MONDAY MAY 21 2012
But for those who are looking for a slightly more cerebral artistic offering coming out of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, you need look no further than Rashad Alakbarov, a skilful sculptor of shadow and light.
Since Alakbarov graduated from Baku’s Faculty of Decorative Arts at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in 2001, he has dabbled in painting, theatre decorations, video art and architectural design.
But some of Alakbarov’s best work has been his installation art pieces that use shadow and light to very impressive effect.
Alakbarov gathers everyday objects – sometimes solid, sometimes translucent – to block and manipulate light projected against them to create landscapes, cityscapes, portraits and text-centred ‘paintings’.
'Looking at two cities from one point of view' by Rashad Alakbarov
His “Looking at two cities from one point of view” piece uses two light sources to project an eastern city with mosque on one wall, and a western city with skyscrapers on another.
Plastik portret by Rashad Alakbarov
“Plastik portret” uses suspended plastic bottles to create a charcoal-like portrait of one of Alakbarov’s friends.
'Crisis Haha' by Rashad Alakbarov
And “Crisis Haha” sees the same structure of metal pipes form two different words – “Crisis” and “Haha” – when light is shone against it from two different angles.
Alakbarov’s work is reminiscent of pieces created by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, though this pair’s creations tend to have a darker feel to them.
Noble and Webster work as a collaborative partnership and are linked with the “post-YBA” generation of artists who have emerged over the last decade, following on from the Young British Artists of the 1990s such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the like.
It could be said that Noble and Webster’s shadow sculptures are a load of rubbish – quite literally – since they incorporate various materials including household waste and scrap metal, in addition to taxidermy animals.
When a light projector is pointed onto these assemblages from a certain angle, they are transformed into immediately recognisable shadow profiles that play on ‘perceptual psychology’ such as that tested in Rorschach inkblot tests.
'Sunset over Manhattan' by Noble and Webster
Here we feature four of Noble and Webster’s artworks. “Sunset over Manhattan” made from cigarette packets and tin cans with holes shot by air gun pellets, all placed on a wooden bench.
'Dirty White Trash' by Noble and Webster
“Dirty White Trash (With Gulls)” puts to good use trash collected by the artists over a six-month period, in combination with two stuffed seagulls.
“Metal Fucking Rats” by Noble and Webster
“Metal Fucking Rats” is a depiction of two randy rodents created from projecting light at welded scrap metal. Taking the scrap metal on its own, it really is difficult to see how such an accurate silhouette could be created.
'Wasted Youth' by Noble and Webster
Finally, piles of replica food and packaging from McDonalds food, plus wood, have been used brilliantly to create a silhouette of a young couple relaxing together in “Wasted Youth”.
To see more of Rashad Alakbarov’s work, please visit www.facebook.com/media/
And to find out more about Tim Noble and Sue Webster, please visit www.timnobleandsuewebster.com
MONDAY MAY 14 2012
However, if the Dutch-designed PAL-V ONE was your mode of transport for getting to the office in the morning, it wouldn’t matter what the traffic situation was like on the roads.
Standing for ‘Personal Air and Land Vehicle’, the PAL-V ONE is a flying car or, more precisely, a car that can quickly transform into an airborne gyrocopter.
Several successful test flights have recently been conducted and now the company behind the vehicle, PAL-V, is looking for investors to help fund the first commercial production model, with first deliveries expected in 2014.
On the ground the PAL-V ONE is a slim, aerodynamic, three-wheeled vehicle combining the comfort of a car with the agility of a motorcycle thanks to its patented, cutting-edge, ‘tilting’ system. It accelerates like a sports car and can reach land speeds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph).
Powered by a robust, flight certified aircraft engine that runs on regular petrol (gasoline), the PAL-V ONE transforms into a gyrocopter within minutes as its rotor unfolds and its tail extends – rather like a Transformer robot.
As much fun as it would be to be able to escape a traffic jam by simply taking off vertically, straight out of a gridlock of cars, the PAL-V ONE does require a runway to take off and land. Even so, we’re not talking huge – a clear stretch of about 165m (540ft) will do it.
