Concrete affords an outdoor space an anchor. It's highly resilient but deeply contextual. The context is its materiality—modern concrete evokes something industrial and sparse, which both Simlai and Pfaff counteract with botanical elements and material mixing.
"There's no one size fits all," says Nate Fox, cofounder-along with his brother Justin-of Santa Ana, California-based luxury landscape architecture firm Foxterra Design. "Do you want a swimming pool? Do you entertain? Do you want to create a sanctuary? It all hinges on understanding how you live."
Michael Jantzen's Monumental Engines of Creation series features sculptures that appear to serve a function, yet their purpose remains deliberately ambiguous, inviting viewers to engage with them on a deeper level.
Grafting is the method through which two different plants from the same species or genus are joined together to grow as one. The resulting plant benefits from the qualities of the two different original plants.
The series consists of insect-like figures assembled from found plastic fragments collected from beaches and urban environments. Bottle caps, straws, fishing line, and other discarded objects are cut, combined, and reconfigured into small, hybrid creatures.
The design is structured around geometric principles derived from Basque cultural references, with a central motif being the 'Eguzki-Lore,' a traditional sunflower symbol historically placed at entrances for protection.
"This sculpture creates a friction with the surroundings here in New York. It's not sleek like everything else you can see here. It offers a hint to the public that temporality is not necessarily a straight line, that things can come back almost like in a wheel."
Craft is often defined as skill in making things by hand, but this interpretation is being challenged by AI. Craft transcends physical interaction; historical figures like Mozart and Beethoven exemplify mastery without traditional methods.
To see where the moon melts over the garden,or where the bats flit, or where the air sweetens with pollen and moth-frenzy, I recommend a night walk to discern the perfect patch for it. Under this glow, we could all use a distraction-dig with a silver shovel and choose colors that swoon and moan under our satellite: dusty pinks, baby blue, lavender, white, and butter yellow gems unfurl at dusk until dawn.
Drawing on childhood memories, folk art, and nature, the London-based illustrator and model maker creates expressive sculptures and puppets that inhabit dreamlike realms. Invoking historical costumes and cartoonish and emotive faces, Johnston's otherworldly cast seems both familiar and strange, as if children's book protagonists have sprung to life or converged with a strange dream.
The bodhisattva motif is a popular one in East Asian art and represents an enlightened being who has deferred their entrance into nirvana to instead guide others toward redemption and deliverance. The bodhisattva form is often identifiable through its opulent adornment and serene and contemplative posture, frequently shown with a hand touching their temple as a sign of meditation.
Baqiao bridges, including the nearby Shisanba Bridge, typically appear in areas where the difference between river level and embankment is relatively small. Their upstream piers are shaped like tapered spindles with slightly raised tips, creating a distinctive structural profile. Stone slabs span between the piers, forming a bridge deck assembled through interlocking construction methods.
To drink, to bathe, to swim, water has been integral to every society, at every point in our relatively short history here on earth. We connect, drink, and extend ourselves over water, a lifegiving force whose polarity explains much of human behavior. Fostering this sense of community is vital to our health and happiness as well.
