A Mini House That Feels Large When Surrounded by Nature

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Design

While still in the concept phase, this 484-square-foot tiny home design by Bologna-based firm STUDIOFEM is too good not to share. Architects Francesca Morsiani and Mujgan Merve Rinaldi designed The Mini with a proposed location in the village of Cavusin, Nevsehir, Turkey surrounded by mountains. The rectangular structure is clad in dark brown vertical panels interspersed with floor-to-ceiling windows for a sleek, minimalist exterior.

The full-height windows ensure the interior will be filled with natural light while offering the occupants framed views of its surroundings. The large panes help connect the inside with the landscape and make the interior appear larger.

Despite its limited square footage, the interior feels open with sight lines to the outdoors from most angles. In the open living space, the kitchen cabinets run along one wall before turning into a built-in bench at the entrance of the bedroom. The low surface also acts as a shelf to hold books and objects.

The walls are covered in simple wood panels with the grain adding texture to the space.

Renderings by UVISUAL.

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

Critical Role’s Vex and Vax Get a New Sculpture From Dark Horse Direct

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

Check out the exclusive first look at twins Vex’ahlia and Vax’ildan from Critical Role’s Legend of Vox Machina.

The stories behind some of the East Bay’s most iconic beer cans

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

Anyone who says they don’t judge beer by the label is lying. Whenever anyone enters the beer aisle of a grocery store or bottle shop, they’re judging the cans whether they know it or not. And if they don’t already have a purchase in mind, they’re scanning for the beer that speaks to them the most, whatever catches their attention in a sea of artistic renderings of animals with hats or anthropomorphic fruit.

To get to the backstory on some of the unique art we’re likely to find on our local beer cans, Nosh spoke with a number of East Bay breweries and artists to see how they attempt to tackle the challenge of setting themselves apart on the shelves. Here’s what they said.

The art from Buck Wild’s Rogue Wave IPA. Image credit: Mike Bernstein, artist credit: Molly McCoy

Buck Wild Brewing
401 Jackson St. (near Fourth Street), Oakland

Of the around 9500 craft breweries in the United States, only 17 of those breweries are 100% gluten-free. Oakland’s Buck Wild Brewing is the only such brewery in California.

“For many years gluten-free has had a bit of a negative stigma attached to it,” Michael Bernstein, the founder of Buck Wild, explained. “So we are really trying to dispel that and what we try to do is market ourselves as just fantastic craft beer that happens to be gluten-free.”

Bernstein said the artwork on the company’s cans, by Oakland freelance designer Molly McCoy, serves to differentiate Buck Wild in the crowded beer market. As part of a recent marketing push to position the brewery as a “California brand,” Buck Wild has released six new cans with art portraying a theme or landscape synonymous with the state, such as the redwoods, the wild coastline, citrus orchards and the Sierra Nevada.

“We worked our darndest to make sure we were doing something very unique that could stand out from the others,” Bernstein said, “and I really feel like we’ve accomplished that.”

East Brother’s attempt to tell the brand’s story through typography and graphic design. Credit: Clara Rice Photography.

East Brother Beer Co.
1001 Canal Blvd. (near Wharf Street), Richmond

Rob Lightner, the co-founder of East Brother Beer Co. was born and raised in Oakland. But with co-founder Chris Coomber, he decided to open a brewery in early 2017 in Richmond, attracted to its great industrial history and its less-prominent position in the region.

“We make classic styles of beers,” Lightner explained, “understated, balanced, easy drinking, not super hyped, of just high quality.”

East Brother’s can design is also understated, but that doesn’t mean its without a thoughtful design. According to Lightner, East Brother wants to let its product speak for itself, staying “consistent with the beer inside” through simple art.

The line on each can is meant to look like the water line on the freighters off Richmond’s shore, Lightner said, and the muted colors match the freighters’ washed out colors. For the cans logo, East Brother worked with Chicago design studio Good Beer Hunting.