The PAL-V ONE can also reach a top speed 180 km/h (112 mph) when airborne, usually flying below 4,000 feet (1,200 m) – the airspace available for uncontrolled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic – meaning no interference from commercial air traffic. And when you are not using controlled airspace, it means you don’t have to file a flight plan.
Flying a PAL-V ONE handles like a standard gyrocopter, apparently, and is quieter than a helicopter due to the main rotor rotating more slowly. Its gyroplane technology also means that it can be steered and landed safely even if the engine fails, because the rotor keeps auto-rotating.
Once back on terra firma, converting the PAL-V ONE from airplane to automobile takes about 10 minutes. The propeller folds itself automatically into the driving position. Pushing a button then lowers the rotor mast into the horizontal position. The same motion lowers the tail. The outer blades are folded over the inner blades via hinge mechanisms. And then driver/pilot has to push the tail into its driving position and secure the rotor blades.
The estimated price for a PAL-V ONE will be around $300,000, though raising the cash will be just one hurdle keeping you from hugging the clouds: Flying it requires a sports/recreational/private pilot license, and that’s before PAL-V ONE-specific flying lessons, of which 20 to 40 hours are recommended, in addition to a theoretical exam.
However, driving the PAL-V ONE on the ground requires just a regular driver’s license and takes about 30 minutes to get used to.
Apart from providing fast door-to-door mobility for private individuals – fly-driving to an island, soaring over that traffic jam, sailing above water and crossing that mountain range as freely as a bird – the PAL-V ONE could also open up a plethora of applications for professional organisations too.
It can be customised for use by police, border control, flying doctors, courier services, disaster aid organisations and the military.
For more information on the PAL-V ONE, visit http://pal-v.com/
MONDAY MAY 07 2012
Banksy usually employs distinctive stencilling technique to produce graffiti containing some sort of political and social commentary, and his work has featured on streets, walls, and bridges in cities across the globe.
This week we look at the work of his Gallic counterpart, OaKoAk. Like Banksy, OaKoAk is a pseudonym and as, with Banksy, a large degree of speculation surrounds his real identity.
What we do know is OaKoAk is originally from Saint-Étienne, a city in central France that has produced such diverse luminaries as the 18th sculptor Antonin Moine, 20th century contemporary artist Orlan and the current orienteering world champion, Thierry Gueorgiou.
OaKoAk describes himself as “a fun-loving French artist who likes to play with urban elements”. Whether it’s a crack in a wall, a broken drain grill, a crumbling façade or an upended bollard, OaKoAk takes imperfections of the street and uses them to create artworks that are generally less political than those of Banksy, yet still contain a delicious – and sometimes dark – sense of humour.
And if it is not imperfections of the street with which OaKoAk is playing, then it is banal, everyday street features that we are normally unlikely to think twice about to which OaKoAk manages to give a new raison d’être, features such as traffic lights, doorsteps, zebra crossings, stairway banisters and utilities boxes.
To see more of OaKoAk’s work, visit his website here: oakoak.canalblog.com/ and to order OaKoAk’s book – a printed compilation of his work – please visit: www.editionpopulaire.com/blog/oakoak-first-artbook
WEDNESDAY MAY 02 2012
The MOON: Around 4.5 billion years ago when the young Earth was still forming, Theia, a proto-planet the size of Mars, is thought to have struck our planet and disintegrated in a ‘Giant Impact’. Some of the debris was attracted by the Earth’s gravity and the rest – consisting of material from both Earth and Theia – went into orbit around the Earth. Within 12 months this orbiting debris coalesced to form the Moon.
Over the next 4.4 billion years, the Earth’s tilt in relation to the sun was stabilised by the gravitational pull of the Moon, which provided regular relatively mild seasons over much of the planet’s surface – ideal conditions for life to form and evolve.
Without that cataclysmic event, we would not be here. You might say we are all Children of the Moon.
