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Artist who “paints” portraits on glass by hitting it with a hammer
- antirez 8mo ago[flagged]
- cs702 8mo agoHi, I submitted the OP because I found it cool and interesting, esp after seeing the clip of the artist creating a piece using only a hammer. My only motivation for submitting the OP was thinking that others here would find it cool and interesting too. That falls within the HN guidelines, don't you think?
- bstsb 8mo agowhile i’m definitely a newcomer in HN terms, i love seeing things like this on the front page. it’s certainly interesting
- AStrangeMorrow 8mo agoSame here. As much as I enjoy a lot of the technical stuff, I never click on 80% if it because it is often “thing that already exist but in lisp/rust/etc, new tool similar to X to free/one extra feature/lightweight”. So unless it is a strong interest of mine, my area of expertise, or something that makes me curious it is a skip. Stuff like that though always makes me curious
- antirez 8mo agoI love that HN has a diverse set of topics, I didn't mean that. I mean: here usually the artistic and literature stuff appearing are more interesting. This looks like the average Facebook art content with many upvotes.
- cs702 8mo agoAh, I understand what you meant now. Without judging the artistic merit of these pieces, I submitted the OP only because the idea and process of "painting" on glass with a hammer struck me as cool and interesting (pun intended). In any case, artistic merit is always in the eye of the beholder.
- AStrangeMorrow 8mo agoI disagree quite a bit. For me the medium, the technique, the process is all part of the art. Yet I still think the end result is also critical. But coming up with create ways to produce art matters. And I am confused about the “doing it any other way”? I don’t really see other ways to achieve the same result. Say painting and photography will both produce end results that are quite different. The skills are very different. The end material is also quite different. The same way stained glass is quite different from painting
- hresvelgr 8mo agoI might agree with you as a knee jerk, but I believe "the medium is the message"[1] and I don't think there's anything particularly meaningful or evocative about shattered glass as opposed to any other planar medium. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
- jameshart 8mo agoThere is no meaning in converting a conventionally destructive, random, chaotic act into a directed, aesthetic, meaningful one? The fact he has a portrait of Kamala Harris called “glass ceiling breaker” and one of the victims of the Beirut explosion called #weareunbreakable suggests that you don’t need to dig particularly deep to find meaningful subtext in the choice of material and technique. If anything it’s maybe a bit on-the-nose.
- hresvelgr 8mo ago> If anything it’s maybe a bit on-the-nose. This is what I was driving at. I should have been more specific to say not particularly meaningful or evocative to me. From the previews I've seen it's all based around shattering and breaking. Where I will give credit, there's one: "Transformation" where natural light is reflected at the shattered glass to portray a face which I find to be fascinating. The rest feel kitschy, it's not quite to my tastes.
- amarant 8mo agoIf you can't tell the difference between oil on canvas and artistically shattered glass at a glance you might need... New glasses!
- testaccount28 8mo agoOk, today YOU officially Win the Internet!
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- ortusdux 8mo agoReminds me of the artist that shipped glass cubes via FedEx, letting the box throwers make the art for him. https://museemagazine.com/features/2018/10/15/walead-beshty-the-end-game https://museemagazine.com/features/2018/10/15/walead-beshty-...
- drsalt 8mo agosorry, this isn't "art" because it actually conveys information. art has to be useless.
- slumberlust 8mo agoWhat an artful comment.
- WaitWaitWha 8mo agoI cannot tell if this is /s or real. there is an entire genre of art that specifically about functionality - functional art. Chairs, tables, buildings, vases, textile, and so on can be beautiful art yet functional.
- nkrisc 7mo agoThis is the worst take on “it’s not art” I’ve ever read. You can look through any art history textbook and it’s filled to the brim with classic art that convey lots of information.
- 8mo ago
- simonhamp 8mo agoFascinating! Thanks for sharing
- rustystump 8mo ago[flagged]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- hn_throwaway_99 8mo agoThis is Hacker News. I can't think of a better way of someone "hacking" something (i.e. using cracked glass in a novel way) to create something new, unexpected, and incredible. I think this is probably the best idiomatic example of the type of story that I think belongs on HN that I've seen in quite some time.
- boppo1 8mo agoAs an artist, this isn't incredible. Arranging lights/darks to copy a photo is high-school tier. Money for food + shelter + materials and I could do this in a month, as with anyone who can copy a black and white photo.
- mrkpdl 8mo ago> high-school tier. This is the first time I’ve seen the language of tier lists applied to art. Feels very weird/of a consumerist mindset.
- krickelkrackel 8mo ago[dead]
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- hn_throwaway_99 8mo agoWell then, why didn't you come up with it first? I'm serious. The world is rife with things the "don't seem like a big deal" only in retrospect, when people downplay innovations as "no big deal/anyone can do that" when something comes on the scene that a lot of people connect with. Heck, I feel like your response is the art equivalent of this top comment on the original Dropbox Show HN submission by Drew Houston: > For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- kdheiwns 8mo agoI've noticed that 2D artists/non-sculptors who engage in strange mediums or techniques generally only make realistic closeup portraits of people. I saw the headline, thought "neat, but I bet he just makes normal expressionless faces." Opened the page and it seems like that's the vast majority of his work. As an artist myself, I'm always like ehhhhh when I see this. Feels a bit like the kind of stuff you see for sale in tourist areas. The technique is cool though.
