ART THAT WORKS BEAUTIFULLY NOW

This art really works! Not only does it work because it’s incredibly beautiful and genius, but it also works mechanically.

Today, we are featuring the beautiful works of 2 artists that excel at making art that moves.

CHOE U-RAM 

Korean artist Choe U-Ram’s magnificent kinetic sculptures are composed of machine parts. Mimicking forms found in nature, the sculptures seem like mechanical cyborgs, hybrids of machines and living organisms.

Motors, gears, and custom CPU boards do the work to control their complex motions.

U-Ram’s silver and gold Insecta lamps, for example, have five wing-like appendages that cycle through a gentle flapping motion.

Some of these sculptures live complete lifecycles. They are created, and thus “born,” displayed, and eventually degrade with age. U-Ram then reuses their parts to build new artworks.

It’s easy to see where U-Ram’s passion for kinetic sculpture was born. His grandfather was a scientist who designed early automobiles, and his parents were sculptors.

U-Ram creates videos that display the motion of his sculptures. Check out his Vimeo, where he has videos for almost 50 works of art.

ELLEN JEWETT

Artist Ellen Jewett’s sculptures incorporate mechanical parts a bit differently. These are more about the impression of movement. They seem like they should work now. They appear to be mechanized. But they, are in fact, memories of what once worked, now cobbled together in a new form.

In Jewett’s world, the physical and metaphorical mechanics of wings, legs, and brains, honor the very idea of “work,” memorializing it as a part of what makes something beautiful.

Biological and industrial work come together in Jewett’s pieces, each accentuating the other. She only uses natural, locally-sourced materials.

1. Image: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai. Operatus Lunula Umbra. Urban Species: Kinetic Lifeforms, by Choe U-Ram.
2. Image: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai. Kinetic Silver Insecta Lamp, by Choe U-Ram.
3. Image: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai. Kinetic Silver Insecta Lamp, by Choe U-Ram.
4. Image: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai. Gold Chakra Lamp, by Choe U-Ram.
5. Image: Courtesy of Gallery Hyundai. Anmopista Volaticus floris, by Choe U-Ram.
6. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. The Curiosity of Laurices I, by Ellen Jewett.
7. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. Otter with Mechanical Wings, by Ellen Jewett.
8. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. Strange and Gentle, by Ellen Jewett.
9. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. Squid, by Ellen Jewett.
10. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. The Butterfly Collector, by Ellen Jewett.
11. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. Over the Falls and Into the Sky I & II - Koi Pair, by Ellen Jewett.
12. Image: by BN App - Download now!
13. Image: Courtesy of Ellen Jewett. Clever and Riddled with Secrets - Fox, by Ellen Jewett.