Lucy The Elephant

During COVID-19, it is essential to do a bucket list of the places you would like to visit and the experiences you would like to undertake, once this crisis subsides.

Lucy the Elephant, is a unique promotional stunt and an architectural extravaganza, aimed at promoting  Margate, a city located in Broward County, Florida, United States.

In 1881, in an effort to increase the real estate value of the city, Lucy was built. Prospective real estate buyers used to flock to Margate(then known as South Atlantic City) intrigued by the spectacular shrine besides the newly constructed railroad.

For centuries, Lucy proudly survived and continued to attract tourists from all over the world. The harsh marine environment and deferred maintenance eventually jeopardized its presence.

In 1969, forsaked by its makers and the owners of the property on which it stood, Lucy found itself slated for demolition. But the Margate community, refused to give-up on it. In an effort to save it, a fundraising initiative was launched: “The Save Lucy Committee”, to restore and move it to a city owned property.

It took a growling 5 years for Lucy to be restored to its past glory. By 1974, after 12 years of closure, Lucy was once more a touristic attraction with an original gift shop next to it. In an effort to conserve a piece of its past, a one-room train station (circa 1881) had been taken from the railroad where Lucy used to be located in, and turned into a gift shop. All funds collected from the shop and tours ticket sales are used for restoration.

In 1976, the co-founder and President of SLC, Josephine L. Harron, lobbied the federal government and succeeded in designating Lucy as a National Historic Landmark. That day, Lucy, joined the ranks of the Statue of Liberty, Hoover Dam, Mt. Rushmore and other Landmarks that are part of American History.

Lucy the Elephant, is the first and only National Historic Landmarks to have been listed on Airbnb. On March 17, 18 or 19,each of the three one-night overnight stays was priced at $138, to honor the number of years Lucy has served as a New Jersey Shore icon.

The Centenarian Chocolatier

Chocolate-maker Borzeix-Besse has been a staple of the industry since 1909. Launched in Treignac by Pierre and Clémence Borzeix, it grew to become a renowned chocolatier, thanks to the efforts of four generations of craftsmen, who expanded Borzeix-Besse beyond  Treignac, by opening new stores in the Limoges and Brive-la-Gaillarde.

Borzeix-Besse  is a fierce rival of international brands. Since its inception, Borzeix-Besse strived to build its reputation as a creative chocolatier offering original design and inimitable taste. Each year marks the release of new blends, new flavors and blends of sweet and sour.

For its 110 years anniversary, Borzeix-Besse marked the occasion by creating an exceptional artwork made entirely of chocolate. The art-piece was showcased in the storefront of its Limoges store.

 The Beauty and the Beast display was made entirely from floor to ceiling from chocolate, no frame was used. The manager of Borzeix-Besse ’s Laboratory in Treignac, Rachid Makcharrade, directed the conceptualization and realization of the storefront with the help of a dozen people mobilized for the task. It took more than a year for Borzeix-Besse’s vision to be realized as it faced many challenges like  difficulty in making it resistant enough to be transported to Limoges and not crack once assembled. 600 kilos of chocolate were used in the process, scheduled to be re-melted and reused for a next art-piece.

The Perceptual Psychology Artists

The French poet Alphonse de Lamartine, once asked “Inanimate object, do you have a soul?”  Behind the rubbish and discarded objects reside an untold story, secrets hidden in the shadows. This is what British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster actually do: They reveal the souls attached to the piles of junk and tell their stories.

They assemble ordinary rubbish, and then point light to create projected shadows, which show self-portraits. The art of projection is emblematic of transformative art.Their mastering of transformative art echoes ‘perceptual psychology’ as they are able to create recognizable images from discarded waste and scrap metal.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster blur the line between reality and fantasy, breathing life into rubbish and capturing how people evaluate abstract forms. Throughout their careers, they have played with the idea of how humans perceive abstract images and define them with meaning.

Aside from their shadow creations, Tim Noble and Sue Webster also do light sculptures of iconic pop culture symbols, which can be found in British seaside towns, Las Vegas and Times Square. With the aid of complex light sequencing these signs perpetually flash and spiral out messages of everlasting love, and hate.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster are consider rebel artists because of their remarkable anti-monuments, anti-art, and their fusion of opposites, such as: Form and anti-form, high culture and anti-culture, male and female, craft and rubbish, sex and violence.