Very little has changed with its cans — or its lineup of beers — in the six years since East Brother first opened. A few months ago, when East Brother launched its first new beer since, the company went back to the drawing board to choose a new color for the blonde ale, said Jaime Dooley, East Brother’s marketing manager. The final pick: a classic-looking green and gold Dooley said was chosen for the colors’ warmth.

“We’re looking for a color that kind of feels cohesive with everything but speaks to who we are,” Dooley said, “and what the beer is like because the colors also kind of have to somewhat mimic the beer that’s inside.”

Fieldwork’s can designs are created in-house. Courtesy: Ian Gordon, director of marketing at Fieldwork Brewing

Fieldwork Brewing
1160 Sixth St. (near Harrison Street), Berkeley
100 West Juana Ave. (near Washington Avenue), San Leandro

Fieldwork Brewing is constantly developing new beers, so they decided the best way to develop artwork quickly is to create templates that allow them to swap in images “to match the vibe of whichever beer is going in the can,” said Ian Gordon Fieldwork’s director of marketing.

The brew team creates the beer and also names it, so when it gets to the design team it’s all about finding imagery that suits the name. Fieldwork originally worked with Gamut, a San Francisco design firm, for its can art. Gordon, one of Gamut’s founders, eventually moved to Fieldwork as its full-time marketing director, so the company’s designs are now created in-house.

Some of these templates include their Adventure series labels such as Pulp or Fog Ripper. Another is a full panel layout which is artwork-based, such as Slaying Power. Belgians have their own style, with gold and birds, such as Annette and Lilith.

If Fieldwork’s label designs had to be described in a couple of words, Gordon says it would be “wanderlust, evocative and understated.”

Since Fieldwork doesn’t distribute to stores, they don’t have to compete for shelf visibility. Instead, Gordon said, “we are competing for visibility in peoples minds, so we’re always looking for novel ways of shaking things up, standing out, and making something memorable.”

Wish You Were Here was a Hazy IPA Roses’ brewed a few times during the pandemic “when we couldn’t have folks in our space.” Courtsey: Roses’ Taproom

Roses’ Taproom
4930 Telegraph Ave. (near 49th Street), Oakland

Hillary and Luke Janson met at art school, so they had a clear creative vision for their future brewery: light, airy and warm. They wanted the space to “feel like a hug when you walk in,” Luke said. It only made sense that when they decided to open Roses’ in 2017, the company’s can art had to parallel this sentiment.

For every new beer that they release, the Jansons pull from their running list of names, concepts and visual language. Though their process varies, different lines of beers, such as lagers or fruited IPAs, have the same sort of “visual language,” Luke said. He’s the main designer for Roses’ can art, though the company sometimes commissions the help of other artists for special can designs.

Roses’ is always experimenting, rotating its beers, wines and seltzers. That means Luke does a lot of label-creating. Through trial and error, he’s learned that their most successful labels “wrangle the materiality of the can,” using a sticker with a metallic base that allows them to print the art over can-looking material. The result, Luke said, is a “twinkly effect.”

Transitioning from larger-scale art to that on a beer label is about changing expectations of what level of detail will actually end up on the can, Luke said. Some textures and colors that exist in one medium will not translate once printed on a can.

“Figuring out the right way to translate that materiality into what is ultimately a different product has been a learning experience for sure,” he said.

To make Roses stand apart, Luke often thinks about what’s going to catch consumers’ eyes. “I’m always really proud when the thing inside is the best I’ve ever made, but I’m also really happy when it looks beautiful.”

Each Two Pitchers can depicts a specific character. Courtesy: Tommy Hester, co-founder of Two Pitchers.

Two Pitchers Brewing
2344 Webster St. (near 24th Street), Oakland

Tommy Hester and Wilson Barr met in college as pitchers on a baseball team.

“We were not very good,” Hester said. “We spent almost all our time on the bench and found the shared love of craft beer.” From that Two Pitchers Brewing was born, a brewery that focuses on craft radlers (a mix of beer and fruit soda, also known as a shandy).