And no sooner did modern man start walking the earth than he stared up at the night sky in wonder and awe at the biggest and brightest orb in the heavens. Perhaps none more so than the inhabitants of Finland – including Stepan Sarpaneva – because the less romantic and less well-known counterpoise to the summertime Land of the Midnight Sun are extremely long nights in winter, which gives the population more time than most to study the moon and stars.
MOONMACHINE: While considerably less cataclysmic than the formation of our Moon, MOONMACHINE was also forged from the creative collision of two worlds: MB&F's HM3 Frog and independent watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva.
Before launching his own brand Sarpaneva Watches in 2003, Stepan Sarpaneva worked with some of the most prestigious Swiss brands including Piaget, Parmigiani – where he worked alongside Kari Voutilainen – Vianney Halter and Christophe Claret.
"Stepan has an incredible sense of design and a real sense of detail. His work and everything he surrounds himself with is extremely coherent." Maximilian Büsser
Stepan Sarpaneva: Stepan’s three signature themes are all celestial: his very distinctive moon face; the northern stars and constellations; and the crenellated form of his Korona case – the korona/corona is the plasma atmosphere of the Sun – and all three have been incorporated in MOONMACHINE. Sarpaneva's two moon faces indicate the phase of the moon through a Korona shaped aperture, while the mystery winding rotor is actually a blued 22k gold disc with laser-pierced stars forming stars and constellations visible in the northern sky.
“The visible movement at the top of HM3 Frog added a technical aspect that provided a serious counterpoint to the playfulness of the bulging frog-eyed indications. In covering the movement, the moon phase and sky hides this and makes the timepiece more poetic. With MOONMACHINE, HM3 is transformed into a fairy tale.” Stepan Sarpaneva
You will find more information regarding the HM3 MOONMACHINE at www.mbandf.com/machines/performance-art/moonmachine
MONDAY APRIL 30 2012
But imagine finding yourself behind one of these enormous beasts. This is an Australia road train comprising a very powerful truck, or tractor, pulling three and sometimes even four trailers at a time.
In Australia, they transport everything from livestock to consumer goods to fuel. The road trains pictured here are loading cattle at Helen Springs in Northern Territory, from where they will make the 1,125km /700-mile, 14-hour, non-stop journey to the port of Darwin for live export to Japan, south-east Asia and the US.
Time for a bit of maths to appreciate the enormity of what’s going on in these photos: There are 17 trucks loading cattle here, each with three two-deck trailers, making 102 decks. With roughly 28 cattle per deck (they load by volume, not weight as scales aren’t used in the outback) that totals 2,856 head of cattle.
Looking at it from less of a livestock perspective and more of a vehicular one, each trailer has 12 tyres plus a dolly with eight tyres making a total of 20, except for the truck and first trailer, which has 24. So each road train has 62 tyres (not including spares) meaning there are 1,054 tyres on the road here.
While most road trains run at night, some do operate during the day and rub shoulders with ‘regular’ road traffic.
Although a road train might start out a dot on the horizon in a rear view mirror, it rapidly fills the entire viewing area as it approaches, most definitely asserting its presence.
And if you have one in front of you and you’re thinking of overtaking it, well, you had better have a fast car and a long wide straight stretch of road: Road trains in the Northern Territory can be up to 53.5 meters in length (about 175 ft) and there are road signs warning that the driver doing the overtaking must allow more than one and a half kilometres (one mile) – to pass!
Keep on truckin’!
Art from Light and Shadow
Azerbaijan is currently gearing up for hosting the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, Saturday, May 26th, a privilege - or'fate' depending on your view on the contest - bestowed on them after their triumph in last year’s edition.But for those who are looking for a slightly more cerebral artistic offering coming out of the Azerbaijani capital Baku, you need look no further than Rashad Alakbarov, a skilful sculptor of shadow and light.
Since Alakbarov graduated from Baku’s Faculty of Decorative Arts at the Azerbaijan State Academy of Fine Art in 2001, he has dabbled in painting, theatre decorations, video art and architectural design.
But some of Alakbarov’s best work has been his installation art pieces that use shadow and light to very impressive effect.
