Boing Boing » assemblage

Hellishly complex, gorgeous assemblage about endless work

Cory Doctorow — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:56:51 +0000

"Quaestus" is the latest assemblage from sculptor Jud Turner. He sez,

“Quaestus” is a latin word meaning “gain or profit extracted from work”, a concept darkly represented in my latest sculpture: 5 tiny employees are trapped in an endless task inside a gigantic machine, toiling to keep up with the conveyor belts they are walking on. Each work station has a 2 digit counter which seems to be keeping some kind of score. If the employees don't keep up with the machine, they will fall off the ends of their conveyor belts and be fed to the machine.. The employees actually power this machine, but are unaware and unable to stop moving forward for fear of falling behind.

It's an amazing piece. Click through for hi-rez and details.

"Quaestus"

Portrait made from typewriter parts

Cory Doctorow — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:40:28 +0000

Sculptor Jeremy Mayer writes, "This is my latest project- a portrait commission. The client, Mark Pelzner, came to me with 3 typewriters bequeathed to him by his late father, Marvyn Pelzner. Mark wanted me to take those typewriters and make a likeness of his dad that would be mounted on a box which holds Marvyn's ashes. There are some parts in the sculpture that came from other typewriters in my stash, but most of the parts are from Marvyn's typewriters. The eyes, for example, are made from his Smith Corona desktop, the shoulders from his Underwood portable, and parts of the head were from his desktop Underwood No. 5.

"Marvyn was an Optometrist in the San Francisco Bay Area who was a big San Francisco Giants fan and a doting grandfather. Many thanks to the Pelzner family for coming to me to work on such a powerful and personal project. I feel very fortunate to have been entrusted to do this. As usual, I made this using only typewriter parts- no solder, no glue, no welding, no armature."

Portrait of Marvyn A. Pelzner (Thanks, Jeremy!)

Scrap rayguns from Clayton Bailey

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:59:49 +0000

On Wired, Matt Simon profiles Clayton Bailey, who makes spectacular rayguns out of junk and scrap, and who is possessed of a truly magnificent mustache.

Next you’ll notice the many steampunkish ray guns — from dueling pistols to rifles to turrets — that Bailey has constructed from materials he found at flea markets and scrap yards around the San Francisco Bay Area. Instead of shooting lasers, they utilize either lungpower or pump-action air pressure to launch peas, corks or bits of potato a third of the way down a football field.
They’re gorgeous and entirely nonlethal, unless you’re targeting someone with an especially bad allergy to peas, corks or potatoes.

Scrap Yards Yield Raw Material for Artist’s Amazing Ray Guns

(Image: Ariel Zambelich/Wired.com)

Fine art recreated with plastic tchotchke assemblages

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:57:46 +0000

Tom Deininger is an assemblage artist who arranges bewilderingly large collections of odd plastic tchotchkes into gorgeous pieces, including this Monet-like masterpiece.

(via Craft)

Tom Deininger - Stroking Monet [tomdeiningerart.com]

Found object assemblage bird-houses

Cory Doctorow — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:04:56 +0000

GadgetSponge features some wonderful birdhouses made from found objects and turned into aviary sculptures.

Bird Houses (Thanks, Brian!)

Dense, beautiful sculptures made from thrift scores

Cory Doctorow — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:27:53 +0000

Swedish sculptor Michael Johansson creates beautiful, dense sculptures made from charity shop and yard-sale finds, arranged by similarity in tetrisoids and other odd fittings. Check out the link for some enormous pieces made from carefully fitted furniture, as well.

Michael Johansson (via Core 77)

Typewriter-part penguin

Cory Doctorow — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:31:07 +0000

Jeremy Meyer, who sculpts beautiful animals and humans out of typewriter parts and other romantic twen-cen junque, has just completed this commission, a typewriter-part penguin. He says, "My latest- a penguin about 13 inches tall, made from typewriter parts. A commission. I perused photos of penguin skeletons and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for reference."

Penguin I (Thanks, Jeremy!)