Each of Two Pitchers’ cans displays a specific character, such as the “Disco Queen,” “Water Boy,” or even a pop-top van. Hester and Barr come up with each character, the concept and the layout, then their graphic designer, Marlene Silveira, creates the final design. Hester said the goal is keeping things fun and approachable.

“You don’t need to have a triple IPA that tastes like you’re biting into a pine tree to have something that’s craft beer,” Hester said. “It can be light, it can be fruity, it can be approachable but still keeping that quality. And that’s what we want our branding to be as well.”

Hester figures that on the shelf, you’ll get a quarter of a second of someone’s time, so it’s important to make sure their label pops and conveys the feeling of their beers. Part of this is having the fruits in the beer included on the label, so people quickly understand what they’re getting into.

“It’s basically trying to kind of thread that needle,” Hester said, “and both inform and attract in a fraction of a second.”

Courtesy image Wynn Whisenhunt, owner/head brewer at Wondrous. Artist credit: Andreas Pedersen

Wondrous Brewing
1306 65th St. (near Hollis Street), Emeryville

After working in Bay Area breweries for a while, Wynn Whisenhunt, the owner and head brewer at Wondrous Brewing, moved to Germany for eight months to study beer making. After learning more about the craft, he moved back to the Bay, opening his own brewery in May 2021.

Wondrous’ focus is lagers, but it also brews a fair amount of West Coast-style hoppy beers, mixing Whisenhunt’s love of classic German-style beers and his West Coast roots.

When looking for a logo, Whisenhunt found a Sweden-based designer Andreas Pedersen online. The working relationship was so good, that Wondrous has been collaborating with Pedersen on can designs ever since.

Whisenhunt will come up with the idea for the label and then email Pedersen to come up with a design. “95% of the time I’m so amazed that he comes up with something, like, so perfect,” Whisenhunt said of Pedersen’s can art.

“I’ve never met him in person, I’ve never even talked to him over the phone,” Whisenhunt said. “We’ve just been pen pals pretty much for the last three years.”

Whisenhunt said that the goal is a simple, consistent style that people can look at on the shelf and think, “oh yeah that looks like a Wondrous beer.” Wondrous uses its own shape and size of label to help differentiate the cans, Whisenhunt said.

To Whisenhunt, being true to the Wondrous brand is more important than having a complicated design to stand out.

“Beer gets fun and technical and crazy and artsy,” he said. “But sometimes just having something simple and comfortable and easy to read is great.”

Some additional can artists to know

Erina Davidson poses with the cans she designed for Temescal Brewing (left), Davidson’s can design for Rare Barrel (right). Courtesy: Erina Davidson

Erina Davidson is an education program coordinator and artist at Kala Art Institute. While her main focus is in printmaking, she has designed beer can labels for Temescal Brewing and the recently-closed Rare Barrel brewing’s Hello Friend offshoot.

For Davidson, these labels were one of the first chances she had to showcase her illustrations in a public space. For her first label with Hello Friend, she was chosen from a call for customers to tag local artists through Instagram. Similarly, Davidson was chosen for Temescal Brewing through a call for artists for their sixth anniversary label.

“I know that there are a lot of graphic designers where it’s just kind of a regular part of their job,” Davidson said, “But for me, this kind of design work is really kind of just a fun way for me to think about illustration or color design, and I just consider myself lucky if I get paid to do it.”

Designing a beer label has very different expectations and parameters than Davidson’s usual art: it has to be a particular size, it has to appeal from different angles, and you have to consider the 360-degree view on the can.

Davidson makes a mix of art that’s fun to look at and with personal style, as well as work that involves her personal narrative and digs deeper. She felt she had to approach the beer labels differently than her other work, by just letting go and making something fun.

“I personally appreciate all the different designs that I see and I just like seeing other artists take on that format,” Davidson said. “So it was nice to have been able to do that as well, and it was really fun to see something you design on the rack at Berkeley Bowl.”

