Archinect - News

Artist Mary Miss gains injunction against Des Moines Art Center's planned land art removal

2024-05-06T11:41:00-04:00

The lawsuit filed by artist Mary Miss in federal court in Iowa last month has gained a preliminary injunction over the alleged breach of contract stemming from the Des Moines Art Center’s planned removal of her outdoor sculpture piece Greenwood Pond: Double Site (1996). The news was shared by The Cultural Landscape Foundation last week following the announcement of her legal challenge in April. Miss had been attempting to stop museum officials from removing the piece from its grounds over maintenance concerns and said she was thankful to the court for issuing a temporary restraining order, which, she added, “opens the door to the consultations about the future of the site that were denied me.”

The 19-page ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa says the piece is, in fact, a “work of recognized stature” pursuant to the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA). Miss and her team now plan on defending its status further in order to establish a definition for ...

Groundbreaking conceptual artist Robert Irwin dies at 95

2023-10-26T15:35:00-04:00

Robert Irwin, a pioneering conceptual artist and leading figure of the Light and Space movement whose work had significant influences in architecture, passed away last night in San Diego. He was 95.

Irwin helped push the boundaries of American post-war art with his understanding of the principles of design. Along with a cohort of artists like James Turrell, Richard Serra, Larry Bell, and Donald Judd, Irwin worked to constantly challenge the perception of his viewers. He left behind painting to pursue a “conditional art” that espoused a further shift away from pictorial composition and towards the responsiveness of art objects to the context of a site.

Irwin’s collaborative site-conditioned work with institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dia Art Foundation, and LACMA set new precedents for the inclusion of living artists in a museum’s program, the influence of which today can be seen in the careers of Marina Abramović and Isaac Julien, among others. Irwin was also ...

Adjaye announces new rammed earth commission for The Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis

2022-11-28T12:03:00-05:00

The Griot Museum of Black History will soon be home to a public art installation from the designer of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Architect David Adjaye will design Asaase III, a monument that surrounds the museum. The structure will be built of rammed earth, a process using soil and other natural materials from the St. Louis region to make solid structures.

The rammed earth installation is the new Order of Merit appointee’s second such following his well-profiled commission for Antwaun Sargent’s Social Works show at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Adjaye had also incorporated earthwork into his commission for the 2019 Venice Biennale and design for the Thabo Mbeki Presidential Library and has referred to it beyond materiality as “another creature” that will join 30 other designs in the three-month public art installation COUNTERPUBLIC, which debuts this Spring.

“Since it’s outdoors and it's intended to be a community of public peace, we really wanted it to be reflective of that,” the museum’s founder Lois Conley said of the deeper inspiration behind the project. “Some of the soils will be coming from various areas that had relevantly large African American populations, whether they exist anymore or not. We still wanted to have some of that material.”

The new world's largest kaleidoscope is a sight to behold

2022-02-03T14:33:00-05:00

The creative landscape of Saudi Arabia got a colorful new addition as STUFISH Entertainment Architects has revealed its design for what the firm says is now the world’s largest kaleidoscope.

The massive 40 x 6 x 3-meter (131 x 19.5 x 10-foot) installation hinges on an intricate series of LED tiles and a combination of seamless and warp-less mirrors that create an expansive, awe-inspiring internal environment. Visitors will be exposed to scenes of the Arabian Peninsula's stunning natural landscape and spotted with digital content that promotes the country’s investment in high-tech development.

Image copyright Stufish courtesy of LEAP

The installation is part of the 2022 LEAP future technologies conference hosted by Saudi Arabia, which concluded today at Riyadh’s Front Expo Centre. STUFISH partner Maciej Woroniecki says it is meant to represent “how a simple and considered design, when supported with a material that can scale as intended, can return an experience that is far larger th...

A closer look at HAKUTEN's light installation [Prism], an Architecture MasterPrize winner

2021-12-08T16:51:00-05:00

The light and air art installation [Prism] by Japanese studio HAKUTEN was recently named as one of the “Best of the Best” winners of the 2021 Architecture MasterPrize.

Situated on an old military installation in Kanagawa Prefecture called Sarushima, the installation refracts light into a colorful array to create a map of the island’s coastal outline using its extant network of gun batteries as nodes that connect each ray of light in a dazzling display meant to evoke the memory of its past historic uses.

[Prism] © Kim Dong-Gyu

Visitors could immerse themselves in the light-saturated sand while taking in views of nearby Yokosuka City as they reflect on the physical space and temporal nature of the site.

According to the architects: “This work does not seek to glorify war. HAKUTEN simply believes that it is important to preserve memories of the past through various expressions of art and design that prevent them from being forgotten,” adding that they wish to “spr...

In one of Hong Kong's fastest-changing districts, a community-driven installation marks the physical memory of past lives

2021-11-30T15:23:00-05:00

As part of an effort to enhance the quality of life for residents of Hong Kong’s North Point district, a new public art installation will provide an inspiring space for a reimagined kind of citizenry brought on by the neighborhood’s contemporary transformation and supported by the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC).

