Magnificent Outdoor Cathedral Formed from Living Trees

Located at the foot of Mount Arera on the outskirts of Bergamo in northern Italy, a spectacular outdoor cathedral formed from rows of trees has become a place of pilgrimage for tourists, art lovers, and spiritual visitors alike. Called the Cattedrale Vegetale (also known as the Tree Cathedral), this magnificent work by Italian artist Giuliano Mauri is one of the most impressive examples of "natural architecture" in the world.

This grand sculpture consists of 42 cage-like columns that form a basilica of five aisles. The columns, which are made of 1,800 fir poles, 600 chestnut branches, and 6,000 meters of hazel branches joined together with wood, nails, and string, house 80 hornbeam saplings that will eventually outgrow the decaying supporting columns to form a truly organic, living cathedral.

Mauri began laying the groundwork for his masterpiece in late 2001. Following his death in 2009, the cathedral was finally completed in 2010, serving as a lasting memorial for the artist.

Above photo via Virtual Sacred Space / Photo by Giacomo Bianchi/Arte Sella

Source http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/giuliano-mauri-tree-cathedral-cattedrale-vegetale

Social Media and the Internet as a Medium

PANEL WITH SHAUN KARDINAL, SUSIE J. LEE, AND DYLAN NEUWIRTH, MODERATED BY C. DAVIDA INGRAM @ http://fryemuseum.org/

Thursday, December 4, 2014 6 - 7 pm / Location Auditorium

(source http://fryemuseum.org/calendar/event/5741)

Social media is where we exchange information, make conversation, and meet each other. The possibilities for the visual arts presented by these media-based, virtual gathering places are explored in this panel discussion of the creative practice of three artists.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Moderator C. Davida Ingram received the 2014 Stranger Genius Award in Visual Arts. She is a writer and artist-curator who focuses on creating counternarratives via education, performance, and curating. She works with museums and other community spaces, is co-founder of the Seattle People of Color Salon, and has been involved with many community-based arts organizations including Video Machete, Women in the Director's Chair, and Insight Arts. Her upcoming collaborative project, I Wish a Mother Would, explores the intersections of social justice, social practice, and the art of protest.

Shaun Kardinal is a multimedia artist currently working primarily with Internet, where his recent projects juxtapose traditional exhibition formats with online presentation. left to your own devices displayed a performance video series on visitors' smartphones, while his digital collage series flying formation was showcased on his Instagram account, and garnered press and social media shout-outs from WIRED, Adobe, Tumblr and Feature Shoot.

Susie J. Lee is an ‘interstitial’ artist exhibited nationally and internationally. Lee has her MFA from the University of Washington and has been recognized by the Seattle Weekly as the “2006 Emerging Artist of the Year,” by Artnews as “An Artist to Watch,” and by The Stranger as the 2010 Visual Genius Award winner for her work in sculpture, video, and performance. In 2014 she launched the dating app Siren which she describes as “an artist-designed dynamic dating app where women make the first move”.

Dylan Neuwirth describes himself as a ‘Posthuman Contemporary Artist’ whose work is focused on the intersection of ‘physical life’ and the Internet, specifically our relationships with social media; how it makes us feel or defines our identities. His recent neon work JUST BE YOUR SELFIE (2014), commissioned by the City of Seattle, invited viewers to post images to Instagram and Twitter, allowing the work to become diluted and strengthened simultaneously. Neuwirth also works in the Chihuly Studio on commissions, exhibitions, and special projects. His upcoming solo exhibition opens on the Internet January 2015.

Image: Henry Raschen. Portrait Study of Charles H. Frye (detail), n.d. Oil on canvas. 29 5/8 x 19 3/4 in. Charles and Emma Frye Collection, 1952.231

CONCORSO FOTOGRAFICO "PEOPLE & RABARAMA"

A tutti i fotografi: partecipa con una foto di una mia opera monumentale che interagisce con una o più persone.
La foto vincitrice sarà per un mese la foto ufficiale sulla pagina Facebook, sul sito ufficiale, su Twitter e tutti i social network di Rabarama (con il tuo nome e link al tuo sito web o pagina Fb)

Come partecipare? 
pubblica sulla mia pagina FB (https://www.facebook.com/rabaramaonFB) le tue foto (massimo 3 foto a concorrente, lato minimo 1200 pixels, indica il tuo nome e il tuo sito o pagina facebook).
La ripubblicherò nell'album ufficiale a questo link
Sceglierò la mia preferita tra le 5 più votate ("mi piace")

Termine concorso: 31 gennaio 2015

Mio consiglio: osate! osate e osate! :)

Dove trovate le mie opere monumentali esposte in pubblico in Italia:
Abano terme, giardini comunali
Pisa, aeroporto internazionale Galileo Galileo
Reggio Calabria: lungomare Falcomatà

