Balloon Breakfast

This charming work was crafted by photographer David Sykes with help from prop specialist Jennie Webster. A giant plate was placed against a wall, and the helium baloons glided upwards to create the best faux-breakfast I've ever seen.

David is quite the specialist at creating fake food. Another favorite from his portfolio is Spaghetti Hoops in which a plate of Spag Bowl is created through winding pasta-like ropes around meatball basket balls. His works are polished by comic twists, espeically some of the adverts he's created for Heinz. You can see his website here.

Speedos Sculpture

Due to recent changes in swimming competition rules, the LZR Racer Speedo was banned, leaving the brand with hundreds of the products they were unable to sell. Trust Chelsea Art Students however to make use of them. Here we have the first ever sculpture made entirley out of Speedos, featured in London's Architecture Week.

For this particular project, the students were challenged to address issues of sustainability, production and use of materials. Making the most of the swimsuit's high strength textile, the group were able to stretch the fabric to it's limit, connecting pieces together into webs of intelligent design.

Named 'The Pavillion' the final structure was designed using Rhino 3d and Grasshopper digital modeling programs and used 200 of the 600 swimsuits donated by Speedo.

Clare Mallison

I spotted Clare Mallison's illustrations on Beautiful Decay-an arts website I follow obsessivley- and was really drawn to her vintage, cartoon like style that oozes the nanchalence of youth and all the warmth of summer. From looking at her blog, I'm clearly not the only one admiring her work; her clients have included Top Shop, The Gaurdian, Elle Magazine and The New York Times and her drawings range from children's pastimes to city scapes. No matter what the siubject matter, all her works are dressed with a child-like nostaligia; the kind where once you've looked at them, you can't wipe the smile off your face.

My Mother's Coat

This animation is genius. 'My Mother's Coat' is directed by Royal College of Art graduate, Marie-Margaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits and is based on an interview she held with her Mother about life in Greece. A very promising work for so early on in an artist's career- I expect wonders from this girl.

Polly Morgan- Pyschopomps

As I read directly from The Haunch of Venison's exhibition catalogue: "All taxidermied animals are either road casualties or have been donated to the artist by pet owners and vets after natural or unpreventable death" I began to realise why this towering gallery space seemed coated with an unusual smell; one that i'd usually associate with dirty hampster cages.

...Or-dead-hampsters.

Morgan's debut exhibit is placed in just one room, containing only three sculptures. The most dramatic piece, Black Fever, hangs heavily from the ceiling like a metallic sculpture, casting a dramatic shadow on the far wall. On closer inspection though, the sculpture is not metal at all. In fact, grey birds wings have been attached together into a tight circular shape to resemble something far more sterdy.

Adjacent to this hangs 'Systemic Inflammation'. Here we see a two winged cornucopias and a cardinal held within an animal's ribcage, lifted into the sky by ballooons. The bright red cardinal is positioned inside so as to resemble a small heart cushioned by the skeleton, and the contrast between the colourful balloons and the blanched bones is quite striking.

To explain this seemingly complex concept, Morgan uses the method of taxiderma, (the stuffing of animals) but instead of presenting them as-just-this, she twists them into something dark and psychological. The name of the exhibition 'Psychopomps' represents mythical creatures that conduct souls into the after-life and, without question, there is certainly a mythical element to Morgan's pieces.

Polly Morgan, Psychopomps, 21 July-25 September

Tatts With A Difference

Who said tattoos aren't works of art? One thing's clear- it definitely wasn't Amanda Wachob. The New York artist behind these intricatle painterly designs focuses on pushing the boundaries of the tattoo medium in order to blur the line between fine art and body art. Her website displays an array of conceptual, abstract and modern designs that look as if they're painted onto the skin using the thinnest paint brush.

Wachob is taking orders at The Dare Devil Tatoo parlour in New York, I'm pretty sure there'll be queues out the door.

TIMMMBBERRRR!

These beautifully rustic bar stools are part of an inspiring exhibition in Melbourne that focuses on unpolished, organic materials. The show challenges 10 artists to use 10 different types of recycled materials sourced from either found objects or existing pieces, to fashion into time-honoured furniture or sculptures.

Guerra De La Paz

Living close to a discarded Pepe business in Haiti, Guerra de la Paz took advantage of the store’s abundance of abandoned clothing and focused their artistic brilliance on the histories that lie beneath each piece. This is done by using the clothes to create human-like structures, technically ‘bringing them to life’ and seeming to mould back the wearer.

