Fabian Oefner - Black Hole

Swiss photographer Fabian Oefner creates stunning photographs which aim to capture the unseen. He calls himself a 'curious investigator' and aims to 'invite us to stop for a moment and appreciate the magic that constantly surrounds us.' His latest project Black Hole explores the movement of paint when thrown from a spinning drill. The drill causes the paint to form amazing circular shapes which Fabian captures with perfect timing!

The photos are striking because of the string contrast of the black background and vibrant colours of the paint. The project reminds me of a similar concept from Dentsu London, who photographed paint sculptures being projected from music speakers. (See post here).

Fabian has many other projects on his website, which is definitely worth a look! http://www.fabianoefner.com/64838/1159918/projects/black-hole

Rachael Ashe - Paper Cut Sculptures

Lovely paper sculptures from artist Rachael Ashe. It is really interesting to see the way she has explored free standing sculptures as opposed to flat paper cuts. The lighting in the photographs is beautiful, and the shadows cast really emphasize the delicacy of the structures. 

"I’m trying to work out how to make interesting structures from paper that can support themselves when most of the material has been removed. The paper cutting makes a big difference to the integrity of the piece, how it holds together, and its ability to stand."

You can see more of Rachel Ashe's paper cutting on her flikr site. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goddess_spiral/sets/72157629258631062/with/8549713776/

The Paper Cut Project - Amazing Paper Hairpieces

The Paper Cut project is Atlanta based artists Amy Flurry and Nikki Nye (formerly Nikki Salk), who aim to transform paper into unique and outstanding wigs. This includes amazing 18th century hairpieces, which seem to defy gravity and rise to incredible heights. I love paper sculpture and Amy and Nikki's work shows such depth and detail.

"Our custom-made paper art installations are fuled by a love of fashion and an appreciation of the grace and nuance of this humble material."

Their work is very popular all over the world and the duo have exhibited and presented work in New York, the V&A in London and Italian Vogue! I wish I'd had the chance to go and see their work for myself at the V&A's Hollywood Costume exhibition last month! I will definitely be keeping my eye out for their work in the future.

You can see more of The Paper Cut project's hairpieces and masks on their website.

http://www.paper-cut-project.com/

3Doodler First 3D Pen

I thought the idea of printing in 3D was incredible, but now there is a pen which you can draw your own three dimensional sculptures instantly! The 3Doodler is the world's first pen to do this and was created by wobbleworks. The pen uses ABS plastic which is the same material used by many 3D printers. The pen has an inbuilt heater which melts the plastic and it comes out the end like a cake-icer or super glue gun. However the plastic instantly cools and stays suspended in the air where the user had drawn it. Watch their video to see how the pen draws shapes which freeze in the air as if my magic! It looks so fun!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1351910088/3doodler-the-worlds-first-3d-printing-pen

Harry Potter Studios

I never got round to blogging about my trip to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios a couple of months back. Yes, I'm a big nerd, but I was also really curious to see the actual film sets. It was such a great experience and really good to see all the props close up. Some were completely different to how I'd expected them to be.

The tour starts with a look into the Great Hall, and the rest continues very much like a museum with all the props, costumes and artefacts displayed. It was incredible to see the amount of detail and design work that had been put into the spell books and sweets packaging. However I did find out that most of the books found in Dumbledore's office are actually yellow pages and phone directories rebound to look old, ha! We were able to walk down Diagon Alley, Sit on Hagrids motorcycle, and even buy Butter beer!

The tour ends with the extraordinary sculpture of Hogwarts castle. It was built for the first film and used for exterior shots in every film since. The sculpture was incredibly details with lights in the windows and even owls in the owlery. If you are a Harry Potter fan, the studios are definitely well worth a visit. It has also got my intrigued in a career of set design, but we'll see about that.

Shintato Ohata 3D Paintings

Amazing work by Japanese artist Shintato Ohata. His pieces are a combination of sculpture and painting, creating a 3D artwork. At a close look the scenes seem to be one single image as the colours and texture of the painting match flawlessly to the sculptures. Only when you take a step back to reveal the whole piece can you see the unique techniques used to create this illusion.

"He says that it all started from when he wondered “I could bring the atmosphere or dynamism of my paintings with a more different way if I place sculptures in front of paintings”. Many viewers tend to assume that there is a light source set into his work itself because of the strong expression of lights in his sculpture."

You can see more of Shintato Ohata's work online here http://yukari-art.jp/en/shintaro_ohata_en. Below are some of my favorite pieces; Loop (2010), Airplane (2007), and 2 (2011).

"Shintaro Ohata is an artist who depicts little things in everyday life like scenes of a movie and captures all sorts of light in his work with a unique touch: convenience stores at night, city roads on rainy day and fast-food shops at dawn etc. His paintings show us ordinary sceneries as dramas. He is also known for his characteristic style; placing sculptures in front of paintings, and shows them as one work, a combination of 2-D and 3-D world."