lettersfromhere:

Cadillac Ranch, Texas (via Google Lat Long: Imagery Update: Week of May 14th)

I’ve long been a fan of artist Jean Shin; she’s turned discarded objects into really cool artwork. (We’ve featured some of her work on the Unconsumption Tumblr.) Here, I’m standing in front of one of her broken umbrella sculptures, in a private collection in Houston. (Taken with Instagram at Houston, Texas)

Andy Warhol, Yellow Brillo Box, 1964; White Brillo Box, 1964; Mott’s Apple Juice Box, 1964; Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box, 1964; Del Monte Peach Halves Box, 1964; Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box, 1964; Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Box, 1964.

Plywood boxes, painted and silk-screened with consumer product logos.

(via Walker Art Center)

junkculture:

Bird’s eye view photographs of traffic cones by Peter Emerick…more

unconsumption:

Hundreds of smooth shards of glass collected from area beaches comprise each piece of Cornwall, UK-based artist Jonathan Fuller’s work.

View his gallery of sea glass assemblages here.  

For artwork made from debris washed ashore on California, Australia, and east Africa beaches, see earlier Unconsumption posts here, here, and here.

I’m so glad to learn I’m not the only person who’s got a thing for sea glass. 

theatlantic:

The Opera House Effect

Urban and regional economic development, which focused on attracting factories and companies not too long ago, has taken a bit of artistic turn in recent years, with mayors, chambers of commerce and economic developers lauding the arts as a key factor in attracting skilled workers.

Art and culture’s role in urban development is well-documented. University of Minnesota economist Ann Markusen and her colleagues argue that the arts make substantial, if occasionally hidden, contributions to regional development. Markusen dubs this the “artistic dividend.”

Cultural amenities in general play a role in city growth, according to research by Harvard economist Edward Glaeser and his collaborators. Sociologists Terry Nichols Clark, Dan Silver and Lawrence Rothfield have been documenting the importance of artistic and cultural scenes in attracting talent and spurring urban growth. Read more

Via unconsumption:

For a project known as Scrapheap Orchestra, some top instrument makers in the UK transformed junk, including pieces of broken furniture, into 44 instruments for members of the BBC Concert Orchestra to play.

The quest to build an orchestra of instruments out of rubbish is more than just a musical spectacle - in the construction of these instruments we delve into the history of instrument making and the science of music, why different instruments are made the way they are, why some designs haven’t changed for hundreds of years and why, when played together, the sound of an orchestra is unlike anything else on earth.  (via BBC Four)

Next week, BBC Four will broadcast a 90-minute documentary that follows the project, which features the orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture on the scrap instruments at the 2011 BBC Proms. (Click here for broadcast info.)

For project photos, see Gramophone’s gallery, source of the above photo of orchestra members with instruments and conductor Charles Hazlewood. (Photo credit: BBC/Chris Christodoulou)

On a similar (instruments-made-from-junk) note, check out the Unconsumption posts on San Francisco’s Junkestra and New York Philharmonic’s percussion-from-junk exploration.

unconsumption:

Vending machines that promote a healthy habit?

In 1997, North Carolina artist Clark Whittington refurbished a vintage cigarette vending machine; however, instead of using it to dispense cigarettes, he filled it with small items created by local artists. Since then, in an admirable effort to help increase the accessibility of art, Whittington has set up 99 Art-o- mat machines throughout the country. The machines, housed in museums, art galleries, bars, and Whole Foods Market stores, among other spots, vend $5 mini-works of art. 

For additional information, check out this video clip, or visit Artomat.org.

The Art-o-mat folks are on the lookout for new artists to participate. If you or someone you know is interested, read the artist guidelines here.

(Pictured: Art-o-mats in Milwaukee, above, and Houston, below.)

That’s my Houston Whole Foods Art-o-mat there. When I visit the store, I check out the available art selections. Love them.

Via unconsumption:

The Houston artistic team of Dan Havel and Dean Ruck is at it again. (Previous mentions here and here.) Thanks to their handiwork, another old bungalow slated for demolition is being transformed into architectural artwork.

The public art project, which Havel and Ruck designed to function as a stage, is a temporary centerpiece in a new pocket park in Houston’s Fifth Ward, a neighborhood developed in the late 1800s. The Fifth Ward went into decline in the 1970s; in recent years, the area’s been undergoing redevelopment and revitalization. [Side note: Former residents include Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and musician Arnett Cobb.]

Photo above via Fifth Ward Jam - Houston Arts Alliance. 

Pre-deconstruction photo below (by Havel Ruck Projects) via Swamplot.com. 

For additional photos and information, see this Swamplot post. 

Houston!

Via timemagazine:

“We move forward but it stays with us.” These aren’t Jenny Holzer’s words, but she’s the artist who molded them into a visual titan. This photo-illustration, now the back cover of our “Beyond 9/11” Special Commemorative Issue, is Holzer’s rendering of the significance of 9/11, done in her signature style. What we see are these words transposed onto towers that fell 10 years ago. 

The phrasing actually belongs to Howard Lutnik, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, the company whose offices took up the 101 to the 105 floors of the World Trade Center’s north tower. Lutnik took the morning off from work on Sept. 11, 2001 to take his son Kyle to his first day of kindergarten, and was interviewed about that day (along with his son, now a freshman in high school) as a part of our “Beyond 9/11” project. 

After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1970s, Holzer began coining her artistic trademark by writing short slogans in public places. “If you want to reach a general audience,” she told TIME in 1990, “it’s not art issues that are going to compel them to stop on their way to lunch, it has to be life issues.” She went on to project her “truisms” onto famous cityscapes all over the world.

“Beyond 9/11” began as a series of portraits of the 40 men and women whose lives are forever tethered to that day, but we quickly realized that their words held as much power as their images. Executive editor Radhika Jones says Holzer’s work is “a beautiful marriage” between the artistic vision of this issue and the significance of the words behind them. Now, her 9/11 back cover image, wrapped in silver, sits next to Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda’s “Tribute in Light Years,” a tribute to the buildings that are lost to us now.

Via laphamsquarterly:

Oreo cameos and other brilliant food art from Judith G. Klausner. (via Kristen Butler)

Amusing.

Via unconsumption:

In the hands of Italian artist Margherita Marchioni, old eyeglass and sunglass parts are transformed into butterflies.

[Confession: I kind of love this.]