Art Trawler

‘Art Trawler’ is a new column by Rachel Rogers. Every week she will be scouring the internet for new artists, endeavours and accomplishments. This week she’s found acrylic molluscs, alien eggs and fake volcanoes.

Opinions
November 6, 2013
by Rachel Rogers

Tom Beddard, Fabergé Fractals

Tom Beddard’s Fabergé Fractals

Tom Beddard’s Fabergé Fractals are an example of art formed through computer software and mathematical formulas but they seem so much more than that. They appear to have grown organically; evolved. I find they resemble extra-terrestrial eggs, pregnant with life. Artistically, they are beautiful and the closer you look, the more patterned these objects become. A mirror of life, these are extremely complex yet reassuringly repetitive.

Candy Chang’s Confessions

What would you confess to if it was completely anonymous? In a totally honest art project in Vegas last year, artist Candy Chang invited people to write a confession. Some confessions are cheeky – ‘I cook and do housework naked…!!’. Some admit lies – ‘Everyone thinks I quit smoking… but I didn’t’. Some declare love – ‘I’ve been in love with the same guy for more than a year… but too scared to tell him’. Some show fear – ‘I’m scared to lose everything I have’. Some admit life long regrets – ‘I sold heroin to my friend and it ruined his life’. We might be judgemental, ‘imperfect priests’, as we read the secrets but who are we to judge when they are the ones living with the secret? Similar confession projects, such as PostSecret, often focus on catharsis. It’s difficult to tell if Chang’s exhibition has a similar aim or whether it pokes holes in the masks and facades of ordinary people.

Keng Lye’s Resin Fish

In these unsettlingly realistic works of art, Keng Lye has built upon the technique of artist Riusuke Fukahori. Both artists use layers of resin and acrylic paint to form life-like representations of animals under water. Lye has taken this further and allows them to rise partly out of the water like sinister monsters.

Ben Heine’s Pencil vs. Camera

Ben Heine’s drawings demonstrate imagination, the way we could see the world if we need our day brightened or we’re feeling a bit cheeky. However, they’re also a rebellion against cold, impersonal technology. To Heine, photographs aren’t just documents; they’re also playgrounds. I couldn’t wait to give it a go and it is a lot harder than it looks. This is why I write and Heine draws.

Matthew Albanese

Want to take a photo of the Northern Lights, but can’t afford a trip to Iceland? Need a picture of an erupting volcano but lava and smoke plumes don’t appeal? Matthew Albanese has done all of this and more without leaving the comfort of his studio. Piecing together sculptures of landscapes using everyday objects like rice, wire, and cotton wool, Albanese creates these stunningly realistic photos. We’re used to visual effects in films which have become so advanced that you cannot see where the set ends and the effects begin. This a call back to the days of analogue effects. Ray Harryhausen would be proud. Albanese says that the use of photo editing software is minimal. “I really get no enjoyment from sitting in front of the computer”, he says, although he makes small adjustments that are done in a darkroom if the photography is not digital.