09 July 2008

kitchen landscapes

While researching collections for my graduate thesis one of my advisors shared with me the work of Monica Rosello and Jordi Guillumet. They published a small book of photographs of "alternative landscapes" made from arranging common kitchen equipment like a grater, string, shakers, baskets, espresso maker, and sponges to name a few. The book is called l'Armari de l'Arquitecte and it is in Spanish, so much was lost in translation, but the images were no less haunting.

rosello 1

[from l'Armari de l'Arquitecte]

2 rosello

[from l'Armari de l'Arquitecte]

3 rosello

[from l'Armari de l'Arquitecte]

While Chinese artist. sculptor Zhan Wang has taken this concept 10 steps further with his futurist interpretations of modern cities like London and San Francisco. Using mirrors, pots, plans, tea kettles, utensils and any other stainless kitchen utensil you can imagine he creates these scenes as part of his "Urban Landscape"

Most of Zhan's work is of abstract forms resembling stone/ rocks that have been coated in chrome, so these cityscapes are a departure from his normal repertoire.

His recent "On Gold Mountain" exhibition at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco on just closed in May. The exhibit featured interpretations of rocks from Sierra Nevada, but Zahn also created one of his urban landscapes of the city of San Francisco. Stunning or maybe a "blinding" is more appropriate!

zhan wang - san fran

[SAN FRANCISCO from io9 http://www.io9.com/]

wang

[LONDON from Williams College Museum of Art http://www.wcma.org/]

These certainly put my cereal box John Waynesque western town from the third grade to shame.

For more information on Zahn Wang check out the following sites:

http://io9.com/358920/sf-skyline-of-tomorrow-will-be-a-massive-chinese-kitchen

http://www.asianart.org/

http://www.wcma.org/

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