Guerra de la Paz represents the name of a creative team of Cuban artists Alain
Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz who said “Gaining access to an over abundance of discarded clothing-relics that once helped define an individual’s personality and communally speak of environmental issues, mass consumption and disposability- opened the doors for us to working with garments as a material. We often see ourselves as vehicles guided by their essence and silent histories.”

The group have displayed their work at top galleries including The Saatchi and The Miami Art Museum, and their individualism is particularly striking. Have a look at their website for more impressive sculptures.

Frank's Bar

Frank's Cafe was commissioned by The Hannah Barry Gallery to accompany their summer sculpture show, Bold Tendancies.

Situated ontop of an old 10 storey car park, the bar and furniture are constructed using old timber and the red roof and ratchet straps were fabricated in a factory that produces drop down canvases for commercial lorries.

The café has panoramic views of London from the Millenium Dome, past Big Ben and the London Eye to Crystal Palace and was completed on a budget of £5000. The whole project was built by an unskilled volunteer workforce in just 25 days.

http://www.practicearchitecture.co.uk/

Lee Mawdsley

I'm new to the work of Lee Mawdsley, but already I'm finding it hard to take my eyes off this particular project he carried out for Shakepere's Globe. Mawdsley is a freelance photographer based in London and has already been recognised by Wallpaper, Established & Sons, KSwiss and Design Miami, carrying out a wide range of projects for Gatwick Airport, The British High Commission and Palazzo Grassi.

So admittedly I'm rather late on discovering this one, but I think we'd all agree that his large scale polished photos are seriously eye-catching, even from first glance. Take a look at his website for more.

The Doors 'When You're Strange'

To coincide with this week’s documentary release ‘The Doors’, Idea Generation’s dramatic photographic exhibition follows the equally dramatic life of this revolutionary and controversial band, through the lenses of four photographers: Henry Diltz, Joel Brodsky, Bobby Klein and Ken Regan.

The Doors were created in 1965 by lead singer Jim Morrison and fellow band member Ray Manzerak. Their first LP ‘The Doors’ shot to the top of the charts, yet concern over their ‘corruption of youth’ made promoters nervous and soon their reputation as bad boys overshadowed their chart success. In fact the Los Angeles quartet continued to relentlessly challenge, confront yet inspire their fans, leaping headfirst into the heart of darkness as opposed to what were the more current popular topics of peace and love.

We’re introduced to Brodsky’s photos first, in which The Doors stand united, huddled symmetrically together like a close knit family. His neat portraits capture them in reflections, or from above where they stare obediently up to the camera. Any hint of violence or rebelliousness is hard to decipher.

Brodsky’s most famous portraits of lead heart throb Jim Morrison are arguably his most successful and are positioned on a far wall across from a barrier which creates a stage-like space between him and the viewer. As I stare into Jim’s eyes, I become yet another fan trapped behind the railings desperate to get that little bit closer. Funnily enough, Brodsky claims that Morrison was “plastered” during this shoot, where he ironically seems so controlled; spreading his arms in a Christ-like pose further reasserting his iconic reputation.

From the look of his photographs, Henry Diltz seems to have submerged himself fully into the world of The Doors. His portraits are less posed than Brodsky’s and we often see them on the move, hanging out at their favourite ‘Ray’s Bar’ or playfully posed in laughter. He’s also included some contact-sheets where we spy The Doors driving in their car, and eating. Simple things yet somehow captivating when done by this group.

Klein’s depcitions are more similar to Brodsky’s, yet he takes The Doors and places them like puppets into various landscapes including palm and redwood trees as well as rocky terrain. They seem so compliant and calm, their unruly reputations dissolved by the strength of their tranquil poses.

My favourite photographer out of the four has to be Ken Regan. As opposed to Diltz’s, Brodsky’s and Klein’s intimate portrayals, he steps away from the band becoming more the invisible voyeur than official photographer and we start seeing them more objectivley. In ‘Jim Morrison, NY, 1970 III’ for example, Jim lies on the floor still clutching his microphone. We cannot see his face through the distance created and thus he becomes less Jim and more like any other rock star in the midst of destroying his set.

To end with a quote from Jim: " It's like gambling somehow. You go out for a night of drinking and you don't know where you're going to end up the next day". If do though, make sure it's at this exhibition.

The Doors, When You’re Strange: 9th July-27th August, Idea Generation Gallery

© Stephanie Wollenberg

The Elephant Parade & The Vadar Project

If you live in London, I'm fairly sure you'll have seen atleast one of the 250 elephants placed around the capital this summer, each one individually designed and crafted by various artists and designers including Jack Vetriano, Matthew Williamson and Jeff Hoare. With a host of celebrity supporters and arguably faultless PR, the Elephant Parade has proved to extremely succcessful in raising awareness. In fact, after a recent auction, a grand total of £70,000 was raised towards the charity ElephantFamily.org.