(per la mappa mondiale: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zK2w6hMbfSWU.k3aSqquKjA8A )

#PeopleAndRabarama

Nude silver bodies in Guido Argentini's art

by Usnea Lebending
In our culture we tend to sexualize almost all nudity, especially that of women. Yet, Los Angeles-based Italian photographer Guido Argentini has found a way to move beyond mere sexuality and elevate the human form in ways more reminiscent of Greek sculpture:

For this series (the culmination of over 20 years of work), Argentini used professional gymnasts, dancers, aerialists and other professional performers to combine the solidity of sculpture and the vivid energy of dance.  Each model was completely painted in a metallic body paint and then shot on a simple white background, often using only one light. With the paint, the shadows and the highlights of the skin are intensified, creating the illusion of liquid motion frozen into a still photograph. In many of the photos, the face is obscured or not shown, erasing the individual identity of the model and inviting the viewer to focus on the universal aspect of the human body.

Guido Argentini

Inspired by the abstract bronzes of Brancusi, the watercolors of Rodin, and the verve of Degas’ ballet sketches, Argentini has developed his own unique aesthetic of the human form—one which transcends the concepts of individualism and sexuality, inspiring instead an impersonal celebration of finesse and beauty. In a world that seems to be more and more sex focused, it’s inspiring to see body art that takes a different tact.

Although Argentum also includes male models, Argentini says, This book is, once again, a tribute to women.

(source: http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/argentum-body-art-photography/ ) 

Arianna's photos: Rabarama in città

Arianna's photos: Rabarama in città: Fino al 14 gennaio a Lucca resteranno in mostra in vari angoli di Lucca alcune delle belle sculture dell'artista Rabarama, che personal...

CIA’s Mysterious Kryptos Sculpture

(source: Wired) In 1989, the year the Berlin Wall began to fall, American artist Jim Sanborn was busy working on his Kryptos sculpture, a cryptographic puzzle wrapped in a riddle that he created for the CIA’s headquarters and that has been driving amateur and professional cryptographers mad ever since.

Kryptos, a sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia.   MAI/Landov

To honor the 25th anniversary of the Wall’s demise and the artist’s 69th birthday this year, Sanborn has decided to reveal a new clue to help solve his iconic and enigmatic artwork. It’s only the second hint he’s released since the sculpture was unveiled in 1990 and may finally help unlock the fourth and final section of the encrypted sculpture, which frustrated sleuths have been struggling to crack for more than two decades.

Rabarama cryptic sculture "Life Circle"

The 12-foot-high, verdigrised copper, granite and wood sculpture on the grounds of the CIA complex in Langley, Virginia, contains four encrypted messages carved out of the metal, three of which were solved years ago. The fourth is composed of just 97 letters, but its brevity belies its strength. Even the NSA, whose master crackers were the first to decipher other parts of the work, gave up on cracking it long ago. So four years ago, concerned that he might not live to see the mystery of Kryptos resolved, Sanborn released a clue to help things along, revealing that six of the last 97 letters when decrypted spell the word “Berlin”—a revelation that many took to be a reference to the Berlin Wall.

continue reading on Wired: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/second-kryptos-clue/?mbid=social_fb

Rabarama in Istanbul with Gallery ILAYDA

(Aşağıda türk Metin)

"I greet all the Turkish fans and collectors and I thank so much Ilayda Gallery: I'm proud to be represented in Istanbul by so a great gallery!
Recently I visited the city and I was fascinated by the great aesthetical beauty and by the richness of the cultural mix. It seemed to me to be really on the "door" between East and West and I felt all the deep history of the Country and the excquisite kindness of people.
I wait you at CI Contemporary Istanbul and I invite you to discover my art, a tribute to the Beauty of the body and to all the contradictions of our present time"

“Türkiye'deki tüm takipçilerimi ve koleksiyonerleri selamlıyor ve Galeri İlayda'ya teşekkürlerimi sunuyorum: İstanbul'da bu derece büyük bir galeri tarafından temsil ediliyor olmaktan gurur duyuyorum!
Kısa süre önce İstanbul'u ziyaret ettim ve onun müthiş estetik güzelliği ve kültürel karışımının zenginliği ile büyülendim. İstanbul'un gerçekten de Doğu ve Batı arasındaki “kapı” olduğunu gördüm ve ülkenin derin tarihini ve insanlarının sıradışı nezaketini hissettim.
Sizleri Contemporary Istanbul'da bekliyorum, ve vücudun güzelliğini ve günümüzün tüm çelişkilerini konu eden çalışmalarımı keşfetmeye davet ediyorum.”

Rabarama
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(http://www.galleryilayda.com/ )