Alakbarov gathers everyday objects – sometimes solid, sometimes translucent – to block and manipulate light projected against them to create landscapes, cityscapes, portraits and text-centred ‘paintings’.
'Looking at two cities from one point of view' by Rashad Alakbarov
His “Looking at two cities from one point of view” piece uses two light sources to project an eastern city with mosque on one wall, and a western city with skyscrapers on another.
Plastik portret by Rashad Alakbarov
“Plastik portret” uses suspended plastic bottles to create a charcoal-like portrait of one of Alakbarov’s friends.
'Crisis Haha' by Rashad Alakbarov
And “Crisis Haha” sees the same structure of metal pipes form two different words – “Crisis” and “Haha” – when light is shone against it from two different angles.
Alakbarov’s work is reminiscent of pieces created by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, though this pair’s creations tend to have a darker feel to them.
Noble and Webster work as a collaborative partnership and are linked with the “post-YBA” generation of artists who have emerged over the last decade, following on from the Young British Artists of the 1990s such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and the like.
It could be said that Noble and Webster’s shadow sculptures are a load of rubbish – quite literally – since they incorporate various materials including household waste and scrap metal, in addition to taxidermy animals.
When a light projector is pointed onto these assemblages from a certain angle, they are transformed into immediately recognisable shadow profiles that play on ‘perceptual psychology’ such as that tested in Rorschach inkblot tests.
'Sunset over Manhattan' by Noble and Webster
Here we feature four of Noble and Webster’s artworks. “Sunset over Manhattan” made from cigarette packets and tin cans with holes shot by air gun pellets, all placed on a wooden bench.
'Dirty White Trash' by Noble and Webster
“Dirty White Trash (With Gulls)” puts to good use trash collected by the artists over a six-month period, in combination with two stuffed seagulls.
“Metal Fucking Rats” by Noble and Webster
“Metal Fucking Rats” is a depiction of two randy rodents created from projecting light at welded scrap metal. Taking the scrap metal on its own, it really is difficult to see how such an accurate silhouette could be created.
'Wasted Youth' by Noble and Webster
Finally, piles of replica food and packaging from McDonalds food, plus wood, have been used brilliantly to create a silhouette of a young couple relaxing together in “Wasted Youth”.
To see more of Rashad Alakbarov’s work, please visit www.facebook.com/media/
And to find out more about Tim Noble and Sue Webster, please visit www.timnobleandsuewebster.com
MONDAY MAY 14 2012
The PAL-V ONE flying car: The ultimate in commuter transport
We recently featured the lumbering transport behemoth that is the Australian Road Train on A Parallel World, a beast you definitely wouldn’t want to find yourself behind on your daily commute.However, if the Dutch-designed PAL-V ONE was your mode of transport for getting to the office in the morning, it wouldn’t matter what the traffic situation was like on the roads.
Standing for ‘Personal Air and Land Vehicle’, the PAL-V ONE is a flying car or, more precisely, a car that can quickly transform into an airborne gyrocopter.
Several successful test flights have recently been conducted and now the company behind the vehicle, PAL-V, is looking for investors to help fund the first commercial production model, with first deliveries expected in 2014.
On the ground the PAL-V ONE is a slim, aerodynamic, three-wheeled vehicle combining the comfort of a car with the agility of a motorcycle thanks to its patented, cutting-edge, ‘tilting’ system. It accelerates like a sports car and can reach land speeds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph).
Powered by a robust, flight certified aircraft engine that runs on regular petrol (gasoline), the PAL-V ONE transforms into a gyrocopter within minutes as its rotor unfolds and its tail extends – rather like a Transformer robot.
As much fun as it would be to be able to escape a traffic jam by simply taking off vertically, straight out of a gridlock of cars, the PAL-V ONE does require a runway to take off and land. Even so, we’re not talking huge – a clear stretch of about 165m (540ft) will do it.
