Carlos Blanco’s flair for air. . .

Sculpting with Race Cars 

In addition, to my earlier post about Carlos’ ‘post-it-note’ exhibition in Los Angeles at Lurie Gallery I thought I’d share some of his other work—sculpting with race cars. . . well, not exactly but pictures of the before and after of these unassuming chalk-like pieces offer a glimpse into his process as well as the accompanying video (and, yes, that’s him in the race car):

Carlos Blanco, "Bigger than Life" (Before and After)

A recent Spanish-language interview talks a little more about Carlos’ ‘other side’ of art-making.

I’ve invited Carlos to add in his own comments about his creative process or perhaps the images speak for themselves?

Carlos Blanco in reply:

The images shown of Before and After were attached to a commercial flight at 14.000 feet high at 540 miles /hour.

The Art Project AIR- BIGGER THAN LIFE is a four chapter project:

The TRAIN: AVE high speed train: 140 miles /hour. SPAIN.

The CAR: NASCAR CAR. 130 mile/hour. L.A. USA.

The SKY DIVING: 10.000 feet high. 130 miles/hour. FLANDES-COLOMBIA.

The AIRPLANE: 14.000 feet high 540 miles/hour. COLOMBIA.

Motivation:

The [element] of speed comes from my youth encounters with extreme sports (skateboard, hang gliding) and a mix of my roots from a country with everyone has something or an alter ego with the guerrilla.

I did some of these guerrilla acts entering with no permission to the DOCUMENTA 9 (Director: Jan Hoet) and Venice Biennale under Bonita Achile Oliva. Then the Bomb Cars (Check video), which we in Colombia describe helium balloons as bombs.

Informing artists:

Always on my mind Bas Jan Ader, Robert Smithson, Daniel Buren (airplane piece) and Calder Flying Colors for Braniff Airways.

Lincoln Clarkes, “Giving Notice”

Lincoln Clarkes, “Giving Notice”

Recent street works by photographer Lincoln Clarkes, Initial Gallery, Vancouver.

In a time when camera phones have turned ‘everyman’ into a photographer and the ‘selfie’ has surpassed the allure of the portrait, Lincoln Clarkes’ new series of works, “Giving Notice”, returns this expertise to the terrain of the skilled photographer.  In this thoughtfully curated show by Julie Lee, culled from a larger selection of work dating back to 2008, Clarkes turns his lens on the cities and people of Toronto, Vancouver, and a handful of scenes in Miami, Detroit, and London.  The show’s title, “Giving Notice”, suggests the movement of city-life itself as it shifts through its many guises from dressed-up to broken-down.

Bestowing his subjects with a straightforward ease, Clarkes disguises the true complexity of his compositions—two women sitting in a laundromat, a group of friends hanging out on a street corner, shots gazing into and through windows, city-scenes in effect doubling as character–the sensation is that of a fly on the wall, skirting the uneasy rift between discovery and that of not-so-innocent onlooker. 

Lincoln Clarkes, Bathurst Streetcar,Toronto, 2010