As part of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) an enormous outdoor installation of fish was constructed using discarded plastic bottles on Botafogo beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The sculptures are illuminated from the inside at night creating a pretty spectacular light show. Love this. See much more over on this Rio+20 Flicker set. (via hungeree and razor shapes)
Digital artist Zach Dougherty (previously) is back with a new round if really strange animated gifs, placing his strange amorphous and glitchy objects against ordinary backdrops. Let’s file this under “I don’t know what it is but I like it.” (via Ignant)
For his 13th day in New York, Banksy pulled a fantastic prank on unsuspecting passersby in Central Park yesterday by setting up an unannounced art stall with dozens of 100% original signed canvases. In a world where copies of unlicensed Banksy works are available for a dime a dozen, it’s not inconceivable for somebody to peddle cheap knockoffs for $60 apiece. To further camouflage the artwork the booth was labeled simply “SPRAY ART” and manned by an unsuspecting old man who seemed completely uninterested in what he was doing.
So after having the art stall open for an entire day in Central Park, with an inventory that could have value into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, how many people stopped to buy something? Over a period of 7 hours just three people bought a total of 8 canvases, one of whom managed to haggled the price down 50%! Total haul for the day: $480. One lucky man who said he was decorating his new house in Chicago just won the lottery and unknowingly walked away with four original Banksys. But don’t get your hopes up, according to the artist’s website this was a one day affair. “This was a one off. The stall will not be there again today.” Watch the video to see it all unfold.
For those of you following along the past few weeks via Instagram, Banksy’s website (or perhaps following his tracks around New York), the artist has been creating a new artwork every single day in October as part of hisBetter Out than In Residency.
First mentioned in this space back in 2011 as the “Devil’s Candle,” this delightfully creepy candle that melts from a cute geometric cat into a ghoulish steel skeleton was designed by Thorunn Arnadottir and Dan Koval. After going viral around the web it left many wondering where they could get their hands on one, but unfortunately it was not to be, until now. The duo have finally figured out how to mass produce a whole family of morbid little candle pets called PyroPets, the first of which, a cat named Kisa (“kitty” in Icelandic), is available for the first time over on Kickstarter. The candle is actually quite large, measuring almost 7″ tall and has a burning time of around 20 hours.
Nearly 155 years before CompuServe debuted the first animated gif in 1987, Belgian physicist Joseph Plateauunveiled an invention called the Phenakistoscope, a device that is largely considered to be the first mechanism for true animation. The simple gadget relied on the persistence of vision principle to display the illusion of images in motion. Via Juxtapoz:
Created by California-based Roxy Russell, the Medusae Collection is a series of four pendant lamps designed to look like freshwater jellyfish. The lights are made from polyester Mylar and measure nearly three feet in height. (via Puddle)
Mother. Udayan Rao Pawar, India. Grand Title Winner Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year (11-14 years), 2013.