The PAL-V ONE can also reach a top speed 180 km/h (112 mph) when airborne, usually flying below 4,000 feet (1,200 m) – the airspace available for uncontrolled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic – meaning no interference from commercial air traffic. And when you are not using controlled airspace, it means you don’t have to file a flight plan.
Flying a PAL-V ONE handles like a standard gyrocopter, apparently, and is quieter than a helicopter due to the main rotor rotating more slowly. Its gyroplane technology also means that it can be steered and landed safely even if the engine fails, because the rotor keeps auto-rotating.
Once back on terra firma, converting the PAL-V ONE from airplane to automobile takes about 10 minutes. The propeller folds itself automatically into the driving position. Pushing a button then lowers the rotor mast into the horizontal position. The same motion lowers the tail. The outer blades are folded over the inner blades via hinge mechanisms. And then driver/pilot has to push the tail into its driving position and secure the rotor blades.
The estimated price for a PAL-V ONE will be around $300,000, though raising the cash will be just one hurdle keeping you from hugging the clouds: Flying it requires a sports/recreational/private pilot license, and that’s before PAL-V ONE-specific flying lessons, of which 20 to 40 hours are recommended, in addition to a theoretical exam.
However, driving the PAL-V ONE on the ground requires just a regular driver’s license and takes about 30 minutes to get used to.
Apart from providing fast door-to-door mobility for private individuals – fly-driving to an island, soaring over that traffic jam, sailing above water and crossing that mountain range as freely as a bird – the PAL-V ONE could also open up a plethora of applications for professional organisations too.
It can be customised for use by police, border control, flying doctors, courier services, disaster aid organisations and the military.
For more information on the PAL-V ONE, visit http://pal-v.com/
MONDAY MAY 07 2012
Street Art by OaKoAk
A few years ago we featured the satirical street art and subversive epigrams of the pseudonymous England-based street artist Banksy on A Parallel World.Banksy usually employs distinctive stencilling technique to produce graffiti containing some sort of political and social commentary, and his work has featured on streets, walls, and bridges in cities across the globe.
This week we look at the work of his Gallic counterpart, OaKoAk. Like Banksy, OaKoAk is a pseudonym and as, with Banksy, a large degree of speculation surrounds his real identity.
What we do know is OaKoAk is originally from Saint-Étienne, a city in central France that has produced such diverse luminaries as the 18th sculptor Antonin Moine, 20th century contemporary artist Orlan and the current orienteering world champion, Thierry Gueorgiou.
OaKoAk describes himself as “a fun-loving French artist who likes to play with urban elements”. Whether it’s a crack in a wall, a broken drain grill, a crumbling façade or an upended bollard, OaKoAk takes imperfections of the street and uses them to create artworks that are generally less political than those of Banksy, yet still contain a delicious – and sometimes dark – sense of humour.
And if it is not imperfections of the street with which OaKoAk is playing, then it is banal, everyday street features that we are normally unlikely to think twice about to which OaKoAk manages to give a new raison d’être, features such as traffic lights, doorsteps, zebra crossings, stairway banisters and utilities boxes.
To see more of OaKoAk’s work, visit his website here: oakoak.canalblog.com/ and to order OaKoAk’s book – a printed compilation of his work – please visit: www.editionpopulaire.com/blog/oakoak-first-artbook
WEDNESDAY MAY 02 2012
MOONMACHINE by Stepan Sarpaneva – Forged by a Giant Impact
MOONMACHINE by Finnish watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva is both the first of the MB&F Performance Art pieces by a watchmaker and the first to endow a Machine with a new complication. With MOONMACHINE, Stepan has taken a specially configured HM3 Frog and transformed it with his iconic moon-face moon-phase indicator set in a scintillating firmament of northern stars.The MOON: Around 4.5 billion years ago when the young Earth was still forming, Theia, a proto-planet the size of Mars, is thought to have struck our planet and disintegrated in a ‘Giant Impact’. Some of the debris was attracted by the Earth’s gravity and the rest – consisting of material from both Earth and Theia – went into orbit around the Earth. Within 12 months this orbiting debris coalesced to form the Moon.
