Joseph Beuys, Capri Battery, 1985
Considered to be one of his last great works before he died, Beuys created over 200 multiples of “Lemon Light/Capri Battery” in 1985. The yellow light bulb is plugged into a fresh lemon, from where it gets its energy, emitting a dim yellow glow. In this piece, Beuys is calling into question the ecological balance of civilization, the principle behind which is an ecologically sound energy source. Beuys completed the work on the island of Capri, hence the name, while he was recovering from an illness, and the light’s lemon yellow color reflects this jovial atmosphere and bright Mediterranean sun. (via)
Tomas Saraceno - Cloud Cities, 2009
Inspired by structures found in nature, Cloud Cities is comprised of 20 giant bubbles suspended by wires, “investigating new spatial and cultural modules for living… A utopic world of inflatable domes and levitating gardens.”
Home of Virgin Galactic. You see some crazy things in the desert.
cnet:
She entered a large, oval lobby. The ground was jagged with broken, immense marble tiles. The walls were sleek rounded glass, or at least a synthetic substitute. A circular island rested in the center of the room, banks of touchscreens lined the inner-ring. Nellis tested one: lifeless. Whatever…
Paul Manship, Osborne Gates (detail of The Fox and The Crow), 1952
From the Smithsonian American Art Museum:
This bronze gate was one of six commissioned for the William Church Osborne Memorial Playground in Manhattan’s Central Park. Each panel shows a tale from Aesop’s Fables, a collection of ancient Greek stories that teach moral lessons to schoolchildren. In The Fox and the Crow, the fox flatters the bird in order to make her say “thank you” and drop a piece of cheese from her mouth. The fox immediately gobbles up the food and runs away, leaving the crow to “beware of flattery.” Manship connected the animals by an unseen diagonal line stretching from the fox’s empty mouth to the crow’s cheese. To communicate the story, however, he included a brief summary in the upper right-hand corner.
what delicate wonder!
For her series titled “Broken Butterflies” artist Anne ten Donkelaar repaired the damaged wings of real butterflies using gold, old maps, roots, threads and embroidery…more here