The name “Martian City” came from an inside joke from artist Scott Kimball’s childhood. Courtesy: Scott Kimball

Scott Kimball was riding his bike around Richmond when he decided to stop into the now closed Benoit-Casper Brewing. While there, he ran into Scott and Veronica Davidson, who now own Ocean View Brew Works. This coincidental meeting led Kimball to become the artist behind Ocean View’s logo and labels.

The most recent label that Kimball designed for them was a collaboration beer with Federation Brewing. Because Federation’s brand is science fiction-themed, the name for the beer was “Martian City,” which Kimball said is a name taken from a family inside joke: As kids, Kimball and his brother would marvel at the complexity of a big freeway exchange in the Bay Area.

“It looked like something out of the Jetsons with the swooping going every which way,” Kimball said. “And we as kids, we called it Martian City.”

From that name, Kimball designed a label with hop martians in high tops, a futuristic city and space whales – combining the themes of both breweries.

For Kimball, the process of can design is pretty flexible. He shows the Davidsons a sketch and if they like it, they go with it.

Kimball said there’re some things that you have to keep in mind when designing a label that don’t come up much in other art styles, such as keeping the front image centered and making it “attractive enough to grab somebody,” while still making space in the design for the legal requirements on the can.

At the end of the day, though, Kimball says this kind of work is simply fun.

“It’s just good to work with a fun product that everybody loves,” He said. “Everybody likes a nice beer.”

City, artists seek input on permanent Harriet Tubman statue

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Native

As the City of Philadelphia prepares for the creation of a permanent Harriet Tubman statue on the grounds of City Hall, local residents now have a chance to voice their opinion on the first statue of a Black female historical figure in the city’s public art collection.

The Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE) will host the first public meeting with five semi-finalist artists competing to create Philadelphia’s Harriet Tubman statue on Monday, April 24, at 5:30 p.m.

The virtual public meeting will be an opportunity for the semifinalists—Vinnie Bagwell, Richard Blake, Tanda Francis, Alvin Pettit, and Basil Watson—to hear directly from the public before they create initial design proposals for the project.

“We encourage all Philadelphians to be a part of this historic public art commission for the city by attending this and future public meetings and making their voices heard,” said Kelly Lee, Chief Cultural Officer for the city and Executive Director of OACCE. “Philadelphians are passionate about Harriet Tubman and her contributions, and are empowered by her story, so I am confident that the artists will be inspired by their feedback.”

The five semifinalist artists are:

Vinnie Bagwell

Vinnie Bagwell is a sculptor who casts in bronze and bronze resin. A native of Yonkers, New York, she is an award-winning artist whose work has been displayed nationwide.

Richard Blake

Richard Blake’s sculpture monuments are on display across the country. An artist and educator, Blake has deep roots in Philadelphia.

Tanda Francis

Tanda Francis is a Brooklyn, New York-based artist with an extensive resume of public art. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally.

Alvin Pettit

Alvin Pettit, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, has been sculpting and painting for more than 30 years. He has also worked as an educator and currently serves on the executive board of the Jersey City Arts Council.

Basil Watson

Jamaican artist Basil Watson has honed his skills for more than 45 years, completing major commissions for organizations across the world.

The meeting will be held via Zoom and a recording will be available on OACCE’s website for those who are unable to attend. Written feedback can also be shared by filling out this form from Tuesday, April 25 through Friday, April 28.

Register for the virtual public input meeting here.

“Community engagement through public input meetings is integral to our public art process,” said Marguerite Anglin, Public Art Director of OACCE. “It is important that Philadelphians engage in direct discussion with artists throughout each stage of the proposal period to ensure that the city’s public artwork reflects the diversity and values of the community.”

There will be multiple upcoming opportunities for the public to share their ideas and provide feedback on Philadelphia’s permanent Harriet Tubman statue. Those opportunities will be announced at a later date.

