3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

The Fascinating Wooden World of Livio De Marchi
Talented Artist Tattoos Celebrity Portraits on Bananas
The Sacred Antogo Fishing Ritual, or How to Catch All the Fish in a Lake in 15 Minutes

The Fascinating Wooden World of Livio De Marchi

Posted: 11 Feb 2013 03:01 AM PST

Venetian artist Livio De Marchi is like a real-life Gepetto. Except, he doesn't need a fairy god mother for his works to come alive. De Marchi's works of art are so life-like, sometimes it's hard to tell they're made of wood.

The tools that De Marchi works with are fairly simple – a hundred varieties of chisel dated back to 1964, an old hammer and a steady hand – but the stuff he produces is nothing short of spectacular. A wooden replica of a leather jacket he made looks so real, you'd actually reach out to try it on if you didn't know better. The only distinguishing factor between real and wood is that he doesn't paint any of his creations, because he believes that the grain and knots of the plain wood are very intriguing. He spends hours at his workbench every single day, producing masterpiece after masterpiece.

De Marchi discovered his passion for carving pretty early in life. As a child he was interested in ornamental carving and practiced in a craftsman's workshop. He'd always been good at molding materials and creating detailed sculptures. He studied art and drawing at the “Accademia di Belle Arti”, and began work with marble. Soon he shifted to bronze, before finally settling on wood as his preferred medium, for its versatility. He soon opened his own studio. One of the most notable works of De Marchi is the House of Books that he built in 1990, in Tambre D'Alpago, Italy. His ultimate goal is to create 10 such structures around the world, of which this was the first. And it got him instant fame and popularity. Literally everything inside and outside the house is made of wood – right from the bookshelves to the books in the shelves. The tables, plates, cutlery, table cloths, couches and couch cushions, the clothes in the wardrobe and women's lingerie hanging on the clothesline are all wooden. Even the lampshades and chandeliers! The house is meant to depict a book-lover's dream.

De Marchi loves creating objects of fantasy and another noteworthy creation is "A Dream in Venice". Made in 1994, it is a huge wooden pumpkin carriage pulled by four wooden horses, much like Cinderella's. But this one glides along the waters of Venetian canals. It's not the only one, his array of floating sculptures include replicas of famous old cars, like the Mercedes Seagull he created in 1997 and the Volkswagen Beetle in 1999. His depictions of a piano covered in cloth, a woman's handbag and umbrella, and a bubble-blower with soap bubbles rendered in glass are quite amazing. He's really good at glass work too, as you can make out from a picture of glass balloons he's holding – they look very realistic. De Marchi's works have been showcased in art shows at several major cities including London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Milan and Florence. Several art magazines such as Vogue, Interior Design, Decoration and Madame Figaro have featured his story as well.

I'm quite in love with De Marchi's "basket of teddy bears" sculpture; it's definitely one of the cutest things I've seen in a while. You can check out all of his work on his official website.

Photos via Craftsmanship Museum

The Fascinating Wooden World of Livio De Marchi was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Talented Artist Tattoos Celebrity Portraits on Bananas

Posted: 11 Feb 2013 01:41 AM PST

Honey is a talented graphic artist and designer from the Philippines, who occupies her free time by turning bananas into organic works of art. Her only tool – a common safety pin.

Even when she’s not working with big names like Mercedes Benz, Seiko, Yamaha, Takamine, Carrows, or Volvo, Honey likes to be creative. Constantly trying to expand her range of abilities, she came up with a way of making art from household fruit. “When I'm not sitting in front of a computer, I'm always looking for something creative to do,” she says on her blog. “We always have bananas in the house so then, I thought maybe I could draw on them but it wasn't easy as I thought it would be. I kept puncturing the skin with my pen.” After noticing that the peel turned brown after being exposed to air, she decided to use this oxidation process to her advantage, and replaced the pen with a the first sharp and pointy thing she could get her hands on – a safety pin. Using the same technique as tattoo artists, Honey pierces the skin of the banana peel hundreds of times, in specific patterns, creating beautiful ephemeral portraits of celebrities.

Honey takes between half an hour and two hours to complete one of her banana portraits, after which she photographs them and eats the fruit. “It's fun! You guys should try it some time,” she suggests, but I doubt too many people could create the same kind of detailed artworks. Still, I think I will give it a try if only to remind myself I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

Banana tattooing has become quite popular in recent years, with artists like Phil Hansen and Jun Gil Park creating some of the most detailed works ever etched into the skin of a fruit. Now Honey joins the group with her intricate portraits.

Source: Sweet Station

Talented Artist Tattoos Celebrity Portraits on Bananas was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

The Sacred Antogo Fishing Ritual, or How to Catch All the Fish in a Lake in 15 Minutes

Posted: 11 Feb 2013 12:08 AM PST

Just beneath the village of Bamba, in the Northern part of Dogon country in Mali, lies a small, yet sacred lake, where fishing is permitted only once a year – during the unique ritual called Antogo.

In the past, Bamba is said to have been covered in lush green forests. The lake, which is considered to be sacred and populated with good spirits, used to offer tons of fish that contributed to local food requirements. But with changes in climate, desertification, and the passage of time, the region gradually became dry, infertile and inhospitable. The locals now face huge problems such as unavailability of water, but the lake still represents a precious resource to the local Dogons, but one which they exhaust every year during Antogo. The event is held on the 6^th month of the dry season, generally in May, but the exact date is fixed each year by the council of wise men. Saturdays are market days in Bamba, and for the first three market days of the month wooden sticks are placed in the middle of the lake, acting as a signal, a warning that the ritual is getting closer. On the day that is finally designated as the day of Antogo, hundreds gather from all parts of Mali around Bamba's lake. The 3 biggest groups are formed by the most respected and ancient families of various Dogon villages. The group from Bamba itself is usually the largest. These groups of people maintain a collective mystical silence, except for the wise who recite incantations and praise deities. When they are done speaking, the ritual itself – and all the magic associated with it – begins.

Photo: Matteo Bertolino

The children and men form a frame of sorts around the lake; women are prohibited from participating in the ritual as they are considered impure because of their menstrual cycles. Once the frame is formed, they wait and watch, until the tinkling of a bell and a gunshot is heard. Then, hundreds of Dogon jump wildly into the lake, armed with fishing baskets, attempting to catch as many fish as possible, as fast as they can. The caught fish are quickly stashed into local leather bags, but sometimes people keep them in their mouths until they can find a place for storage. The Dogons soon become unrecognizable, covered completely in mud. The dance continues, nevertheless, and the fishing quickly turns into a frenzy. All this goes on for about 15 minutes, when a gunshot marks the end of the ritual. All the captured fish are put together and handed over to the oldest man of Bamba, the village elder, who will make sure the catch is properly distributed among the villages.

Photo: Matteo Bertolino

Interestingly, the ritual is a strong contrast to other aspects of Dogon culture. The people of this region have a strange antipathy towards water, and try to avoid it as much as possible. They prefer to live around the rocks, hills and semi-deserted areas, far from feared river Niger. But for the festival of Antogo, all fears are put aside and people jump right into the water to get their fish. So the next time you go fishing and aren't able to catch anything, you could try taking a leaf out of the Dogons' book – just dive right in and go for it with your bare hands.