Ramos, arreglos florales, "Ikebana", son formas ornamentales a medio camino entre la escultura y la taxidermia botánica, si es que tal término es lícito. Reflexionamos sobre ello a través de los trabajos de Makoto Azuma , y traemos a colación los trabajos de la firma "Elkebana" inspirados en la taxidermia zoológica.
Los ramos de flores y el arte floral en general son una excelente ilustración de los límites entre naturaleza y artificio. Ya lo hemos comentado en anteriores entradas, y nos llamaba la atención que, aunque hay gente que padece fobias particulares hacia las flores, cuya presencia en forma de ramo las intimida, y las flores son símbolo de muchas cosas a la vez, además de una referencia sexual prácticamente explícita (recordemos, por ejemplo, las series fotográficas de flores de Robert Mapplethorpe), la presencia de flores o plantas cortadas no suele levantar airadas protestas semejantes a las que despierta la taxidermia o las manifestaciones artísticas que emplean animales vivos, o muertos en cualquier sistema posible de conservación.
A veces se habla de bioarte sin establecer claramente sus fronteras. Técnicamente, la obra de arte debería estar viva para ser bioarte, como el conejo fluorescente de Kac o incluso las formas de vida virtual autónoma de Deac, pero dudo que se trate de bioarte cualquier obra que incluya animales vivos o muertos. El arte floral ¿es bioarte? Tal vez lo sea, u del modo más genuíno, pues la muerte de las flores determina el fin de la existencia de la pieza, a no ser que recurra a las flores secas, o artificiales. Tal vez estas son las preguntas que Makoto Azuma desea que nos hagamos al contemplar sus instalaciones ocupadas por arreglos florales conservados en bloques de hielo que nos remiten a peceras tanto como a matraces de conservación, terrarios tal vez, féretros de cristal para preservar la belleza de las blancanieves del mundo vegetal. Dado que otras de sus instalaciones sí utilizan plantas vivas, en forma de bonsai o de sorprendentes epífitas en situaciones extremas, no nos cabe duda de que estamos ante muestras particulares de los límites del bioarte.
Realizar una escultura con un árbol gigante puede ser considerado tanto un atentado a la naturaleza como un último homenaje a su belleza, dependiendo de si el árbol ha sido talado para realizar tal obra, como en el caso de los enormes y hermosamente exquisitos tambores rituales japoneses, o si simplemente la madera de su cadáver ha sido transformada sin más utilidad que ofrecer una nueva perspectiva de su imponente estructura.
If you enjoy the aesthetic appeal of animal antlers but hate the idea of taxidermy,
Elkebana might be just the thing for your cabin walls. The wall-mounted system relies on symmetrical sets of flowers or tree branches and gets its name from
ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement. You can see more over on their
website. (via
Colossal Submissions)
The self-described botanic artist
Makoto Azuma is trying to change the way we look at flowers. He’s used
water and the
stratosphere
as backdrops for his exotic flower arrangements but now he’s
experimenting with ice. In his latest exhibition “Iced Flowers,” Azuma
locks floral bouquets in large blocks of ice and displays them like
pillars. Placed in an inorganic chamber, the “flowers will show unique
expressions that they do not display in everyday life,” says Azuma. The
installation, held last week in Japan, was temporary by nature but the
artist made sure to preserve the images. (syndicated from
Spoon & Tamago)
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/12/an-underwater-bonsai-by-makoto-azuma/
An Underwater Bonsai Tree by Makoto Azumaby Christopher Jobson on December 27, 2012
In his continued forays into experimental botany that blur the lines between art and science, artist
Makoto Azuma (
previously) has reimagined the bonsai tree, one of the oldest Japanese artforms. This latest work titled
Water and Bonsai,
began with a dead branch from a juniper tree which was carefully
attached to java moss meant to simulate the form of leaves. The entire
piece was then submerged into a modified hydroponic environment similar
to some of his earlier
aquatic plantscapes replete with LEDs, a filtration system, and C0
2 emissions that encourage photosynthesis. See more over on
Spoon & Tamago.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/07/makoto-azuma-uses-the-stratosphere-as-a-backdrop-for-his-latest-floral-art/
Makoto Azuma Uses the Stratosphere as a Backdrop For His Latest Floral Artby Johnny Strategy on July 22, 2014
Last week Japanese botanic artist
Makoto Azuma
attempted to go where most artists only dream of going: to space. In a
project titled Exbiotanica, last week Azuma and his crew traveled to
Black Rock Desert outside Gerlach, Nevada. In the dead of night Azuma’s
project began. The team launched two of Azuma’s artworks – a 50-year old
pine suspended from a metal frame and an arrangement of flowers – into
the stratosphere using a large helium balloon. The entire project was
documented, revealing some surreal photographs of plants floating above
planet earth. “The best thing about this project is that space is so
foreign to most of us,”
says John Powell
of JP Aerospace. “So seeing a familiar object like a bouquet of flowers
flying above Earth domesticates space, and the idea of traveling into
it.” (syndicated from
Spoon & Tamago)
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/01/delicate-vessels-sculpted-with-pressed-flowers-by-ignacio-canales-aracil/
Delicate Vessels Sculpted with Pressed Flowers by Ignacio Canales Aracilby Christopher Jobson on January 23, 2015
Spanish artist
Ignacio Canales Aracil
creates vessels reminiscent of upside-down baskets using nothing but
pressed flowers. The art of flower pressing dates back thousands of
years; pressed flowers were reportedly discovered in a 3,000-year-old
coffin of Tutankhamun’s mother in Egypt, and both Greek and Roman
botanists were known to preserve plants using techniques that continue
today. But Aracil’s method is a bit different, relying on large
cone-shaped molds into which carefully woven patches of hand-picked
flower stems are placed. The pieces dry for up to a month without the
aid of adhesives and are sprayed with a light varnish to protect the
sculpture from moisture. The final pieces, which could be crushed with
even the slightest weight, are rigid enough to stand without support.