Another similar project that delves slightly more into the dark side of art is 'The Vadar Project'. Again, 100 artists and designers customized replicas of the Darth Vader helmet transforming the mask of the menacing villain into individual works of art.

Unlike the elephants though, this exhibition has been touring for 4 years and is soon to come to an end in Freeman's Auction House in Philedelphia. Curated and produced by Dov Kelemer and Sarah Jo Marks of DKE Toys, the Vader Project is on view at Freeman’s from July 5-9, followed by the auction on July 10. The show also includes a vibrant limited-edition catalog featuring full-color photographs of each helmet.

Francoise Nielly

French artist Francoise Nielly looks back to her first memories of colour to construct these stunning portrait pieces, sculpted with ardous energy using oil paints and a palette knife. "I have vivid images of colors, of brightness" she says, "yellow, sunshine, blue, heat, cicadas, pin smell, light...all of that classical imagery of South France is very alive as an experience inside of me. Maybe it is what led me to the use of fluorescent colors in my paintings".

Neilly is equally inspired by urban graphiti, drawn to it's untamed wildness that seems to scream from her own paintings. If you're interested in seeing some more of her paintings, her website has a stunning collection.

The Family and the Land- Sally Mann

Sally Mann’s photographic exhibition- her first in the UK- merges the themes of natural life, death and progressive time through the use of her duteous children, dramatic landscape and decomposing corpses.

The show begins with her ‘Immediate Family’ series (1990-1996) consisting of close-up, black and white portraits of her three children, Emmett, Jessie and Virginia captured over a period of 10 years. Often they are placed in close proximity to the lens, which disguises the sweetness of their faces. Instead they become blurry and stone-like in an almost statuesque quality however some endearing elements like Virginia’s weighty freckles, manage to open up a sense of tangibility.

The juvenile title of each photo echoes those found in story books: ‘One Big Snake’, ‘The Aligator’s Approach’ and ‘The Perfect Tomato’ yet Mann’s works exude none of this expected excitement and anticipation. In fact strangely enough, despite being so close to evidence of childhood, her photos seem haunting and deathly. The children neither smile, nor in fact make any suggestion that they are indeed young. In their structured poses there’s a strange adult-like quality, as if Mann has deliberately positioned them so as to remove that genuine innocence and unpredictability one would expect from children impatiently waiting to be photographed.

Mann’s photos are blotchy and marked in places resembling those buried in the back pages of an old album; an aforethought result of Mann’s wet-plate collodition process. This complex technique allows photographic negatives to be produced using a glass plate collodition which forms an emulsion. The plate is then sensitised in a silver nitrate solution and exposed to light whilst still wet, resulting in dust and dirt seeping into the surface. This effect adds to the timeless nature of her works that look archaic and vintage in their scuffed quality.

Upstairs we’re invited to watch a film directed by Steven Cantor directly addressing Sally, her life, and the story behind her works. Contrary to the conventional nature of most artist documentaries, we see Sally walking her dog in her beautiful homeland of Virginia, feeding her goat, horse riding and playing with her children. There is absolutely no pretentiousness to this artist- and the film’s simplicity compliments that found in her art.

In the second stage of her work ‘Deep South’ (1996-8) Mann’s children play less of a major role as she becomes preoccupied with landscape and the effects the American Civil War had upon it. For example we see a ‘Scarred Tree’ and ‘Swamp Bones’, the former’s bark slashed across it’s middle, and the latter a misty graveyard of wild tree roots resembling twisted skeletons. Mann’s exhibit continues to become darker in mood as you walk into the final room, so much so that we are greeted with a warning before we step in: ‘Some visitors may find the photographs in the next room challenging’.

Having been lulled into the exhibit by promises of youth and energy, we are now halted wondering whether to enter this final room. The next daunting series called ‘What Remains’ 2001, shows photographs of decomposing corpses placed against the ground and seeming to absorb into the land. In one, an old man lies face down, the skin on his back bunched and gathered to resemble thick, aged tree bark, and another shows the light illuminating the blonde hair of a young boy, whose face has thankfully been blurred out. It is here that we start to see connections throughout Mann’s work and realise how effortlessly her exhibition has progressed from birth to death in only three small rooms. The transition between the two never becomes overly apparent and therefore cleverly mimicks the journey of life.

Sally Mann, The Photographer’s Gallery, 18 June-19 September 2010

© Stephanie Wollenberg