually works. when challenged by conductor ohan duryan, eduard responded by playing aram khachaturyan’s ‘dance’ with duryan’s orchestra.

the violin in the piece below, seen in a needle’s eye, is even smaller and carved from a golden powder granule.

as the season of frostbite and soggy socks is upon us i present to you some examples of ’snow art’ that deserve a viewing. any photos from flickr link to the user’s page.

i’m gonna start with the easier designs and work my way up to the hardcore ’snow sculptures’…

bonus:

real or fake, one of the funniest photos i’ve seen for a while…

even if you think photorealistic art is pointless (which i’m sure some people do) there’s no denying the skill and patience involved in these creations.

(click on pics for fatter versions)

1. duane hanson [sculptor, 1925 - 1996]

(hanson on artfacts.net)

traveller - fibreglass & mixed media, 1988

queenie II - polychromed bronze, 1988

some more paintings in the form of a slideshow…

2. robert bechtle [painter, 1932 - present]

(bechtle on artfacts.net)

‘61 pontiac - oils on canvas, 1968

alameda gran torino - oils on canvas, 1974

here’s an interesting 10 minute video about the process behind robert bechtle’s paintings…

3. ron mueck [sculptor, 1958 - present]

(mueck on artfacts.net)

untitled (big man) - pigmented polyester on resin, 2000

mask II - sculpture, 2001

check out this incredible sculpture…

4. raphaella spence [painter, 1978 - present]

(homepage)

the poet - oils on canvas, 2004

mirror of hope - oils on canvas, 2004

5. gottfried helnwein [painter, 1948 - present]

(homepage)

untitled (modern sleep) - oils & acrylics on canvas, 2005

epiphany - mixed media on canvas, 1996

below is a video slideshow of some of his paintings…

6. denis peterson [painter, 1944 - present]

(homepage)

don’t shed no tears - acrylics on canvas, 2006

dust to dust - acrylics & oils on canvas, 2006

7. dru blair [airbrush expert, 1959 - present]

(homepage)

painting of tica - airbrush on unknown surface, 2007

power - airbrush on unknown surface

8. ralph goings [painter, 1928 - present]

(homepage)

cream pie - oils on canvas, 1979

safeway interior - oils on canvas, 1974

use your face to digest this slideshow of ralph’s amazing work…

9. peter maier [painter, d.o.b. unknown - present]

(homepage)

sand beach - waterborne automotive paint on unknown surface

really red - waterborne automotive paint on unknown surface

if you know of any others let me know.