Awesome Outdoor Installation

Artist: David Kemp

British artist David Kemp, along with a fisherman friend, created this giant wooden fish made of two cove boats as a tribute to the Cornwall fishing traditions, entitled 'Wooden Whaler'.



“I make things out of things, big things, little things, old things and new things. I like to recycle things, and find new uses for things that have been thrown away. Some things say something about their surroundings, and other things become something else.”

Check his website: http://www.davidkemp.uk.com/

Artist: Marcus Levine

British artist Marcus Levine (previously here) created the first commission by Bradford museums and galleries entitled 'Hung Out to Dry', made up of 28,000 nails inserted into a stainless steel panel.



It took him eight 13-hour days and one 14-hour day to get the installation ready.



The 5m high stainless steel nail sculpture was exhibited in Lister park, Bradford.



Check his website: http://www.levine-art.co.uk/

Artist: Youdhisthir Maharjan

Artist Youdhisthir Maharjan, better known as Youdhi, created this installation made of 9 miles of hand-twisted newspaper rope, called 'Swayambhu '.



"While the labor may seem to be futile, rational demand becomes a lifetime of toil and absolutes. Labor is the process and the key to achieving a means to an end. It becomes an avenue for exploration, and a means for the artist to seek the truth."





Check the website: http://youdhi.tumblr.com/

Nails Sculptures by John Bisbee

American sculptor John Bisbee creates geometric sculptures and installations using nails as his sole medium.





















Check his website: http://www.johnbisbee.com/

Mosaic Portraits

Hand-cast Urethane Fish Self-Portrait by Kevin Champeny

This 65-pound greyscale image Self Portrait by artist Kevin Champeny is made of 5,000 hand-cast urethane fish.

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"I chose mosaics because of the tension I could create between the sculpted and cast pixels and the overall image they created. The hope was to create a conversation for the viewer, a conversation about the relationship, good or bad, subject verses theme, and so on."

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"I want people to talk about what these pieces mean to them, how their own experiences make sense of the choices I made when creating the work."

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Fabric Padded Portraits by Hjortefar

Studio Hjortefar made two portraits entitled “Bum and Nanna” that were constructed with 6,728 colored cloth squares for Kvadrat’s “Hallingdal 65” exhibition.



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Nails and Screws Self-portrait by Shannon Larratt

Artist Shannon Larratt has created a unique self-portrait using a four foot sheet of heavy 3/4″ plywood as canvas and six different kinds of nails and screws space roughly 5/16″ apart.

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There are around 20,000 pixels in this portrait, and using over 10,000 nails. The whole thing weighs around two hundred pounds.

Poppies Giant Artwork by Ted Harrison

Artist Ted Harrison created a giant artwork on the floor of St. Paul’s cathedral, in London, using over 5,000 poppies.

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The flowers form an image of three child soldiers, one from World War 2 and two from more recent conflicts. The installation is part of the St Paul’s Cathedral Arts Project and was created to raise awareness to the issue of children being used as soldiers.

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“The poppy is now a universal symbol of remembrance. At the time of year when we rightly recall British soldiers, sailors and airmen who have given their lives for their country, this work is a reminder of the many children who have also, throughout history, died as members of the armed forces."

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"Today a UN convention forbids the conscription of anyone under 18 years of age, but the convention is widely ignored. It is estimated there are 250,000 children worldwide in military service, a third of whom are girls. When the work is viewed from above I hope something of the innocence of these children is conveyed along with a sense of innocence betrayed,”

Source: odditycentral

Thread Spool Monalisa by Ejjeh & Sons

Lebanon-based custom tailors Ejjeh & Sons commissioned advertising agency République Beirut to create this depiction of the Mona Lisa out of 2,156 spools of thread in 63 colors.

It took 10 designers and 3 months to plan the portrait.

Nail Painting by David Foster

Artist David Foster uses thousands of nails hammered to a canvas to create these incredibly detailed portraits.

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"My journey into art has come from a career in Architecture. My love of technical drawing has matured into using just ink pen stippling to create shadow and light with just dots and now more excitingly with hammer and nails. I have always been fascinated with how little information the brain needs to interpret a picture and love the simplicity of a picture made up from just dots…The whole process thrills me, taking just a hammer and a box of nails and arranging them into an artwork…You really need to see my work up close as photographs don’t do it justice."

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His drawings use about 5,000 to 30,000 nails.

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Each piece begins with a photograph, that Foster reproduces with an ink pen by meticulously stippling every contour. He then enlarges the drawing to use as his guide where the nails should go.

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Check his website: http://www.davidfosterart.com/

Esplendor Buenos Aires Hotel Portraits by Mondongo

The 4-star Esplendor Buenos Aires Hotel, one of the best hotels in the Argentinian capital, is worth visiting just for the impressive portraits displayed around the hotel created by Argentinian art collective Mondongo.



Maria Elena Walsh (children’s author and songwriter) - bits of clay

We featured one of their series of detailed portraits made with dripped Plasticine here.



Eva Peron (political figure and social icon) - burnt toast, stale bread and resin



Isabel “Coca” Sarly (vedette dancer) – assorted cookies and resin



Carlos Gardel (father of tango) - straight pins



Astor Piazzola (famed tango composer) - straight pins and black ink



Diego Armando Maradona (football player) - solid gold chains wrapped around nails



Adrian “Dárgelo” Rodriguez (rock singer of Babasonicos) - colored sequins on black velvet



Atahualpa Yupanqui (singer and songwriter) - colored yard



Ernesto Sabato (novel writer) - wood carvings



Jorge Luis Borges (famed author of national literature) - assorted threads



Minguito (actor and comedian) - scraps of fabric



Carlos Monson (professional boxer) - broken shards of glass and resin



Che Guevara – bullets and resin

Images taken from imagineargentina

Thread Portrait by Kumi Yamashita

Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita constructed these mind-boggling portraits from a single unbroken black thread around thousands of small galvanized nails mounted on a painted white wooden panel for her 'Constellation' project.

The darker areas within the portrait are formed solely from the density of the string.



Her artworks remind me of threads and nails portraits by Thomas Scheiderbauer & Pamela Campagna (check the post here) only hers looks more complicated and realistic.

Kumi begin with a rough sketch on the board but have to keep them to the very minimum since she cannot erase them.

"I use either existing photos or I photograph the subjects as a starting point. The photo becomes simply a reference point for scale, shading, etc. It's the actual piece that I focus on and that I work and rework until it looks right as a work in itself, and not as a facsimile of the starting photograph."



"This body of work consists of three simple materials that, when combined, produce the portraits: a wooden panel painted a solid white, thousands of small galvanized nails, and a single, unbroken, common sewing thread."

"I worked for two months. It takes about ten days to just prepare the panel with drilling holes and pounding in over 7,000 - 10,000 little nails (brads) before the thread work even starts."



"There are times in the process where I have to undo days or even a weeks worth of work unwinding thread trying to get back to an area that I feel needs adjusting. And once I start unwinding of course, I don't know how many yards will come off to reach the problem area. It can be heartbreaking to see hard work disappearing but I have no other option!"

Check her website: www.kumiyamashita.com

Source: threadsmagazine