Showing posts with label Sculpture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sculpture. Show all posts

Giant Hand Sculptures Around The World


The other day, a pair of giant hands appeared rising out of a canal in Venice, as if to support the sides of the Ca’ Sagredo Hotel. It was an installation art by Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn who wanted to make a visual statement of the impact of climate change and rising sea levels on the historic city.
Quinn isn’t the only one to use hands to deliver a powerful message. Let us look at other giant hand installation around the world.

Mano del Desierto, Atacama Desert, Chile

Perhaps the most famous dismembered hand is “Mano del Desierto” in the middle of the Atacama Desert, located 75 kilometers south of the city of Antofagasta. The art piece was created by Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal in honor of the victims of injustice and torture during the military regime in Chile. The concrete structure stands 11 meters tall.
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Photo credit: MarcosEscalier/Wikimedia
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Photo credit: Juan Eduardo Donoso Rosas/Flickr

Hand of Punta del Este

The Hand of Punta del Este, or Mano de Punta del Este, is another hand sculpture by the Chilean artist Mario Irarrázabal, located in the popular resort town of Punta del Este, in Uruguay. The sculpture was unveiled during the summer of 1982, and has since become a symbol for Punta del Este and one of Uruguay's most recognizable landmarks. Over the years the sculpture came to be called by different names such as Emergiendo a la Vida (Man Emerging into Life), Monumento los Dedos (Monument of the Fingers), and Monumento al Ahogado (Monument to the Drowned), although the creator prefers it to be called simply “the Hand”.
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Photo credit: Vince Alongi/Flickr
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Photo credit: Josué Gómez/Flickr

Praying Hands, Tulsa, the United States

These pair of mighty hands locked in prayer stands at the entrance of the Oral Roberts University campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At 60 feet high, and weighing 30 tons, it’s reportedly the largest bronze sculpture in America.
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Photo credit: Jeffkao/Flickr
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Photo credit: Joseph Novak/Flickr

Hand of Harmony, Cape Homi, South Korea

The Hand of Harmony is a sculpture of a hand located on Homigot Beach, one of the easternmost points on the Korean peninsula. The sculpture made from bronze and granite was built in 1999.
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Photo credit: jeito/Panoramio
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Photo credit: Cranky/Panoramio

Giant Hand at Bandung, Indonesia

This giant steel sculpture of a hand is located at the gate of Setraduta, an upper class housing complex in the north of Bandung, Indonesia. It is designed and made by Nyoman Nuarta, one of the most prominent and prolific Indonesian sculptors today.
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Photo credit: theartstack.com

Holocaust Memorial, Miami

At the Holocaust Memorial, in Miami, Florida, is a 12-meter-tall sculpture of an outstretched arm, reaching for the skies as hundreds of small human figures cling to it and to each other. The hand displays a tattoo with a number similar to the ones Auschwitz survivors sport in their forearm. The sculpture was designed by architect Kenneth Treister.
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Photo credit: Dennis Goedegebuure/Flickr
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Photo credit: Scurzuzu/Flickr

Hands & Molecule, Ramsgate, Kent

A pair of hands, 8 feet tall, emerging from the ground and cradling a molecule is located on the Westcliff Promenade, Ramsgate, Kent, UK. The sculpture was funded by David Barnes and funded by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. It was unveiled in June 2000 to mark the opening of the National Cycle Network (Route 15) in Thanet, Kent.
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Photo credit: John Sheldon/Flickr

The Hand, Madrid, Spain

This sculpture made in 1987 is the second giant hand made by Mario Irarrázabal. It is located in Parque Juan Carlos I in Madrid, and is similar to his original sculpture in Punta del Este, Uruguay .
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Photo credit: Camilo Rueda López/Flickr
And finally,

Giant Hands of Venice

The giant hands on Venice’s Grand Canal is the latest set of hands to appear in the world. It is not a permanent installation, but will remain till the end of November.
“Venice is a floating art city that has inspired cultures for centuries,” Lorenzo Quinn said. “But to continue to do so it needs the support of our generation and future ones, because it is threatened by climate change and time decay.”
“I wanted to sculpt what is considered the hardest and most technically challenging part of the human body,” the artist said. “The hand holds so much power – the power to love, to hate, to create, to destroy.”
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via armchairtravelogue.blogspot.com
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Delicate but Beautiful Glass Sculptures

Though glass has this brittle quality that makes it shatter on being dropped or getting scratched when handled roughly, there is no denying that it is beautiful.

Glass Sculptures is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. The glass objects created are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement. On the market, their prices may range from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars (US).

During the early 20th-century (before the early 1960s), contemporary glass art had mostly been glass made by teams of factory workers, taking glass from furnaces containing a thousand or more pounds of glass. This form of glass art, of which Tiffany and Steuben in the U.S., Gallé in France and Hoya Crystal in Japan, Royal Leerdam Crystal in the Netherlands and Orrefors and Kosta Boda in Sweden are perhaps the best known, grew out of the factory system in which all glass objects were hand or mold blown by teams of 4 or more people.
Modern glass studios use a great variety of techniques in creating glass artworks, including working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame (lampworking), glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass fusing, and, most notably, glass blowing.



Stunning Sand Sculpture Of A Life-Size Elephant Playing Chess With A
Mouse

Stunning Sand Sculpture Of A Life-Size Elephant Playing Chess With A Mouse

An elephant playing chess with a mouse? Yup, you read that correctly! Just recently world renowned sculptor (mostly known for carving pumpkins), Ray Villafane, teamed up with artist Sue Beatrice to create an astonishing sand sculpture of a nine foot life-size elephant named Chessie Trunkston playing chess with a field mouse named Hershel Higginbottom.

Sue even came up with a cute story to go with the sculpture:

“There was a young elephant named Chessie
who ate peanuts but was very messy
when a mouse had him beat
and with no way to cheat
he made one last move and compressed him”

The fun and super detailed sculpture is on display under the Sanderson Lincoln Pavillion in downtown Carefree, Arizona until August, so keep that in mind if you’re in the area!

More info: Ray Villafane , Sue Beatrice (h/t: twistedsifter.com)

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The Granite Sculptures of Hope Cemetery

One of the main uses of granite throughout America is in tombstones and memorials, and the finest examples of this craft can be seen at the Hope Cemetery, located in the tiny city of Barre, Vermont.

Known as the "Granite Capital of the World", Barre was established soon after the War of 1812 at the site of a vast granite deposit, which some geologists say is 4 miles long, 2 miles wide and 10 miles deep. When fame of this vast deposit spread to Europe and Canada, large number of businessmen as well as skilled artisans, especially from Italy, flocked to the city to become part of the booming granite industry. Soon "Barre Gray" granite became one of the most sought after worldwide because of its fine grain, even texture, and superior weather resistance. It is estimated that one-third of all memorials in the United States is crafted from Barre granite.

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Photo credit: Melvin Mason/Flickr