In the history of Europe, paints, paper, canvases, and drawing boards have dominated the creation of artists for hundreds of years, but for more than a hundred years, artists who do not want to be bound anymore have constantly explored the limits of the use and mixing and matching of various new materials.
To this day, no one can count exactly how many incredible materials are used in works of art.
The earth itself, as if it were a vast to endless library of materials, constantly inspiring artists.
People who have just experienced Basel in Hong Kong may be more empathetic, the huge exhibition hall, like a magical material museum, a variety of unimaginable materials mixed and matched, constantly visually deceiving and subverting your perception -
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<h1>fishhook</h1>
Yoan Capote (b. 1977) this year's new book, Isla (Fobia) Island (Phobia), looks from a distance a portrait of the ocean, gloomy shadows, as if brewing unknown dangers. In fact, this is indeed a rather dangerous work, and if you look closely, you will find the real protagonists who make up the picture -
Each stroke is made up of countless sharp fish hooks, which can hurt you if you are not careful.
<h1>Wool & Cotton</h1>
Brent Wadden completed a visually pleasing abstract painting with only two simple variations of the color system, Untitled Untitled (2017), but this painting is not painted in a traditional way, but is woven from dyed wool-blend cotton, which is furry up close and warms your eyes to your heart.
<h1>sand</h1>
Many people have the experience of playing with sediment by the sea when they are young, and Jennifer Guidi's new work "All Or Nothing" this year, plays sand to another realm, painting red sand and white sand as the bottom, Jennifer by poking a small pit full of rhythm on the sand, forming this philosophical abstract diptych.
<h1>PVC band</h1>
Alberto Biasi's "Dinamica a losanga" created in 2001 is an alien painting, people will be attracted by its charming lines and changing luster at first glance, and when they look closely, they find that these rhythmic lines are formed by the twisting of countless PVC (polyvinyl chloride) bands, and their radioactive lines in the picture, under the light, form a rich light and shadow visual effect.
<h1>Dandelion seeds, green flies, cornflowers</h1>
Claire Morgan Claire Morgan is obsessed with making exquisite suspended solids from large numbers of "small atoms", small thistles and dandelion seeds, leaves or fruit flies to touch the viewer's understanding of the inexorable passage of time behind the impermanence of life and the illusory perfection. Created last year, "Pyre" is composed of dandelion seeds and green flies hanging from nylon silk, which looks light and beautiful from a distance, and only by getting close can you see the cruel truth behind this beauty.
Another work, Speaking Volumes, created in 2014, consists of nylon silk hanging cornflowers and dandelion seeds.
<h1>Jute mesh</h1>
David Renggli's Floorplan Desire Painting (Tip Toe) (2017) looks no different from other abstract paintings from a distance, but in fact it is a three-dimensional painting, with black paint on the jute web and the colored pattern at the bottom combined to form this particular painting.
<h1>Waste</h1>
Japan's most famous collage art master Shinro Ohtake (Noburo Otake) often uses special materials to create, waste magazines, useless fabrics, wood chips, leaves and even discarded garbage materials, under his artistic superposition and stacking techniques, often turn decay into magic, into a very visual impact from a distance, up close to the interesting abstract artwork. This 2017 Oku-Kei 11 is one of the representatives, can you find out how many materials are used in it?
<h1>bottle cap</h1>
The most remarkable artistic concept of the African artist El Anatsui (b. 1944 Ghana) is transformation and inheritance, that is, transforming what was old in the past into something new, present, open to understanding and interpretation.
He often uses flattened bottle caps to form huge beautiful works woven with iron wire, which looks golden and luxurious from a distance, but looks almost garbage materials such as bottle caps and can skins from close range, which are primitive and rough, but full of strong vitality. This is exactly what this "Resolution" (2016) is on site. The grandeur of cheap materials seems to be a metaphor for the brilliance and dignity of life that the poor class should also deserve.
<h1>Gold, plastic, nails</h1>
American artist Glenn Kaino (b.1972) has always been full of experimental spirit, in the abstract work "In search of a new model (the Great Fire)" (2017), the elements that constitute the fire are not ordinary pigments, but a strange shape of the spikes inserted in the chassis, look closely, the heads of these studs, there are hands, sofas, cars and other shapes, and are made of plastic coated with real gold, trench, right?
<h1>Medical books</h1>
American artist Samuel Levi Jones does not know whether he has been poisoned by medical books, his abstract art creation, the most prominent feature is through the deconstruction of medical books on canvas, just like this year's abstract painting called "Wind", from a distance, it is thought to be just a stack of paint blocks, up close and feel like some kind of cloth splicing, until you see the label, only to confirm that these speculations are wrong, their real source is: medical books (estimated to have stripped the cover of the book).
<h1>skateboard</h1>
Last week we introduced the Japanese artist Haroshi, because of his love of skateboarding, collected a large number of old skateboards, and took those that broke, lost their elasticity, smoothed the tail of the board, opened the glue... Old skateboards, which are considered scraps, are polished into beautiful works of art by hand. At the basel site, you can see his large-scale installation "Ramp" (2017) -
And this year's new puppet doll "Guzo" made of skateboard surfaces Oh -
Contemporary artists' creative ways of playing with materials are shared here today. Welcome to leave a message to share the interesting creations you find~