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EJI’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opens Wednesday
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Peter Frederiksen Dramatizes the Dark Humor of Classic Cartoons in His Cropped Embroideries
“The days keep getting longer.” All images © Peter Frederiksen, shared with permission
Chicago-based artist Peter Frederiksen (previously) pinpoints the most ridiculous, exaggerated moments in cartoons and animated shows to dramatize them further into absurdity. Cropping a single outlandish action or event, Frederiksen uses free-motion machine embroidery to stitch stylized compositions that, out of context, emphasize their dark humor.
Recent works include a Looney Tunes-style mishmash of feet and fists that burst through a bulging door in “Some locks won’t hold” and the tongue-in-cheek archery challenge of “Going easy on myself.” Often focusing on escalated tensions, the embroideries accentuate moments of high anxiety in a nostalgic, comforting childhood medium.
Frederiksen has started to switch to digital jacquard weavings for larger pieces. The base becomes a guide for his stitches and provides a colorful backing, which allows for less dense compositions. He’s also incorporated more unwieldy crops, including in works like “The days keep getting longer,” portraying a preposterously elongated filing cabinet.
In April, Frederiksen will open a solo show at Steve Turner Gallery in Los Angeles, along with a dual show in June at UNION Gallery in London. He plans to release a limited-edition print with All Star Press on April 25 and has a candle collaboration coming this spring with Varyer. Follow his latest works and chances to attend one of his workshops in Chicago on Instagram.
“Start in the middle and work back”
“Some locks won’t hold”
“Closer with every cut”
“Going easy on myself”
“Interrogation of desire”
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 Peter Frederiksen Dramatizes the Dark Humor of Classic Cartoons in His Cropped Embroideries appeared first on Colossal.
How To Best Photograph The Upcoming Solar Eclipse
For many people, total solar eclipses are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So if you are, or you are going to be, on the path of totality on April 8, you might want to consider not just safely watching it but snapping photos of the incredible event. You will have several minutes of totality, so you have time to both gaze at the spectacle and create a lasting image of what is going on in the sky.
The first thing is please do not look at the Sun without proper glasses. The Sun is very bright and the Moon shields most of its brightness as totality is approached… but that doesn’t make the portion of the Sun you can see any less damaging. Only when the Moon completely covers the Sun it is safe to remove glasses.
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This is even more important when you consider lenses. If you are using cameras, binoculars, or telescopes, use them only with the appropriate filters in the lead-up to totality. Seeing the sun with the naked eye is very risky; putting your camera equipment or eyeball in the way of a magnified and collimated sunlight is destructive. If a lens can use sunlight to start fires, you do not want to put something you care about behind it.
How to best photograph the eclipsed sun
Now that the warnings are out of the way – seriously, protect your eyes – this is how you should approach photography of the Sun during an eclipse. Make sure you have a filter if you are planning to take shots before or after totality. At totality you don’t need filters and glasses – but only at totality. Trust us, you will know totality when you see it.
You do not need fancy equipment to photograph totality. Make sure you are in the right position and maybe consider if you want to include the panorama as well! The sky gets weirdly low on the horizon during an eclipse, like a sunset in all directions. The celestial spectacle can also be enhanced by the terrestrial spectacle of the people watching the eclipse!
If you are using a DSLR or another camera, consider a good zoom lens to get a nice close-up shot of the Sun. For DSLR cameras, the best way to determine the correct exposure is to test settings on the uneclipsed Sun beforehand. Using a fixed aperture of f/8 to f/16, try shutter speeds between 1/1,000 to 1/4 second to find the optimal setting, which you can then use to take images during the partial stages of the eclipse.
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During totality, the corona has a wide range of brightness, so it’s best to use a fixed aperture and a range of exposures from approximately 1/1,000 to 1 second; but, you could try to do something more complex. Renowned astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy took a beautiful shot of the eclipse in 2017 just using automatic settings on a DSLR and a good zoom lens. This time around he plans to do something even more spectacular.
“That photo was captured using automatic settings and a 300mm telephoto lens on an extremely old DSLR. This year I will be capturing a much more technically complex shot, which will be a high dynamic range photo using several telescopes and cameras all working simultaneously for the four minutes of the eclipse. The resulting image will have much more detail and dynamic range if I succeed,” McCarthy told IFLScience.
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You can find more details about the shot and general eclipse photography in his guide. And we completely agree with his parting advice: do not fidget with the camera for the whole totality. You have just a few minutes of the Sun being covered by the Moon; do not waste them looking at a screen.
And please stay safe before, during, and after!
Richard Serra’s “Verb List” is both art and to-do list.
Image of Verb List from MoMA.org The artist Richard Serra died yesterday at 85. His sculptures combined the monumental with the intimate, pieces that overwhelm and envelop but are often the only on…
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Richard Serra, a Giant of American Sculpture, Dies at 85
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Photographer Documents Turkey’s Decadent Abandoned Mosques
Photographer James Kerwin is known for his images documenting abandoned buildings worldwide. His latest series, The Sanctuary, takes him to Turkey, where he explores the abandoned mosques present in small villages across the country. Many of the structures are over 500 years old and have been left in favor of more modern spaces for worship. Thanks to Kerwin, we’re able to appreciate their beauty and architectural detail.
To create the series, Kerwin, who is based in Istanbul, passed through approximately 18 towns and cities and visited over 40 villages, covering five of Turkey’s seven vast regions. Each visit was truly an adventure, as Kerwin didn’t know what he would find until he arrived at his destination.
“I never scouted the places prior in the flesh but tried to make sure there was at least some fairly recent news,” the photographer tells My Modern Met. “However, it failed with four of my top targets—I arrived, and they had vanished.”
Luckily, even with this hit-and-miss strategy, Kerwin found plenty of architecture to spark his creativity. As he’s particularly inspired by color, he was pleasantly surprised to find many mosques retaining their vibrant interiors. His photography reminds us of the incredible artistry and craftsmanship that went into these religious structures and is an important testament to their existence.
Through this series, Kerwin hopes to share the rich heritage of Turkey and its architecture. To him, it’s particularly important given that most tourists only visit a small fraction of the country.
Check out some of our favorite images from the series below and see the full gallery on Kerwin’s website.
James Kerwin is known for his photography of abandoned spaces.
For his new series, The Sanctuary, he traveled across Turkey searching for abandoned mosques.
He visited over 40 villages and found some mosques that were over 500 years old.
Many of these spaces have been left behind in favor of modern places of worship.
But through his photographs, we can appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship of the interiors.
Abandoned Mosque in Turkey by James Kerwin
James Kerwin: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by James Kerwin.
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Signs of spring and a wily coyote
Arizona, US
‘I came upon this coyote at a wetlands park in Tucson as it stepped out of the shadow and into the early morning sun. After it had given me the stare, it trotted off a bit, flopped down, gazed intensely into the bushes, had a good scratch, and then loped off to find a roadrunner or possibly some easier prey.’
Photograph: Gillian D Henry