Tim Noble and Sue Webster have been recognized by several institutions for their impact and influences. To name a few, they were awarded Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Art at Nottingham Trent, the ARKEN Prize at Arken, Museum of Modern Art.

Since their first permanent public sculpture at Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, called “Toxic Schizophrenia”and their solo show in London: “British Rubbish”, they have enjoyed international recognition. Their work can be found all over the globe, such as at: AISTHI Foundation, Beirut; Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Artis-François Pinault, France; Berengo Studio, Venice; The British Museum, London; Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens; Es Baluard Museum, Palma, Spain; The Goss-Michael Collection, Dallas; Honart Museum, Tehran, Iran; Lyonel-Feininger Museum, Quedlinburg, Germay; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Portrait Gallery, London; Nicola Erni Collection, Zug, Switzerland; The Olbricht Collection, Berlin; Project Space 176–The Zabludowicz Collection, London; Saatchi Collection, London; Samsung Museum, Seoul, Korea; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Wemhöner Collection, Germany.

Zulf The Artist of Lights and Shadows

Between shadows and lights, at the crossroad of twilight, you can grasp the soul of a woman. That’s how UK contemporary artist Zulf draws portraits of ladies half-hidden in the shadows.

Drawn on black paper using a combination of pastel and charcoal, the drawings show the side of a person’s face as it emerges into the light. As if Zulf through his drawings wanted to capture the battle that people face when submerged by darkness.

The result is as melodramatic as it is mesmerizing. The artist’s knowledge of lights and shadows is evident in his minimalist approach to portrait drawing as well as his attention to details. The  portraits seems animated as part of them is emerged by light whilst the other by darkness. Experimenting with reflection, the artist gives you the illusion of a moving silhouette.

Zulf cinematic eye is portrayed in the sense of realism he confers to his drawings that is why he adds peach fuzz and texture to the skin of his models.

It takes an exceptional person to look past the façades of people. With his artistic touch, Zulf is not only able to capture it but make others feel it through his drawings. His models become real people striving through the world, fighting the ultimate battle to emerge back into life.

The Illusion Museum

Tucked in the somewhat magical looking Old Town Square, across from Orloj, the world’s oldest and operational clock, which was first installed in 1410, stands a shrine to illusions. IAM Prague is Czech Republic’s first museum dedicated to illusion and trick art.

As illusions have shades, so does this museum. Each type of illusion has its own floor, some rooted deep in history, others contemporary and cutting-edge, from anamorphic installations which render renowned historical figures in unexpected ways to metallurgical painting, trick art, spatial illusions, and more. Life and history seem to come to life in this historical building of three floors.

As you embark, in its halls, on an adventure across time and space, you will encounter works of art from internationally-recognized artists such as Patrick Hughes, Patrik Proško, as well as other talents, like Ivana Štenclová and Ladislav Vlna.

The experience promises to be exceptional, as humans long for “illusions”: the only sustainers of hopes and dreams that wither and die when reality shines.

As you walk through the gates of IAM Prague, you will discover how perspective can open up new worlds, you will be able to do what you wish you could do in your dreams: take pictures of your illusions.

The Wood Whisperer

Woodcarver Geppetto has found his match in real life with Italian artist Peter Demetz who has a unique gift of turning wood into flesh.

Peter Demetz’s wooden sculptures are so life-like that one cannot help but admire his sense of perfection, attention to particularities, and his mastery of human anatomy. Peter Demetz’s wooden art pieces look like paintings done with warm wooden color with special attention to tactile appearance and details like the creases of clothing, body curves, and strands of hair.

Peter Demetz’s life-like artistry, and very much life-like is stunningly emotional. It spotlights those who are always looking elsewhere, in the horizon, as if longing to escape their present.

That is why his art pieces rarely ever face the viewer – their backs are turned, and their sight is either fixed afar or on the ground. As most tortured souls, always looking afar, gazing dreamily in search of escape, comfort and hope elsewhere.

As if photographed during their daily lives, Peter Demetz captures that vulnerable moment when  sadness overtakes them, which he depicts by their posture. His sculptures take center stage while the background fades away.

Like a seasoned poet, Peter Demetz captures beautifully the sadness of those who might be present among us but their hearts are elsewhere, those who might want to disappear but in reality all they really want is to be found.    

Italian Painter Marco Grassi

Marco Grassi is an Italian oil painter who with a strike of a brush captures the soul and essence of his muse. His perfectionism is mind buckling, spectators can mistake his paintings for photographs.