Detailed information about the Harriet Tubman statue commissioning process and a full timeline for the project are available online at creativephl.org

Spotlight: A New Exhibition of Andy Warhol’s Late-Career Drawings Reveals His Enduring Passions, From Fashion to the Animal Kingdom

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Printmaking

Fifteen drawings dated from the 1980s highlight Warhol’s enduring fascination with the medium and how it informed his printmaking practice.

Artist rejects photo prize after AI-generated image wins award

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Photography

Written by Lianne Kolirin, CNN

A German artist has rejected an award from a prestigious international photography competition after revealing that his submission was generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Berlin-based Boris Eldagsen won the creative open category at this year’s Sony World Photography Award with his entry “Pseudomnesia: The Electrician.”

The eerie black and white image shows two women from different generations — the older woman appearing to hang on to the younger woman from behind.

Organizers said they were made aware of some AI involvement, but said there had been “deliberate” attempts to mislead them.

Eldagsen said he hoped his actions would open up the conversation around the issue and lead to “separate competitions for AI-generated images.”

Eldagsen said in a statement shared on his website that he had been a “cheeky monkey” in a bid to open up the conversation around artificially generated images.

“Thank you for selecting my image and making this a historic moment, as it is the first AI generated image to win in a prestigous (sic) international PHOTOGRAPHY competition. How many of you knew or suspected that it was AI generated? Something about this doesn’t feel right, does it?”

He continued: “AI images and photography should not compete with eachother in an award like this. They are different entities. AI is not photography. Therefore I will not accept the award.”

He said he applied “as a cheeky monkey” to find out if the competitions “are prepared for AI images to enter. They are not.”

‘Not about winning’

Eldagsen told CNN Tuesday: “It shows that at the moment the photographic world has been taken by surprise after this development that subtly you can create images that look like photography but you don’t need to have the skills and expertise of photographers.”

He said that AI had left many photographers feeling “threatened and afraid that they are going to lose their jobs which will happen.”

Eldagsen said his intention was not to create trouble, but to open up an important conversation.

“It was not about winning anything,” he said. “I was just making a test to see if they were aware — like a hacker who hacks a system not to exploit it, but to see if there are weaknesses.”

In further statements on his website, he said he had informed the organizers of AI involvement.

Organizers said that 2023 had seen the highest number of entries in the awards’ 16-year history. More than 415,000 images were entered across this year’s competitions, with more than 180,000 of them eligible for the professional categories.

Three finalists, as well as five to seven shortlisted photographers, were chosen in each category. The selected images were shot by photographers from more than 30 countries in locations ranging from an abandoned cement factory in China to a fish market in Somalia.

‘Misleading’ claims

The World Photography Organisation, which runs the competition, told CNN in statement Tuesday that, during the competition’s exchanges with Eldagsen ahead of announcing him as a category winner on March 14, he had confirmed the “co-creation” of this image using AI.

“The creative category of the open competition welcomes various experimental approaches to image making from cyanotypes and rayographs to cutting-edge digital practices,” organizers said.

“As such, following our correspondence with Boris and the warranties he provided, we felt that his entry fulfilled the criteria for this category, and we were supportive of his participation. Additionally, we were looking forward to engaging in a more in-depth discussion on this topic and welcomed Boris’ wish for dialogue by preparing questions for a dedicated Q&A with him for our website.

“As he [Eldagsen] has now decided to decline his award we have suspended our activities with him and in keeping with his wishes have removed him from the competition. Given his actions and subsequent statement noting his deliberate attempts at misleading us, and therefore invalidating the warranties he provided, we no longer feel we are able to engage in a meaningful and constructive dialogue with him.”

The statement said organizers recognize “the importance of this subject and its impact on image-making today.”

“While elements of AI practices are relevant in artistic contexts of image-making, the awards always have been and will continue to be a platform for championing the excellence and skill of photographers and artists working in the medium,” the World Photography Organisation added.

