Oak twig carved from dissolved recording of the heartbeat of an unborn child and the last heartbeats of a loved one, bone dust from every bone in the body, ring finger bones coated in bullet lead from various American wars, glass eyes for wounded soldiers coated with trinitite produced during the first atomic explosion, WWI cavalry boots made from a melted record of Skeeter Davis' "The End Of The World".

San Antonio-based artist (he prefers "marterialist poet") Dario Robleto crafts exquisite objects using a physical lexicon that includes bone dust, analog audio recordings, war objects and remnants of extinction. By recontextualizing these items he hopes to reverse "historical amnesia" and to reengage the past by "seeking out and sympathizing with another era's hopes and losses through its people's stories and materials." Highly influenced by music, he considers his work sampling. As he says: "you don't have to make up anything; the world is magical on its own."
posted by nathancaswell on Sep 25, 2009 - 32 comments

1 X Semana is kinda like a Spanish language version of Drawer Geeks (prev.). From the site: "We are a bunch of colleagues who every week propose a character, concept or idea to be drawn. In this Blog we share the results of our exercise." The site is relatively new, but so far, this result in the "Sea Monster" challenge is my favorite. Via.
posted by jonson on May 28, 2008 - 3 comments

...with the sun still high in the sky and his heart full of joy, Brian O’Doherty attended his own wake." The artist's alter ego was so named as a gesture of protest over the events of Bloody Sunday. Satisfied with the prospect of peace, he laid Patrick Ireland to rest. Slideshow of the wake.. Doctor, poet, novelist, art critic, journalist, film and television writer/director, pioneer in conceptual art, and author of the influential essays collected as 'Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space.' What will be the next chapter in Brian O’Doherty's prolific career?
posted by desuetude on May 22, 2008 - 7 comments

'Alien' art Artist Jonathon Keats has made abstract paintings from SHGb02+14a, a radio signal discovered by SETI@home in 2003, then dubbed their best candidate yet for an attempt at contact by intelligent aliens. Keats is also returning the favour, broadcasting his work into space from the Judah L. Magnes Museum using CB radio.
posted by jack_mo on Aug 3, 2006 - 19 comments

Conceptual dresses in leaves, feathers and more. Shoes of glass, cultural tradition and ideas.
posted by nickyskye on Jul 20, 2006 - 10 comments

The one that got away? GIVE a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a world-famous English artist a fish, however, and he'll pickle it in formaldehyde, flog it to a South Korean art gallery for $5.7 million, and trouser the difference.. A controversial shark hunter learns of Damien Hirst adding value to "a freebie".
posted by bunglin jones on Jul 8, 2006 - 54 comments

The artist swallowed a pill-sized camera that photographically auto-documented its journey through his body, taking 65,000 photographs in seven and a half hours. (Alternate link, scroll horizontally.)
posted by crunchland on Jul 1, 2005 - 39 comments

The Collected Works of Racter: "A tree or shrub can grow and bloom. I am always the same. But I am clever."
Or, perhaps more useful than poetry, "A Method for Sorting Cows."
Have I read this before, or merely something like it? "A piece that is essentially the same as a piece made by any of the first conceptual artists, dated two years earlier than the original and signed by somebody else. "
In our confusion, we can settle for simple non-sequitor: The Ubuweb Anthology of Conceptual Writing.
posted by kaibutsu on May 5, 2004 - 7 comments