Lacy steampunk earth-moving machines

Artist Wim Delvoye's "Gothic" series features a collection of beautiful earth-moving equipment that's been painstakingly laser-cut with ornate, lacy designs. Yummy contrast between delicacy and brute power here. Gothic Work (Thanks, Mathew!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Art and Design • Gadgets • Happy Mutants • Steampunk

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Antinous

the problem here is that the poster looks at things within the context of his own point of view

Um.
ivan256

#6: I think you’re right about steampunk “just beginning”… As in it’s becoming more mainstream…

I don’t think this picture is evidence of it though. What’s steampunk about it? I don’t know how they managed it, but it seems to me that they’ve taken all of the “steam” and the “punk” out of a steamshovel and made a silly, frilly pile of rust shaped like a steamshovel. It neither is, nor is made to appear to be technology of modern capabilities, but powered by (or made to appear to be powered by) steam. It does exhibit a good deal of attention to “form”, but none to “function”.
t3hmadhatter

you know, people, there is such a think as IGNORING the steampunk posts. no need to spam it with “no more steampunk” if you dont like it, dont click the link.
pi think some have a point though, ive noticed that steampunk is usually something that is old or clockwork like that still works like a modern object. less steampunk, more interesting modern art. still a very cool sculpture though.
anthony

This stuff is influenced by Gothic architecture. You know, flying buttresses and what not. Much older than the early 1900′s.
Unfortunately, the term “Gothic Punk” is already in use.
Wolfairy

This is a beautifully made work, and even more, a very astute comment. Delvoye is parodying religion and development, all in on great gesture. The laser cut work is more than decoration, it serves a purpose in addition to, and beyond, visual aesthetics.

For other great laser cut steel works see: Cal Lane
http://www.callane.com/
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

I like it. Most large-scale metal sculpture intended for public spaces leaves me cold. This is a steam shovel — an inherently likeable form — transformed into a decorative object.

My maternal grandfather would have liked it a lot.
…

Mojave, that’s a silly thing to say. No one can tell how long Steampunk is going to last, but it’s clear that it’s nowhere near over.
anthony

Oh.
I just read all the comments that already ID’d the stuff as gothic architecture.

It’s a starling?
markfrei

People have been doing art like this long before “steampunk” and I suspect anyone that is doing their own thing (as opposed to chasing a trend) will continue to do so long after. Plenty of “steampunk” artists don’t like the term and refuse to label themselves this way.
Ninth Stage

Painstaking and laser-cut don’t really go together, intricate works.
GraemeM

Is it rusty or just coloured red?
Xopher

I don’t see calling this steampunk, actually. But I like it (and steampunk). I love the way the harsh clunky brute-force nature of the steamshovel, which is even a metaphor for overdone heavy-handedness, contrasts with the delicate laciness of the cutting patterns.

I like the Gothic cathedral-cum-bulldozer (click the “D 11″ on the linked page) even more though. Damn that’s pretty.
buddy66

Relax, for Crissakes! Steampunk is a goof. And a good one. If it doesn’t make you laugh, I wonder what does?

Bunch of sober-sided pickle-pusses.
Takuan

reminds me of the only good things in that horrendous Wild West film.
Cowicide

Wow, this is absolutely fantastic art. Thanks for pointing this out, boingboing!
kaiza

This is great and all, and I can appreciate the intricacy and art in laser-cutting, but I would love to see the same idea applied using cast wrought iron pieces instead. That would be far more Victorian.
Wolfairy

Steampunk is one label out of many, the problem here is that the poster looks at things within the context of his own point of view, rather than the context in which the thing exists. It is not steampunk, some qualities are similar, sure, but the label disservices the meaning and impact of the artwork. Shame.
artbot

It would be more valid to argue why things like this constantly get the “steampunk” moniker than whether it actually is steampunk (it’s not).

Neat, but it’s more gothic ironwork than Victorian-era leather, wood and rivits.
Razzbar

I’ve never been too fond of the term ‘steampunk’. The ‘steam’ makes sense, but ‘punk’ is a word with too much baggage and evolution to be definitive. What’s ‘punk’ about it? Does it imply incompetence? Rebellion? Pettiness? What does ‘punk’ mean in the first place?

I prefer ‘neo-nouveau’. Most of the steampunk objects we see remind me of the art nouveau movement of a century ago.

Whatever you call it, I like it. A lot of it, anyway. Not this example, however.
jfrancis

I remember one time I was making a Mississippi River boat in computer graphics for a project I realized as I was positioning lathe-turned decorative posts under the deck rail that I was making a veranda for a typical Southern mansion of the day.

Riverboats use the language of the houses of their day.

So using that logic you could infer a Medieval riverboat. Or a spacey 60′s apartment complex riverboat.

Later I was working on a project involving paisley and I began to wonder if paisley had a decorative language with rules that could be translated from India to, say, Bavaria.

And what would be the Harajuku Girls of other cultures?
GammaBlog

That looks like Central Park. I wonder if it is still there. Amazing. It would be something if they were still functional.
buddy66

Bunch of sober-sided pickle-pusses.
insomma

Not for sand or gravel.
Frederik

On the Belgian coast, there is also a Caterpillar from Wim Delvoye (he is a Belgian artist).
This is located near Middelkerke.
Here is a photo of it :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/debuck/2790244309
Mojave

rth t BngBng….Cm n BngBng……pls b dvsd tht “stmpnk” s vr. fns. D–N-. kpt. cpch?
clueless in brooklyn

Someone is always saying something is “over” or “dead” and I’m always wondering why they are still here.

This thing is effin gorgeous.
qurve

S nw nythng tht lks lk t hs sm rst n t ls qlfs s stmpnk? f s hv vry stmpnk cr fr sl.
Art

@ Mojave ##.

( static noise… a faint voice crackles over the speaker)

“So Sorry, Signiore. Steampunk is just beginning.”

Evidence of this fact is pictured above in the magnificent sculpture.

@#5. LOL

Thanks for the post.
MaximusNYC

Steam?

Punk?

The label makes no sense to me. But the artwork is beautiful.
AahMyEyes

Not a very practical earth mover…
Yamara

Nothing’s more steampunk than an earth-mover.

It’s called a “steam shovel“, don’t you know.
dangerdonkey

This series of pieces is briefly mentioned in the episode of BBC’s excellent “Art Safari” series featuring Wim Delvoye:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX1QZXNakE4

The show mostly revolves around his more-famous “Cloaca” pieces. , though.
Takuan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Meccano_model_Steam_shovel_excavator.jpg

from Yamara’s post!
O3

I like “neo-nouveau”! It’s so post-pomo :)
O3

Is this backhoe steam-powered? Was it rendered full of holes with a steam-powered laser? More seriously, is it designed following some fin-de-siecle blueprint or idea or idea of a blueprint? No, it’s a contemporary design full of holes.

While I do not agree that the whole faux-Victorian/Edwardian “steampunk” thang as a design trend is dead (far from it, it appears quite robust), obviously it is in some danger of becoming completely non-specific. The maker even calls this series “Gothic”. Sure, let’s call it “steampunk” if it’ll draw more eyeballs, but that’s like calling breakfast cereal “green”. It’s meaningless. If another catch-phrase was hot right now, the backhoe would be called “Neoclassical”, “Pre-RaphaÃ«lite”, “Medio-Modern”, or whatsoÃ«ver Cory pleases.
orsty

N mr stmpnk… Pls!