Artist Eric Daigh Sticks It To Us With His Pushpin Portraits

Born in California and now residing in Northern Michigan, 33 year old husband, father and artist Eric Daigh creates portraits by putting ordinary pushpins in posterboard. Daigh uses blue, red, white, yellow and black push pins (he sprays green pushpins black since there are no black pushpins) to create his masterpieces. Each portrait requires about 11,000 pushpins which Daigh applies by one at a time.


above: Eric and his wife Meghan, whose portrait he's created with pushpins four times.

His work took third place (and $50,000) in the Grand Rapids, Michigan 2009 ArtPrize Exhibition, has been featured on CBS this morning, was in the 2009 Communication Arts Illustration Annual and he holds the Guinness World Record for the largest pushpin mural.

Chloe and Casey:

Austin II and Cory:

Harper:

Jaia and Kimberly:

Neyla:


Potraits of Meghan, the artists' wife


Now, close-ups of each of the above portraits of Meghan.

Meghan I:

Meghan II:

Meghan III:

Meghan IV:

Self Portrait I and Self-portrait II:


The work as it appeared at Art Prize, 2009:




above: the artist in front of his work (photo by T.J. Hamilton)

A special thanks to the following folks on flickr for additional images:
Rich Evenhouse
Nancy Rae
Numstead
Pairadocs

Other artwork made with unusual mediums:

Frederico Uribe's shoelace, pencil and kicks art


The assemblage work of Bernard Pras


Portraits made of diamonds, sapphires and other gemstones:


The crayon and paper art of Christian Faur:

Peeple; Urine Induced Art By Alex Schweder & Dieter Janssen

A collaboration between artists Alex Schweder and Dieter Janssen yielded both an art installation of heat-sensitive urinal decals and a board book called Peeple.



In the designers' words "Peeple are playthings for peetime. They are heat sensitive decals with two layers installed on the interiors of upright urinals. When heated by urine, the top layer disappears thereby revealing the characters in their underclothes."

The three part project, and accompanying board book, introduces The Joneses, a betrothed couple (Judy and Brett) and Stars and Stripes, three soldiers named Kyle, Rick and Tim respectively. All fully clothed initially, then, as the action unfolds, they all find themselves installed in urinals in various states of urine-induced undress.






The narrative inherent in this unveiling explores the disjunction between a person's external presentation of him or herself and their private lives.





The campy texts and playful images tell a light-hearted tale of the humorous and often treacherous terrain that must be crossed between public and private identity.

This work is presented as a limited edition book in which three narratives unfold using various characters. This small thick board book's materiality alludes to child like play and humor while difficult subject matter is explored. It is hard to find, but below are some links to used and new ones.

Alex Schweder's Peeple: a Three Part Installation - The Joneses, Betrothed & Stars and Stripes.

Behaviour Press Inc., 2002. Glossy yellow boards; yellow cloth spine; 22 pp.; pages are thick boards; Profusely illustrated in color; Printed in an edition of 500.

You can buy Alex Schweder's PEEPLE used from Amazon (without the decals).
Or here from Mullen books
Or here from Art Metropole.
Or here from CoCA.
Or here at Printed Matter.

Books Become Planters At Gartenkultur Of Italy

Gartenkultur of Italy has found a way to repurpose and recycle old hardback books. By drilling all the way through a book (or a stack of books glued together) adding a mesh net and some dirt, they become planters. Succulents, bonsai trees and other small greenery can happily live in these novel homes.

Rock a Bye Deadly Baby: The Ne Zha Works of Shi Jinsong

The Ne Zha Baby Boutique By Shi Jinsong, 2006 - 2008

Na Zha (or Nezha), is a Chinese mythical creature, an impish trickster with supernatural powers and flamboyant fashion sense (legend has it his red silk trousers generated so much heat the sea began to boil, enraging the East Sea Dragon King). Na Zha's essential ferocity long since tamed in the Chinese psyche, he is now chiefly celebrated as a God of Lotteries and Gambling, a commodified totem of the new global economy.


above left; the exhibition catalog. above right; the artist Shi Jinsong

Through his razor-sharp sculptures and related works, Shi Jinsong initiates a dialogue, at once menacing and ironic, between the forms of mythic Chinese culture and modern day globalization. "Na Zha" is here recast as the brand name for an outrageously unsafe line of baby products.

Meticulously assembled in stainless steel from intricate mechanical drawings, they include a deadly Carriage; a sadistic Cradle; a sinister Walker; and a malicious, multi-part Toy complete with needle-tipped pacifiers and dismembering abacus. Baby Boutique confronts its "shopper" with a radically strange and seductive "product," lethal luxury designed to reveal the forces that dominate our lives in unimaginable ways. - above text courtesy of Absolute Arts

Various Ne Zha strollers by Shi Jinsong:






For his first exhibition at Chambers Fine Art in 2006, Shi Jinsong produced a range of articles for baby Ne Zha, consisting of cradles, strollers, rattles and a walker. Two years later, in the second showing of Ne Zha, the infant seems to have grown up into a toddler and Jinsong's works include miniature suits of armor, a rocking horse, roller blades, a scooter and a tricycle.

Images from the first show (2006) at Chambers Fine Art Gallery:

above: Na Zha Stroller, Stainless steel, 2005, 40 1/6 x 38 5/6 x 32 2/7 in (102 x 98.6 x 82 cm)


above: Na Zha Cradle, Stainless steel, 2005, 24 x 31 7/8 x 24 3/8 in (61 x 81 x 62 cm)


above: Na Zha Rattle, Stainless steel, 2005, 3/4 x 5 1/4 x 3 3/4 in (30 x 13.3 x 9.6 cm)


above: Na Zha Baby Bottle, Stainless steel, 2005, 3 x 5 x 5 in (7.6 x 12.7 x 12.7 cm)


above: Na Zha Baby Toys, 2005, stainless steel




above: Na Zha Walker, 2005, stainless steel, 54 x 59 x 66 cm


Images from the second show (2008) of the Ne Zha Baby Boutique, 2008:

Above: baby suit of armor, stainless steel, 2008


above left, stainless steel baby armor and right, a stainless steel scooter, 2008


above: Full Armor-Mouse, Stainless steel, 2008, 31 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 7 7/8 in. (80 x 30 x 20 cm)


above: Rocking Horse, Stainless steel, 2008, 26 x 34 x 15 3/8 in. (66 x 86.5 x 39 cm)


above: Rollerblades, Stainless steel, 2008, 14 1/8 x 5 7/8 x 8 1/2 in. (36 x 15 x 21.5 cm)


above: tricycle, stainless steel, 2008

Earlier this year, Shi Jinsong's Ne Zha works were part of a 'China - contemporary revival', exhibition at the Palazzo Reale, in Milan, Italy. The images below are from his works in that show, courtesy of Designboom.






about the artist:


Born in Danyang County, Hubei Province in 1969, Shi Jinsong enrolled at the Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 1994, majoring in sculpture and mastering a gamut of traditional techniques. Under the influence of three powerful stimuli - radical socio-cultural change in China; a reading of Foucault's Madness and Civilization; and the birth of his first daughter - the artist began to investigate ideas of transformation and control.

The images in this post are courtesy of Chambers Fine Art, Saatchi Gallery, Marella Gallery, ArtNet