Aracil currently has work as part of a group show at
Lucia Mendoza gallery in Madrid through the end of February, and you can see much more over on his
website.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/02/handmade-resin-bangles-embedded-flowers-and-bark/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+colossal+%28Colossal%29
Handmade Resin Bangles Embedded with Flowers and Barkby Christopher Jobson on February 9, 2015
Hand-made in Coos Bay, Oregon, these resin bangles are infused with
plants, leaves, flowers, shells, and strips of bark. Much of what you
see here is available through
Faerie and dozens of additional pieces are available through
Etsy. (via
Crafty Allegieance)
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| Mafa Alborés: Boceto para decoración naturalista en Zoo de Barcelona |
Árboles gigantes y escultura
 |
| Mafa Alborés durante la construcción de un baobab artificial |
No creo que necesite recordaros
mis vinculaciones con las escenografías naturalistas. Construir árboles de plástico constituyó mi particular modus vivendi durante un tiempo en el que contacté con empresas especializadas que nos podrían contar mucho acerca de cómo reproducir con fidelidad el aspecto externo de grandes árboles, como Gabriel Ruíz (Gecco 3D) o Ramón López (Quagga), así como formas minerales, animales, etc. Por eso me siento especialmente conmovido, no sé si positiva o negativamente, por la obra de
John Grade a partir de una árbol de 140 años, o ante el descubrimiento de que la obvia similitud de
la sección transversal de un árbol con un disco de vinilo sugiera a otros artistas averiguar qué música saldría de sus surcos.
Quagga
http://www.quagga.cat/Projectes/Fauna/
Gecco 3D
http://www.gecco3d.com/feina.php?lang=0&idf=21
Photo by John Grade
Recently unveiled at the
MadArt space in Seattle,
Middle Fork is the lastest sculptural work by artist
John Grade who worked with countless volunteers to realize this enormous scale mold of a 140-year-old tree.
The process began a year ago when Grade and a crew of assistants
scaled a Western Hemlock tree in North Bend, Washington with help of a
team of arborists. At nearly 90 feet in the air they created sectional
plaster molds of the living tree which were carefully lowered and
transported back to the MadArt space over a period of two weeks. Over
the next 12 months, hundreds of volunteers (some who walked in right off
the streets) helped to create a hollow sculpture of the tree using
hundreds of thousands of small wood blocks. The final piece was
carefully sanded down and is now suspended in the gallery. Watch the
video below to see how it all came together.
Middle Fork is the first exhibition at the new
MadArt space
in Seattle and will be on view through April 25th before it goes on
tour to galleries and art fairs around the U.S. In two years the pieces
will be transported to the base of the living tree from which the mold
was taken where they will decay and disintegrate back into the ground.
Photo by John Grade
Photo by John Grade
Photos by John Grade
Photos by John Grade
Photos by John Grade
Photos by John Grade
Photo by Tim Detweiler
Photo by Katie Wood
Si en la entrada anterior relacionábamos a Cinta Vidal con la estética de ciertos dioramas de Thomas Doyle y otros, Arron Kuiper nos ofrece una serie de obras que, sin dejar de ser pintura, flirtean con el diorama y la escultura, ya que, aunque emplea pintura al óleo, la inyecta en peceras llenas de un gel de base acuosa transparente. No creo que sea casual que una de las obras del galés caricaturice de algún modo el famoso tiburón de Damien Hirst, y no cabe duda de que la mayoría de sus obras parecen nacidas para ser observadas desde las inquietudes de nuestro blog: naturaleza y artificio, imagen y percepción, animalidad humana y naturaleza
...todo ello realizado con una técnica bastante original en el contexto de las múltiples opciones artísticas para introducir una imagen tridimensional en un contenedor transparente, como los arreglos florales en hielo de Makoto Azuma, o las escenografías de Mariele Neudecker. Nosotros lo hemos descubierto gracias a the creator's project, donde Nathaniel Ainley publica un artículo sobre el trabajo de Kuiper, del que os ofrecemos un extracto, además de unas imágenes más detalladas obtenidas de la página de Facebook del artista.
Todas las imágenes cortesía del artista.