Top image: Boris Eldagsen’s AI-generated image titled ‘Pseudomnesia: The Electrician’ was submitted to the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 and won first prize in the creative open category.

Bau-Ing Down to Lammhults x Note’s New Seating Series

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Design

We think life is too short for boring seating and it seems that Stockholm-based design studio Note agrees. In creating its latest seating series for Swedish furniture company Lammhults, the designers took the playful, unconventional route to bring Bau to life. “Our aim was to create a piece of furniture with a lot of character that makes people happy and creative,” says Note designer Malin Engvall. And happy we are to see a modular seating system that has no right or wrong blueprint for configuring into homes and office spaces.

Bau is characterized by its soft lines, lower profile, and flexible modules. There are three main components: the Easy chair, the pouf, and the linking table. Both the Easy chair and pouf come in three variations – straight, closed, and open – to help create the perfect configuration. Made of powder coated sheet metal, the geometric linking table adds contrast to the sofa’s relaxed form and provides sturdy surface for items.

When commenting the on the longevity of this nonconformist design, Kristoffer Fagerström from Note shares, “We design furniture for the second-hand market, meaning that it’s not enough for the materials to be durable. The aesthetics have to be as well. A furniture piece must have such a strong identity and personality that it continues to have meaning for future generations.” We have a feeling generations from now will still delight in Bau’s inviting and happy design expression.

For more on the Bau modular seating collection, visit lammhults.se.

Photography by Erik Lefvander.
Styling by Marie Graunbøl.
Art direction by Note.

As the Lifestyle editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She’s probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.

Raffaele Salvoldi stacks hundreds of marble blocks for dazzling Milan installation

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Sculpture

For a Milan Design Week 2023 installation, Italian artist Raffaele Salvoldi teams up with marble brand Salvatori to create architectural sculptures comprising hundreds of marble blocks

SHI to hold ceremony for totem poles, bronze faces this week

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Native

Photo provided by SHI press release

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) – Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) will hold a ceremony on Saturday for the first 12 poles of Kootéeyaa Deiyí (Totem Pole Trail) and Faces of Alaska, a major installation of bronze masks representing the five major Native groups of Alaska.

The ceremony will feature opening comments by Native leaders, political dignitaries, and Fran Houston, spokesperson of the Áak’w Kwáan—a group of Tlingit clans that occupy the Juneau area as their homelands. Two ceremonies will follow: Thanking and feeding the spirits of the trees and Yéik Utee (Imitating the Spirits).

A totem pole dedication will be led by representatives of the clans and tribes whose crests are depicted on the poles. Seven of the totems represent the following clans: the L’eeneidí, Wooshkeetaan, Yanyeidí, Ishkahittaan, Kaagwaantaan, L’uknax.ádi, and the Shangukeidí. Of the remaining five totems, four will represent the Haida Eagles and Ravens and the Tlingit Eagles and Ravens, and one will represent the Tsimshian.

The Faces of Alaska installation will feature comments from the master artists commissioned to make the masks. Four of the masks represent the Inupiat, Yup’ik, Aluttiq and the Athabascan and one mask represents the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian. Three of the masks will be installed prior to the ceremony and two will be installed later.

Totem Pole Trail is the third and final phase of SHI’s vision to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital of the world, said SHI President Rosita Worl, noting the construction of the Walter Soboleff Building and the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus marked phases one and two respectively.
“We have a dream to bring back the great and ancient material culture of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian in all of its glory and for all to see,” Worl said. “I hope the community will participate in the ceremony and celebrate these new additions to Juneau.”

When all 30 poles have been raised along Totem Pole Trail, SHI will have met its goal to make Juneau the Northwest Coast arts capital.
“However, we have much work to do to continue to expand our efforts in teaching Northwest Coast art and promote its recognition throughout the state and nation,” Worl said.

Totem Pole Trail

The ceremony, scheduled for April 22, will mark the installation of the first 12 of 30 totems for Totem Pole Trail, an initiative launched in 2021 through a $2.9 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project. The Monuments Project is an unprecedented $250 million commitment by the Mellon Foundation to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape.

