Careful What You Wish For

This week: advice from Banksy, a treacherous Japanese festival, and rabbits gone rogue. Is this email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser]. Students Rename School House After Banksy, Banksy Shows Up Elementary students at Bridge Farm Primary School in Bristol arrived this morning to discover an [eye-opening new mural] by Banksy that appeared sometime in the night, but the placement wasn’t random: the building itself is used for a house bearing elusive street artist’s name. Several weeks ago the school held a competition to rename houses and the winners were Brunel, Blackbeard, Cabot and Banksy (the artist’s work first appeared in the city in the early 1990s). When the students returned from half-term they found the new mural on a blank wall of the building. Digital Sculptures of Female Forms Rendered in Flowers by Jean-Michel Bihorel French 3D artist Jean-Michel Bihorel has been rendering films for the past 6 years, while also keeping up with personal projects that utilize the same professional tools. In his latest works, he has produced two digital sculptures of the female form composed of a sample of dry flowers. In the first work the body is completely shaped from the floral sample, the woman shown in different poses that demonstrate her whole form. The second rendered figure is focused on just the torso, and has a [cracking marble skin] that reveals flowers inside. ADVERTISEMENT New Winged Insects Constructed from Video Game and Computer Components Before old circuit boards find their way to the landfill, Portsmouth, UK-based artist Julie Alice Chappell [gives them new life] as winged insects. Tearing the boards from old computers and video game systems she cuts and sculpts them into crawly creatures that resemble butterflies, dragonflies and even cockroaches. The upcycled bugs are further adorned with other electrical components that form various appendages. A Glimpse into Onbashira, the Dangerous Japanese Log Moving Festival If riding a giant log down a steep mountain sounds like an ideal way to spend a quiet spring afternoon, the Onbashira Festival is for you. Held every 6 years in Nagano, Japan, [the festival involves moving enormous logs] over difficult terrain completely by hand with the help of thickly braided ropes and an occasional assist from gravity as the logs barrel down hills. The purpose is to symbolically renew a nearby shrine where each log is eventually placed to support the foundation of several shrine buildings. The event has reportedly continued uninterrupted for 1,200 years. Artist Bill Domonkos Remixes Archival Footage and Photos into Surreal Animations Working with photographs, film clips, and illustrations lost to time, San Francisco-based filmmaker and stereoscopist Bill Domonkos creates darkly humorous animated GIFs. The resurrected photos merged with modern animation are almost completely nonsensical in subject matter and yet perfect in their execution, [the more random the better]. Violent Rabbit Illustrations Found in the Margins of Medieval Manuscripts The typical depiction of a rabbit, especially when used in Medieval art and literature, is an image of purity and innocence—[a harmless puff of cuddly cuteness]. Another common association with the rabbit is that of fertility, a sensical comparison when one is aware of the speed at which the species copulates. In some medieval illuminated manuscripts however, the illustration of a rabbit turns from harmless to violent, with several examples showcasing the formerly innocent creature in the act of decapitation and other sword-wielding wrongdoings. From The Colossal Shop: Various Varieties of Fruits Talk about eating the rainbow: from sea grapes to safou, the world's fruits and veggies form a [veritable kaleidoscope]. Illustrated and mapped by Pop Chart Lab, The Various Varieties of Fruits and The Various Varieties of Veggies are now in stock at [The Colossal Shop]! You should follow Colossal on [Twitter], [Facebook], [Pinterest] or [Tumblr]. | [forward to a friend] [unsubscribe from this list] | [update subscription preferences]