You can easily drown in the eyes of the portrait you are gazing upon; you get the illusion that infront of you stands a living, breathing human being, a volcano of emotions that will come to life in any second.

Marco Grassi’s hyperrealism is to an extent that his muse might mistake his paintings for mirrors. His eye for details, his thoroughness, combined with his talent, result in a realism that can take one’s breath-away. With a dash of surrealism, Grassi breathes a pinch of magic into his portraits. Marco Grassi subjects’ have such an intensity in their eyes and emotions in their facial expressions that appeal to the observer and immediately forge a bond with him.

Born in 1966, the Italian painter currently lives in Lugano, Switzerland.  Since the beginning of his career, Marco Grassi developed his own style, which pays tribute to women’s raw beauty and capture their vulnerability while they are being painted.

Grassi‘s paintings have been exhibited around the world, such as: Art Basel, SCOPE Basel and the Moscow Art Fair. He was selected to be at the opening of the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2011.

Luxurious Tiny Home

Olive Nest Tiny Homes, a company specialized in building luxurious compact homes launched its latest offering: The Elsa, a 28-foot tiny house of 323-square-foot.

The tiny luxurious home, comes with a separate pergola trailer with porch swing and greenhouse.

The exterior is finished with 1×8 cedar shiplap siding, a gray standing seam metal roof, and a matching four panel glass front door.

The interior includes, edge cherry stair treads, a bathroom counter, and a pivoting bar. that accommodates around four people.  There is also a zone lighting system with recessed lighting and engraved control panels.

The kitchen includes quartz counter-tops, a full size gas range and refrigerator, as well as a stainless steel sink with modern faucet.

The living room is a full size pull out sleeper sofa with storage.

 

 

3D Circus

In 1976, inspired by Austrian Peter Hajek, “Sarah Roncalli, Tochter des Mondes”, Bernhard Paul and André Heller teamed up and launched a German circus: Circus Roncalli.

The circus is one of the oldest and most successful circuses in Europe, it owns the largest circus collections in the world, including old costumes, circus books and posters, which they plan to display in a museum.

Bernhard Paul and André Heller have always been visionaries. It is thanks to their perseverance and trend-setting thinking that they managed to sustain their shows for decades. That is why, in order to follow current times and please conscientious clients, Circus Roncalli decided to replace live animals with holographic ones thus joining the fight against animal cruelty which circuses have been accused of for years.

Thanks to Bluebox and Optoma projectors , clients can see the 3D animals from their seat no matter where they are seated in the room.

The circus collaborated with Bluebox to create stunning visuals. Eleven ZU 850 laser projectors were used to create the holographic animals that include prancing horses and fierce lions.

Death Defying Swimming Pool

Compass Ceramic Pools is a UK company specialized in the professional installation of indoor and outdoor pools which has forged a solid reputation turning fantasy pools into reality.  In one of their most daring endeavor yet, Compass Ceramic decided to set-up a death defying swimming pool with a 360 degrees view of London.  The new architecture set in central London, will allow visitors to float over 200 meters above the capital’s skyline.

Pool designers at Compass Pools have developed Infinity London, the only building in the world to incorporate a 360-degree infinity pool. The concept, also referred to by the Greek lemniscate symbol (∞), features a 600,000-litre pool built right on top of a 55-storey building. The pool is made from cast acrylic rather than glass, as this material transmits light at a similar wavelength to water so that the pool will look perfectly clear.

The floor of the pool is also transparent, allowing visitors to see the swimmers and sky above. Swimmers will access the pool through a rotating spiral staircase based on the door of a submarine, rising from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out.

Other advanced technical features include a built-in anemometer to monitor the wind speed. This is linked to a computer-controlled building management system to ensure the pool stays at the right temperature and water doesn’t get blown down to the streets below. Boasting an innovative twist on renewable energy, the pool’s heating system will use waste energy from the air condition system for the building. The hot gas that is produced as a by-product of creating cold air in the building will run through a heat exchanger to heat the water for the pool.

The pool is also fitted with a full spectrum of lights which will give the building the appearance of a sparkling jewel-topped torch at night.

Infinity London could kick off construction as early as 2020 if all the partners and contractors are confirmed. It will have a five-star international hotel on the top floors of the building with the pool used by the guests.

Infinity London’s exact location is yet to be confirmed.