Creating a cohesive display of flora and fauna, each hollow, stainless steel sculpture considers the relationship between species and the idea that all life on Earth may lead to an invisible string....
PICTORIAL
What eventually becomes a stately stag or majestically posed lion in Kang Dong Hyun’s Forest of Coexistence starts with countless metallic branches that splay in every direction. The Korean artist welds spindly shoots and sprawling root-like shapes into facial features and bodies that are then finished with urethane paint. Creating a cohesive display of flora and fauna, each hollow, stainless steel sculpture considers the relationship between species and the idea that all life on Earth may lead to an invisible string.
At once fantastically imaginative and embedded in tradition, the shimmering piñatas that comprise Roberto Benavidez’s body of work expand the boundaries of the conventionally festive object. The Los Angeles-based artist cuts skinny, triangular strips of material that he attaches to paper mache forms in the shape of birds, hybrid animals, and otherworldly creatures. His metallic works often address questions of identity — the artist speaks about this further in a Colossal interview — particularly considerations of gender and sexuality through the lens of his layered forms.