Through this grant, SHI hired 10 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian artists, including TJ and Joe Young of Hydaburg, Jon Rowan of Klawock, David R. Boxley of Metlakatla, Nathan and Stephen Jackson of Saxman, Nicholas Galanin and Tommy Joseph of Sitka, Robert Mills of Kake and Mick Beasley of Juneau. Haida artist Warren Peele was also hired to make a totem pole for the project in 2022 through a grant from the Denali Commission. TJ Young made two of the poles for the project.

The Mellon grant also funded apprentices to mentor with each of the artists.

“We discovered through this process that there aren’t a lot of master artist Northwest Coast totem pole carvers. SHI’s Native Artist Committee considers a person a master artist totem pole carver if he/she has carved at least five totem poles. With the limited number of master totem pole carvers, the mentor-apprentice arrangement became a vital component of the project,” Worl said.

“These indigenous master carvers and artists have made even more visible the stories and cultural legacies of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples to all who experience Southeast Alaska,” said Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation. “The Totem Trail, together with other vital community commemorative efforts across the United States, is re-shaping our understanding of monuments and memorials to better reflect the complexity and multiplicity of histories in our country. We are deeply honored to support this work in Juneau.”

The totem poles will be an entry point from the waterfront to Heritage Square, a space encompassing the intersection of Seward and Front Streets and surrounding area that was named by the city in 2018. Each totem pole will eventually feature a corresponding storyboard that identifies the clan, crests, and information related to the artwork.

Faces of Alaska

The ceremony will also mark the unveiling of Faces of Alaska, a spectacular monumental art installation at the Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus featuring bronze masks that represent Alaska’s five major Native groups, including the Inupiat, Yup’ik, Alutiiq, and Athabascan. The fifth group will be a combination of the Southeast tribes, Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian because they are culturally interrelated.

Master artists from each of Alaska’s five cultural groups were selected to create four-foot monumental bronze masks that are representative of their region’s artistic traditions. The Faces of Alaska art pieces positioned on pedestals will provide visitors to the arts campus a centerpiece for discussion and education on Alaska’s different cultural groups. The installation will serve as a gateway to Alaska, introducing other regions and the diversity of the state’s Native cultures.

“I see Juneau and Southeast Alaska as the gateway to the rest of Alaska, and I wanted to introduce visitors and local residents to the other Indigenous groups of the state. Additionally, other groups of Alaska Natives have settled in Juneau and Southeast Alaska, and I wanted to make them feel welcome in our region,” Worl said.

The pieces were made by artists Perry Eaton (Sugpiaq/Alutiiq), Lawrence Ahvakana (Iñupiaq), Drew Michael (Yup’ik) and Kathleen Carlo-Kendall (Koyukon Athabaskan). Tsimshian artist John Hudson made a bronze mask that represents the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian.
The masks made by Ahvakana, Eaton, and Michael will be installed prior to the ceremony and the other two will be installed later.

An Unwitting Consumer Finds Himself Out of His Depth in the Stop-Motion Animation ‘Five Cents’

Apr 18, 2023 By Admin in Art World News

Stumbling upon a coin purse, a lone consumer finds himself in possession of a bit of extra change in the stop-motion animation “Five Cents.” Aaron Hughes created the film by using thousands of market analysis pages from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times, on top of which he applied layers of ink, Wite-Out, gold leaf, and gouache. A symbolic and witty criticism of capitalist society and how economic mechanisms like inflation impact the everyday cost of living, Hughes’ solitary character purchases essentials like glasses and an umbrella before being hoodwinked into unnecessary purchases.

“Five Cents” won the 2022 South by Southwest Animated Short Audience Award, and you can see more of Hughes’ work on Vimeo.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article An Unwitting Consumer Finds Himself Out of His Depth in the Stop-Motion Animation ‘Five Cents’ appeared first on Colossal.

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