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Child’s Play
This month we look at how artists are using childhood as a source for inspiration around the themes of play and exploration. A sampling:
• The Monster Engine, David Devries’ online gallery of kids’ drawings transformed into professional pieces at themonsterengine.com.
• Balloon art, fantastical couture-style dresses and sculptures made out of twisted balloons at the Balloon Fashion Show in Shanghai.
• Ambo, a gothic tree house sculpture by Henry Krokatsis for the Artists’ Playground installation at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire, U.K.
• 1959 Doll Fashions, Evelina Bratell’s blown-up scale of Barbie fashion photographed to the theme of living in a Barbie dollhouse.
• Melting Ice Cream Truck, an offbeat street installation from Orest Keywan, Canadian-born sculpture artist.

Source: Trendhunter, 6/24/08

LEGOrama
Toy building blocks are being used by artists and designers with increasing sophistication. Check it out:
• “Classics in LEGO,” iconic photographs such as D-Day landing and Tiananmen Square restaged with LEGOs and shot in black-and-white by Mike Stimpson, amateur photographer.
• “Brick Art,” fluid LEGO sculptures from Nathan Sawaya at brickartist.com.
• “Red Blue,” the famous RED BLUE chair by Gerritt Rietveld recreated in LEGOs by designer Mario Minale.
• “Social Housing,” public housing re-imagined in an installation piece of 250,000 LEGOs and 1,000 LEGO mini-figures by Copenhagen Experiments for New York City’s Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Source: redbubble.com/people/balakvo; Surface 71; wgsn.com, 6/11/08

Refined Play
Budding artists and designers should get a kick out of these toys: bell-bottomed toy characters from Friends With You; 3-D Sidewalk Chalk from Crayola; pop artist-designed iPod cases from TINBOT; and Playhouse set, a kit of Monopoly-like oversized foam buildings from OFFECCT.

Source: How Design, 8/2008; Dwell, 6/2008 & July/August, 2008; Retailing Today, 6/9/08