Skip to main content

Abandoned coal mine turned into 55-acre land art


It's uplifting to see eyesores and environmental burdens transformed into services of a wholly different kind. 

   The above image shows us the work of well known landscape artist Charles Jencks, which has turned the ruins of an abandoned open cast coal mine in Scotland into a magnificent cosmology-themed park. Jencks' previous work includes the Garden of Cosmic Speculation in Dumfries, and the Beijing Olympic Park's Black Hole Terrace.

   Dubbed "The Crawick Multiverse," the 55-acre landmark in Upper Nithsdale looks like a modern-day Stonehenge that is expected to attract a diverse range of visitors, including art and design enthusiasts. Materials found on the site, from tonnes of earth to some 2,000 large boulders, were used to create the majestic land art.





   The £1m project is operated by a charitable trust and paid for by the Duke of Buccleuch, who owns the largest private landholding in the United Kingdom. The construction of the cosmic landscape began in 2012. It was officially unveiled last month at a launch ceremony featuring a cast of 30 artists performing music and poetry.

[h/t: Contemporist]

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Weirdly Charming

If you’re a fan of art that makes you do a double-take, you need to check out  Richard Brener . Based in the UK, Richard is an internationally collected artist who works primarily with ink, fineliners, and gouache. When you first see his pieces, they actually look pretty playful. Then you realize the entire canvas is packed with thousands of tiny, ghost-like shapes he calls "champs." They’re all squeezed together like commuters on a rush-hour train, and the level of detail is honestly mind-blowing. Richard spends hundreds of hours drawing these little guys over and over. It’s obsessive, very intentional, and a little bit wild. The cool part is that the longer you stare, the more the vibe shifts. Check out more photos below:

Stone horsemen invade River Thames

It's not uncommon to see huge art installations on River Thames: a giant fiberglass sperm whale , a floating house , a massive wooden hippo . If you happen to be in London, head down to Nine Elms, on the south bank of the waterway, any day this month, and — if it's a low tide — you'll see a group of stone horsemen by world-renowned underwater sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor , rising above the riverside beach. The artwork, titled The Rising Tide , is part of the Totally Thames arts festival and is the first of its kind to be installed in the famed river. Four three-meter tall working horses with riders are shown — two of the riders are businessmen and two are children — though horse heads have been replaced with oil pumps. The sculptures are on display until the end of September.

Official LEGO Slippers

Everyone hates stepping on LEGO bricks, because they hurt like hell. No worries though. For genuine LEGO fanatics, they can turn to these official LEGO hyper-padded slippers. More info at Golem 13 .