3d illusion arts: Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Homeless Man Has Been Living in a Grave for the Last 15 Years
Young Artist Creates Portraits from Thousands of Chewed Pieces of Gum
Eat My Face – 3D Printed Face in Chocolate for Valentine’s Day

Homeless Man Has Been Living in a Grave for the Last 15 Years

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 03:31 AM PST

Bratislav Stojanovic, a 43-year-old homeless man from Serbia, has been living with the dead in a cemetery in Nis. He has made a grave his home and says he is more scared of starving and of the living than of his dead neighbors.

A former construction worker, Stojanovic has never had a regular job, and lost his home many years ago, after running up debts. For the last 15 years he has been sharing a tomb with the ashes of a family who died over 100 years ago, in Nis. He tried to make the place as cozy as possible, and claims he feels at home in it. “It is dry and it is warm,” Bratislav says. It isn’t a palace but it is more comfortable than the street.” He admits life in the cemetery was hard in the beginning, but now he’s more afraid of the living than he is of the dead. Most of Bratislav’s time is spent foraging for candles and cigarette buts around the cemetery grounds, but things have been pretty tough since the burial place went out of use and hardly anyone goes there anymore.

Photo: Sasa Djordjevic

Most days Bratislav feeds on food from the city’s dumpsters, but says it’s not as bad as you might think. “It’s amazing what people throw away,” he says. The candles help him stay warm on cold nights, and the homeless man is happy he has finally found a place where no one dares bother him, not even the police. Still, whenever he slides over the lid of his tomb, Bratislav always takes a look around before revealing himself, not for fear of attackers, but to make sure he doesn’t scare anyone to death.

Photo: Sasa Djordjevic

His not the first person to make his home in a cemetery. Last year, we reported about an Argentinian woman who moved in her husband’s mausoleum because she loved him so much, and the over 10,000 cemetery dwellers of Manilla have constantly been in the news for years. Still, Bratislav Stojanovic is the first person I’ve ever heard of who lived in a grave for as long as 15 years.

Source: IB Times

Homeless Man Has Been Living in a Grave for the Last 15 Years was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Young Artist Creates Portraits from Thousands of Chewed Pieces of Gum

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 02:34 AM PST

Anna Sophia Matveeva, from Makiivka, Ukraine creates sticky portraits of celebrities from a very unusual material – used chewing gum. Every one of her artworks numbers over 1,000 pieces of chewed gum.

22-year-old Anna Sophia Mateeva says she came up with the idea of making art with chewing gum by accident. She was traveling with a friend in a car and they were both chewing on the rubbery treat when she realized the elastic texture of the gum made it an ideal art medium. She found a few brands of colored bubble gum and decided to give it a go, only it wasn’t as easy as she thought. Instead of chewing on every piece of gum, Anna tried soaking them in water and then modelling them with her hands, but she noticed the material became crumpled and would not stick to the canvas. The artist later learned it’s an enzyme in our saliva that makes the gum such a great material to work with, so she started chewing away at her provisions, until she realized it was impossible for her to chew all the gum she needed, by herself. And this is where it gets disgusting…

Photo: Gleb Garanich / Reuters

Ms. Mateeva needed over 1,000 pieces of chewed gum just for the portrait of Apple founder Steve Jobs, so she asked her husband, her relatives and some of her friends to help her out. Even if the donated pieces of gum were hard, they contained the needed saliva enzyme, so they just need some time in the microwave before being stuck on to the canvas. Each of her chewing gum artworks contains the DNA and saliva of at least a couple of dozen people, and Anna molded and placed every single piece with her bare hands. However, the artist told The View she is not at all disgusted by the process, as she sees herself having to cope with the same issues as a dentist or a surgeon.

Photo: Gleb Garanich / Reuters

So far, Anna Sophia Mateeva has completed five chewed gum artworks, but she is working on another half a dozen pieces. She will be showcasing her unique creations at an art gallery in Donetsk, Ukraine, and hopes to sell all of them. Steve Job’s portrait is priced at 8,000 hryvna ($1,000), a fair price, according to the artist, who says the gum and canvas alone cost 1,000 hryvna ($125). I doubt anyone will (literally) want to get their hands on it…

Photo: Gleb Garanich / Reuters

Young Artist Creates Portraits from Thousands of Chewed Pieces of Gum was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Eat My Face – 3D Printed Face in Chocolate for Valentine’s Day

Posted: 14 Feb 2013 01:08 AM PST

Nothing says “I love you” like your detailed mug rendered in delicious chocolate. At least that’s what the Japanese at 3D-printing firm KS Design Lab and FabCafe, in Tokyo, are hoping you’ll think, as they offer patrons the chance to “chocolatize” their faces as gifts for Valentine’s Day.

Valenntine’s is big business in Japan. As we previously reported, a lot of Japanese chocolate companies record half their annual sales in the days before the romantic holiday. In the Land of the Rising Sun, only women offer gifts to men, usually in the form of chocolate sweets. Trying to stand out from the competition, 3D-printing firm KS Design Lab and Tokyo’s FabCafe, in the Shibuya district, have teamed up to offer a very original service to a group of women attending their workshop – 3D printed models of their faces in chocolate, to be given as presents on Valentine’s Day. Some of you may find them oishii (delicious), but I think they qualify more as kimoi (creepy). "We were brainstorming together about how the 3D-printing technology could appeal to consumers, when we hit on the idea of Valentine's Day chocolates," PR rep. Kazue Nakata explained.

Techno-chocolatiers who attended the two-day workshop at Fab Cafe had had to undergo a full body 3D scan which captured the expression they wanted to immortalize in chocolate. The data was then used to make 3D images of the head on a computer, and then carved into a soft silicone mold. Then, guests were invited to fill the molds with chocolate which hardened into incredibly realistic models of their heads. It might be the ultimate in personalized Valentine’s Day gifts, but it’s way to creepy for me, and priced at $65, it’s not the cheapest gift you could get, either. I think I’d go for the chocolate Christian Louboutin high-heel shoes, instead. You can never go wrong with designer shoes, never!