Over the next 4.4 billion years, the Earth’s tilt in relation to the sun was stabilised by the gravitational pull of the Moon, which provided regular relatively mild seasons over much of the planet’s surface – ideal conditions for life to form and evolve.
Without that cataclysmic event, we would not be here. You might say we are all Children of the Moon.
And no sooner did modern man start walking the earth than he stared up at the night sky in wonder and awe at the biggest and brightest orb in the heavens. Perhaps none more so than the inhabitants of Finland – including Stepan Sarpaneva – because the less romantic and less well-known counterpoise to the summertime Land of the Midnight Sun are extremely long nights in winter, which gives the population more time than most to study the moon and stars.
MOONMACHINE: While considerably less cataclysmic than the formation of our Moon, MOONMACHINE was also forged from the creative collision of two worlds: MB&F's HM3 Frog and independent watchmaker Stepan Sarpaneva.
Before launching his own brand Sarpaneva Watches in 2003, Stepan Sarpaneva worked with some of the most prestigious Swiss brands including Piaget, Parmigiani – where he worked alongside Kari Voutilainen – Vianney Halter and Christophe Claret.
"Stepan has an incredible sense of design and a real sense of detail. His work and everything he surrounds himself with is extremely coherent." Maximilian Büsser
Stepan Sarpaneva: Stepan’s three signature themes are all celestial: his very distinctive moon face; the northern stars and constellations; and the crenellated form of his Korona case – the korona/corona is the plasma atmosphere of the Sun – and all three have been incorporated in MOONMACHINE. Sarpaneva's two moon faces indicate the phase of the moon through a Korona shaped aperture, while the mystery winding rotor is actually a blued 22k gold disc with laser-pierced stars forming stars and constellations visible in the northern sky.
“The visible movement at the top of HM3 Frog added a technical aspect that provided a serious counterpoint to the playfulness of the bulging frog-eyed indications. In covering the movement, the moon phase and sky hides this and makes the timepiece more poetic. With MOONMACHINE, HM3 is transformed into a fairy tale.” Stepan Sarpaneva
You will find more information regarding the HM3 MOONMACHINE at www.mbandf.com/machines/performance-art/moonmachine
MONDAY APRIL 30 2012
Australian Road Trains
We’ve all at some time been stuck behind a ‘long vehicle’, perhaps a car towing a caravan or a big truck and trailer. Overtaking on the motorway/highway usually isn't so difficult, but it's another matter entirely on smaller roads.But imagine finding yourself behind one of these enormous beasts. This is an Australia road train comprising a very powerful truck, or tractor, pulling three and sometimes even four trailers at a time.
In Australia, they transport everything from livestock to consumer goods to fuel. The road trains pictured here are loading cattle at Helen Springs in Northern Territory, from where they will make the 1,125km /700-mile, 14-hour, non-stop journey to the port of Darwin for live export to Japan, south-east Asia and the US.
Time for a bit of maths to appreciate the enormity of what’s going on in these photos: There are 17 trucks loading cattle here, each with three two-deck trailers, making 102 decks. With roughly 28 cattle per deck (they load by volume, not weight as scales aren’t used in the outback) that totals 2,856 head of cattle.
Looking at it from less of a livestock perspective and more of a vehicular one, each trailer has 12 tyres plus a dolly with eight tyres making a total of 20, except for the truck and first trailer, which has 24. So each road train has 62 tyres (not including spares) meaning there are 1,054 tyres on the road here.
While most road trains run at night, some do operate during the day and rub shoulders with ‘regular’ road traffic.
Although a road train might start out a dot on the horizon in a rear view mirror, it rapidly fills the entire viewing area as it approaches, most definitely asserting its presence.
And if you have one in front of you and you’re thinking of overtaking it, well, you had better have a fast car and a long wide straight stretch of road: Road trains in the Northern Territory can be up to 53.5 meters in length (about 175 ft) and there are road signs warning that the driver doing the overtaking must allow more than one and a half kilometres (one mile) – to pass!
Keep on truckin’!
