Basic concept (is the GOP listening?) – art should inspire.  Down in Miami, The Cracking Art Group and Italy’s Galleria Ca d’Oro have collaborated on a series of art installations that feature 45 pink snails created from recycled plastic.  Their latest exhibit is designed to get the conversation started about recycling.  The snails will take up residency at a variety of Miami locations starting today, through January 3rd.

Part of the global REgeneration Art Project, the snails are the latest massive installation (and first in the U.S.) of animal figures created by a group of European artists known as the Cracking Art Group.

The group has been working since its inception in 1983 to impact the art world and society through their focus on strong social and environmental issues communicated by their “revolutionary and innovative use of different plastic materials that evoke a strict relationship between natural life and artificial reality.”

via: SUNfiltered photos: The Cracking Art Group

The computer has eaten the typewriter’s lunch.  Typewriters are now collectors items…or worse, useless artifacts of a time gone by, relegated to the slag heap, the junk pile, or some dusty attic.  But one artist has the made the creative decision to give an assortment of old typewriters a new life.  Artist Jeremy Mayer is obsessed – obsessed with disassembling typewriters and then reassembling them into full-scale, anatomically correct human figures, body parts and other creatures.

The accompanying photos bear witness to his talent, metal working skills and attention to detail.  No soldering, welding, or glues are used in creating his sculptures – the process is entirely cold assembly.  No parts are used in his creations that didn’t come from a typewriter – and yes,  perhaps a few highly-functional typewriters were sacrificed in these artistic endeavors.

But it’s obvious that these mechanical relics have answered a higher calling that will now allow them to live on as a testament to progress, cannibalistic technological advancement and simpler times.

photos copyright jeremy mayer

via: dvice

It must be fun to possess the ability to look at an old discarded View-Master, a can of baking powder, or some roller skates and see the makings of a little piece of art imbued with its own character.

Florida-based Reclaim2frame makes these funky little sculptures out of recycled and vintage materials and sells them via their Etsy shop. Each piece is given a name and personality traits (that’s the Magistrate pictured above) in a whimsical – not creepy – fashion.

These aren’t your grandmother’s recycled vinyl record clocks…Designer Pavel Sidorenko‘s nifty looking Re_Vinyl clocks are laser-cut into unique designer shapes.

via: yankodesign.com

Designer and artist Sang Won Sung re-assembles recycled dolls, toys and common, plastic household items into new hybrid toys and sculptures.

Perhaps this off-beat collection of dolls and creatures can provide some inspiration to anyone considering a DIY Halloween costume, or pondering an artistic way to clean out a family room filled plastic toys that have long ago lost their original fascination.

via:  recyclart
photo credit:  Sang Won Sung

A collection of female street artists called Neozoon creates these animal silhouettes and sculptures out of recycled fur coats.  Hmmm, someone kills and skins an animal ostensibly to stay stylishly warm.  Then someone else takes this pelt and transforms it back into the shape of an animal...

Is this a proper use for upcycled animal pelts?  Is it art?  Is it a political statement?  Is it a manifestation of the common perception that animals are products and objects? Is it PETA approved?

The organization’s Web site is comprised primarily of photo collections and videos of their arts street exhibitions and collections.  We have inquired about more info. Thought provoking, no?  (more…)

Recycling taken to the next level.  The ‘Nelson’ chair is the creation of French artist, visionary furniture designer and high-end recycler, Francois Royer and Stanker Design.  This industrial seating unit is an eye-catching amalgamation of recycled brushed silver steel drum, repurposed birch bedbase slats and a couple of rubber stops.

Feel free to checkout our previous posts on Monsieur Royer’s work.

Maybe it’s time for you to start expressing yourself artistically.  These award-winning sets for a proposed WD-40 ad campaign were more for a design school project by art director Linda Snorina of Dallas…Shows what you can create with a $20 budget spent on WalMart hardware.  Photographed in Linda’s  living room.

Does art always embody some form of obsession?  Perhaps. This is how French recycling artist Brauer describes his work, “In our modern world, where objects often have a single life, I aim at inventing a new existence for them by diverting them from their initial function.  I particularly like the robust appearance of used steel and industrial materials.  When I put them together, they start a new life as unique pieces of art, in which each component can tell its own story.”

What he does is reconfigure the recycled remains of our discarded industrial past into new pieces of art that include retro-looking robots, lamps and lights.  Practical…probably not.

Brauer displays his luminary Frankensteins in galleries and exhibits (some of his pieces are currently on exhibit in Spain), and sells to collectors.  To add another level of connection he even christens his offspring with names like Anatole, Zoe, Sam and Horton. Thought provoking?  Definitely, yes.