Art With a Message.

T-shirt design by  Nous Vous. Awesome. Unfortunately it’s sold-out.

Following on from the success of the recent Art Mash-Up post, I wanted to share with you two art projects which were recently submitted to me by readers. One is from Sydney, the other all the way from the mountains of Italy. Both have really interesting messages. And I like that.

So let’s get to it.

1.

‘Red Dust’ is an art installation created by Arash Engineer (in collaboration with Dr Sarah Benton), a recent graduate from the Masters of Architecture (with First Class Honours thank-you-very-much!) from the University of Sydney.

As part of his honours thesis, Arash looked at interdisciplinary crossovers between art and architecture. He specifically studied the impact temporary installations could have on de-industrialized areas of Sydney, and collaborated with several architects and artists to create a series of projects demonstrating the possibilities art and temporary intervention could have in reinvigorating these industrial voids. Below are a few paragraphs from Arash about the project.

Top two images show the location of the installation, an old carpet factory in Alexandria. More than 150 individually laser cut pieces of felt are a nod to the previous industrial heritage and left over square carpet samples.

Red Dust was an informal intervention that we created to be suspended in the shop front of an abandoned carpet factory at 320 Botany Road, besides Green Square Station, that had been currently overtaken by graffiti and street artists who have continually left their mark on the walls.  The work was inspired by the notion of dust as the leftover miniscule traces of occupation that continually inhabits these spaces gathering within them continually further narratives and history of what has occurred within. As people permeate these spaces, and new activity and life is brought in, the settled still dust is set ablaze. The dust that once conceals and hides, is sent into an unashamed flutter, and it is that moment which inspired the installation.

Red Dust is made of over one hundred and fifty individually laser cut pieces of felt (a nod to the previous industrial heritage and left over square carpet samples in the corner) that were starched and then hand stitched into a massive tapestry. This structure was then suspended between the portal frames of the abandoned factory, and by moving the threads and adding new ones, the form continually shifted and organically transformed through the space.

These spaces are currently blocked from the view of the very community within which they inhabit with timber planks and hoardings, no longer contributing to the urban condition and relegated with terms like ‘toxic’ and ‘dirty’. Out of sight, out of mind. The aim for this installation was to bring attention back to these spaces, and to be recognized with promise and potential. All in the hope, that this red flutter within the shop front would catch someone’s eye, and allow for a conversation to begin about the presence of industrial voids in our urban fabrics.

I feel very lucky to be able to share this with with you guys, as it has never been published before. Even though this is a small project on a very modest budget ($60 for the fabric!) funded from Arash and Sarah’s own pockets, it manages to demonstrate that a small act of care can have a significant impact on our architectural and urban conditions through the use of urban art.

Congratulations Arash and Sarah, and thank you for sharing your work with us.

2.

This second submission comes from an artist from Torino (or Turin as some like to call it) in Italy who worked as a graphic designer in Milan and Paris, before he started exhibiting in 1996.

His latest work is an amazing painting on the snow using biodegradable and environmentally safe paints. Inspired by nature, this discrete modification of the landscape is an opportunity to actively define the relationship between man and nature and between man and space. The name of the work is “6CO2 + 6H2O ? C6H12O6 + 6O2” which is the formula of photosynthesis. (I totally would not have know that if Carlo hadn’t told me, but anyway…)

This project was located is Sestriere in northern Italy, which is situated more than 2,000 meters above the sea level. Carlo says:

I wanted to paint the trees trying to communicate their importance to the environment through the chemical formula that allows them to live, and us to breathe.

The paintings are approximately 60 x 40 meters in size. Yes, they are enormous.

Photos by Emanuela Braghin.

And if you read Italian, you can check out Carlo’s blog right here.

Ciao ragazzi!

x dana