The trees he incorporates into his designs are sourced from forests in South America, readapting their fallen branches while keeping the integrity of trees’ original shape (like the root system seen in his Tree Table).
Source: Functional Shelves and Tables Built From Fallen South American Trees | Colossal
Originally built to serve as a bomb shelter during World War II, it was designed to house and protect the lives of nearly 8,000 people. The space remained abandoned for close to 70 years until entrepreneurs Richard Ballard and Steven Dring decided to turn it into the world’s first subterranean farm called Growing Underground.
While his ideas and motivations are often crystal clear, it is his minimalism and subtractive techniques that make his work truly stand out.
via The Subtractive Canvases and Street Art of Pejac | Colossal.
I’m really enjoying this giant pigeon painted on an abandoned home by Dutch freelance artist Super A. You can see more of his outdoor work on his website, and read more about him over on City Leaks.
via A Towering Pigeon on an Abandoned Home by ‘Super A’ | Colossal.
We will never stop singing the praises of Colossal. Especially because they feature such great works of art daily!
“I wanted to draw attention to how they and many other species become a victim of hunting and pollution,” says ROA, referring to a piece he did in Sweden of a narwhal caught in a fishing line. Indeed, ROA’s works are often accompanied by an environmental narrative that highlights the ruthless, man-made world animals are forced to live in.
Architects BK. Architecten were tasked with converting this 15th century Dominican church into a modern bookstore with the addition of 700 square meters of shopping space. But there was one major catch: all the historical elements of the 547-year-old building including stained glass windows, pipe organ, ceiling paintings and expansive arches had to remain intact.
via A 15th Century Cathedral Transformed into a Modern Bookstore | Colossal.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/75760193]
Chinneck spent the better part of 12 months engineering the installation and worked with several companies that offered to donate materials. He tells Dezeen that he’s fascinated with spectacles and that he “wanted to create something that used the simple pleasures of humour, illusion and theatre to create an artwork that can be understood and enjoyed by any onlooker.”
The piece will be on view for a year before the building is eventually demolished. Read and see more over on Dezeen.
via A Brick Facade Appears to Melt Off of an Apartment Building in Margate | Colossal.
We are huge fans of Colossal. Rightly so, this week they’ve done it again by featuring a spread on Truth – a coffee shop in South Africa.
This is just a sampling of Heldane Martins designs photographed by Shanna Jones (via Yatzer).
Every inch of the coffee shop is packed with visual candy from large saw-blade tabletops to beautiful overstuffed booths and an ornate array of coffee making equipment that looks absurdly complex, almost like interior of a World War 2 submarine. If that wasn’t enough, Martin also crammed the space with vintage typewriters, Singer sewing machines, and old candlestick telephones. The design even extends to the restrooms which have exposed copper pipes, old extending mirrors and victorian tap levers.
via Step Inside ‘Truth,’ a Steampunk Coffee Shop in Cape Town, South Africa | Colossal.
It’s the Funnel Tunnel, a recent public art installation by artist Patrick Renner, commissioned by Art League Houston. The snaking 180 foot sculpture was built from steel and reclaimed wood and snakes its way just outside the ALH building in Houston.
via The Funnel Tunnel Snakes its Way Through the Streets of Houston | Colossal.
Go see more of this amazing electrical wire art work on Colossal!
Artist Federico Uribe just released a lovely new collection of work made from electrical and a/v cables called, appropriately, Contectado. Uribe works almost exclusively with multitudes of repurposed objects to create vibrantly colored sculptures and 2D artworks like this.
via Federico Uribe Paints with Reused Electrical Cables | Colossal.
Montreal-based artist Maskull Lasserre on Colossal – don’t miss it!
When the remnants of life are imposed on an object, and that’s true especially with the carving work that I do, it infers a past history or a previous life that had been lived, so again where people see my work as macabre, I often see it as hopeful, as the remnants of a life. Despite the fact that the life has ended, at least that life had a beginning and middle as well, so often by imparting these bodily elements to inanimate objects it reclaims or reanimates them in a virtual way.
via New Skeletons and Insects Carved from Common Inanimate Objects by Maskull Lasserre | Colossal.