Suzanne Li, Eric Chan, and Joyce Fok are the trio behind the installation. The Hong Kong-born designers represent O&O Studio and REhyphenation respectively and were selected along with five other designs to create projects as part of the museum’s Via North Point Festival.

Image © Studio Kevin Mak

Meant as a reflection on the public uses of the causeway, the installation Siu Kai Fong utilizes some of the communal furnishings best upon the neighborhood by its residents.

Stating that they were looking to include “pieces that have stories to tell,” the architects reached out to community members, schools, and local businesses for donations which eventually...

Two New York design studios provoke post-pandemic connections with their new installation in Long Island City

2021-11-29T18:26:00-05:00

As New York City continues to emerge from the dark days of the pandemic that sent it reeling well into the early spring of this year, a new effort has been put forth led by local artists and design studios to help the city’s eight million residents reconnect via a series of public installations spread throughout the five boroughs.

Image © Savannah Lauren

The latest in this series will help turn a usually overlooked park in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City into an eye-catching space for community engagement thanks to a temporary installation from Hive Public Spaces and The Urban Conga.

Image © Savannah Lauren

Activated by the park’s mostly unwitting users, Ribbon attempts to intervene in their day-to-day pedestrian activity, offering play as an intervention through a network of malleable magenta “units” made of mirrored boxes which reveal the surrounding built environment while at the same time serving as guideposts that challenge the way in which space itself is perceived....

Chanel and Es Devlin team up once again for an installation at Miami Art Week

2021-11-03T17:59:00-04:00

A French luxury staple is bringing an in-demand designer to Miami Art Week in celebration of its founder and the brand’s most important birthday.

As part of the 100th anniversary of the iconic fragrance line’s commercial debut, artist and designer Es Devlin has teamed with the fabled fashion house Chanel for a public installation that will honor the legacy and cultural significance of its signature Chanel No. 5 perfume.

Drawing on the namesake’s deep connection to the natural world, the installation features a Grecian-style labyrinth surrounded by greenery inspired by the original twenty plants whose essences form the base of the signature fragrance. Visitors will engage with all five of their senses as they enter the labyrinth’s five concentric pathways, conceived as dance routes in reference to the Greek tradition, that complete an interactive experience in combination with an ethereal soundscape designed to highlight the company’s sophisticated laboratory vetting process.

The ...

Two giant digital art installations open in Times Square

2021-07-19T13:15:00-04:00

Two immersive, site-specific media art installations evoking natural water landscapes, produced by a'strict, will be displayed at Times Square during New York's hottest summer months. From July 16 to Aug. 2, the group's gigantic whale and waterfall will appear before the eyes of millions in the U.S. for the first time.

The Korean media artist group a'strict has previously made a splash with its recent WAVE project outside of a mall in Seoul's Gangnam District. The aquatic digital 3D sculpture bears more than a passing resemblance to a piece by Olafur Eliasson that was installed in 2008.

A group called Silvercast is hosting the installation on its 30,000-square-foot Big Kahuna digital billboard. The whale will appear in 60-second intervals every half hour from 12pm until midnight.

The Korea Times has more on the summery new artworks here.

A in #TimesSquare. Check out this digital art work taking over a 30,000 sq. ft. @SILVERCASTMedia screen in the heart of Times Square. Launched today and runs through July 26 every half hour. Enjoy! pic.twitter.com/aKnpd7TTxt
— Times Square (@TimesSquareNYC) July 16, 2021

Studio Cooke John selected for 7th Annual Flatiron Public Plaza Design

2020-09-30T14:37:00-04:00

The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership and Van Alen Institute today announced their selection for the seventh annual Flatiron Public Plaza Design Installation: Point of Action by Studio Cooke John, a multidisciplinary design studio with a broad range of expertise. Point of Action will be on view November 23, 2020 - January 1, 2021 in the Flatiron Public Plazas. The installation "invites New Yorkers and visitors to contemplate the experience of seeing one another — and being seen."

Within the Flatiron Public Plazas, six-foot circles create nine "spotlights," each holding its own vertical metal frame. Ropes create a kind of envelope at the sides of the frame. The open sides of the assemblies allow visitors to step into the spotlight and connect with other "viewers" throughout the plaza.

"We are at a threshold during this pandemic. Now that our eyes have been opened to realities that have been with us all along, how do we move forward? My hope is that Point of Action makes people think ...

New art installations will be added to the Brooklyn Academy of Music

2019-08-07T09:44:00-04:00

The Brooklyn Academy of Music plans to add four new works of public art to its downtown campus, and has commissioned site-specific installations from three Brooklyn-based artists.

The Brooklyn based venue has enlisted renowned artists Teresita Fernandez, Hank Willis Thomas, and Leo Villareal, to create site-focused installations "as a part of BAM's Robert W. Wilson Public Art Initiative." The initiative was made possible back in 2015 when a $3.5 million gift was received from Mr. Wilson's trust.

"The concept of having art as something that unifies and also brings distinctiveness and is a little provocative, those are all things that are very characteristic of the Brooklyn cultural district," expressed Katy Clark, BAM's president. We can expect the installations to be presented to the public in the next couple of years.