House of straws.
Patrick Martinez’s LINX project allows anyone to build mesmerizing structures from drinking straws using specially designed plastic connectors. Hyperallergic posted a great review of Martinez’s new installation at Parker’s Box in Brooklyn, on view through February 17.
Himalayan shvitz.
Artist Trevor Amery brought his Portable Sauna installation to the 2nd Kathmandu International Art Festival, thanks to the support of his Kickstarter backers.
Some 70 international artists and 25 Nepali artists got good and sweaty, along with a constant stream of visitors. For more from Amery’s two weeks in Kathmandu, check out his most recent newsletter.
Butterflies over New York.
The Butterflies of Memory aims to become one of the largest public art projects in New York City.
A site-specific installation on little known Roosevelt Island in the East River, the artist’s giant butterfly sculptures are rigged to skinny metal poles, extending from the roof of the ruined smallpox hospital on the tip of the island.
Serving as physical manifestations of inspiration, these golden-winged creatures will be visible to millions of New Yorkers every day.
No more tears.
Acceptable Reasons to Cry in Public is a participatory art project by “A Girl in Salt Lake City.” The girl in question (a writer and artist from the University of Utah) launched a Kickstarter project to find support for her publication, solicit stories from backers, and deputize a crew of curator-distributors.
It worked. She sold out the entire run of the broadsheet and got hundreds of strangers invovled, resulting in a simultaneous exhibition wherever her backers live. Beginning this morning, all 336 backers will post three copies of the essay in public places, documenting each installation and sending the results back to the artist.
Getting all the essays mailed out in time proved to be a little tricky, when Mother Nature intervened with a snowstorm. But the artist, her collaborator and a friendly employee of the USPS managed to wrangle each publication out to its backer. We’re looking forward to the teary results.
Art during wartime.
The Streets of Afghanistan is a public art installation that aims to immerse viewers in the busy streets of Kabul and the roads of rural Afghanistan through a combination of life-size photographs, video projections, live music, kites, and — most importantly — people.
The exhibit was supported by a Kickstarter project that reached its funding goal just a few months ago, and has since gone on to stage five successful shows and two photo installations at historic sites across Afghanistan — from Kabul’s historic Darulaman Palace to the heavily damaged village of Istalif.
According to the creators’ most recent project update, the largest exhibition took place at The Barbur Gardens in Kabul, which over 1000 locals came to visit on the installation’s second day.
Art invades Times Square
Times Square Art Square is an ambitious attempt to replace the advertising that covers the Crossroads of the World with new public art commissions.
Dutch-Brazilian artist Rafaël Rozendaal will create the first installation next year if the project’s Kickstarter drive is successfully funded. His work, “Into Time w/ Mirrors,” is pictured above.
Brooklyn-based artist and engineer Jason Sho Green received an invitation he couldn’t refuse: Travel to Leipzig, Germany for a three-month residency in the Halle 14 center and build a new installation alongside artists from across the globe. Green dreamed up an installation and took to Kickstarter to raise the necessary funds. After pulling the plug on his initial attempt, he retooled his project, added new $25 rewards, trimmed his budget and created new renderings of his vision. The result? A successfully funded project and an incredible exhibition. Experience the Wonderlust in his latest project update.
An installation from poetry-in-lights artist Robert Montgomery at the former swimming pool in Stattbad Wedding in Berlin — part of the Echoes of Voices series that will soon be turned into a book with funds raised on Kickstarter. Related: this is also where they will hold the publication’s launch party.
A peak inside Heather Hart’s The Eastern Oracle: We Will tear The Roof Off The Mother, which is currently being installed at the Brooklyn Museum. Be sure to check it out when it opens on April 12th!
Cakeland is an art installation involving about 60 full-length mirrors, 10,000 plastic cherries, lights, taxidermy, and a whole bunch of fake cake. Curious…?