- d--b 8mo agoyeah it’s definitely a genre in itself. It’s like there are 2 axes: - cool technique and - cool picture. The second is way more important than the first, which is way painters are still on top of the 2D art world. Some people can do both though. And i’d say even in these cases the art world tend to dismiss the weird technique as gimmicky.
- BLKNSLVR 8mo agoAnd the reason 'cool picture' is way more important than 'cool technique' is because the technique is essentially no longer part of the art / picture at completion. You've just got the sausage, and there's (not necessarily) any indication of how it was made inherent to the sausage - even if the way the sausage is made is cooler than the sausage itself. (that analogy got tiresome quickly)
- steezeburger 8mo agoI'm not sure it's so fitting. You can see hoe this technique was done and how it's different from painting. Or like, a portrait made of pennies, or string and nails, etc, etc.
- baby 8mo agoAnother way to see this is that most obsessed artists live within constraints they created years ago, and their art stands out as it is something never seen before: the best someone has ever done within the constraints they took decades to explore and master.
- downboots 8mo agoIs it all it's cracked up to be?
- yesitcan 7mo agoIt certainly didn’t disappoint me. Granted that’s N=1 anecdata. (stereotyping a HN commenter that doesn’t understand humor)
- RyanOD 8mo agoOur world is full of creative, inspirational people. Bravo!
- jama211 8mo agoOk that’s awesome
- elephant81 8mo agoIn terms of artistic merit, it reminds me of https://gillieandmarc.com/collections/sesame-street-drop https://gillieandmarc.com/collections/sesame-street-drop Technique is undoubtedly interesting, but content....
- biztos 8mo agoI’ve seen a lot of his work IRL, he was one of the artists at the now (sadly) defunct Aurum Gallery where I was a regular visitor. For better or worse, he’s mostly know in the “street/urban art” world (which is much bigger than graffiti). And one of the features of a lot of the art in that scene is high technical mastery paired with “low” / populist motifs and composition. Seen up close these works are really quite amazing, and I respect the artist choosing to make the things that can make him a living. Even Brice Marden, at some point, just kept making those trademark squiggles and cashing those checks.
- iainmerrick 7mo agoFor better or worse, he’s mostly know in the “street/urban art” world (which is much bigger than graffiti). And one of the features of a lot of the art in that scene is high technical mastery paired with “low” / populist motifs and composition. That's an interesting distinction. I hadn't really noticed that but it makes a lot of sense. I suppose Banksy would be close to the crossover point between those two worlds? The ideas and the chutzpah are the main attraction, but generally 'low' populist motifs, without high technical mastery. Someone you could either look up to or sneer down on from either side.
- biztos 7mo agoIt's a good question whether Banksy really is a crossover, or only a crossover in market terms. I would definitely call him a high master of stencil technique though, some of that stuff is pretty hard to pull off. As clever as his art is, I think he's still very much an outsider in the capital-W Art World, which for his part he's often trying to prank. (Which they richly deserve, see Exit Through the Gift Shop.) Things like the self-destroying painting were high-concept but also completely staged. For another artist getting rich off his contempt for the Art Market, but solidly on the Art World side of the fence, see Maurizio Cattelan. One person with a foot in both worlds is Alex Face but he's mostly known in South-East Asia. I have a feeling it'd be easier to find examples in Asia than in the West. https://www.artsy.net/artist/alex-face https://www.artsy.net/artist/alex-face
- aquir 7mo agoI would like to be wealthy enough to commission even a small piece for my home! Looks amazing. He must be using some special kind of glass
- smusamashah 7mo agoIn Exhibition section Lasting Moment is showing 4 glass sheets standing parallel to each other. It looks like the cracks are same on all 4 sheets. That is amazing. Their are only 4 pictures though. I want to see them more closely. Edit: while looking for more photos found more work here. The 3D effect by layering sheets is so cool. https://aurum.gallery/simon-berger/ https://aurum.gallery/simon-berger/ I like the sphere more than the skull. Edit: Found some more pictures of those sheets with same cracks in his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/C_34-G0K-Qm/?igsh=MWtzY2FydWQxa2dkNw== https://www.instagram.com/p/C_34-G0K-Qm/?igsh=MWtzY2FydWQxa2...
- tamimio 7mo agoI did notice art as a profession, or people calling themselves artists, are usually within Europe, but rarely in North America. Whenever I stumble upon an art or artist portfolio online, I assume they are in Europe, and most times it turns out to be true. My theory is that the system in Europe allows people to nurture their creative side, meanwhile in North America it's a hyper-capitalistic system and society where you are always running away from some beast -if not debt, it is rent, if not taxes, it's something else- making people run like hamsters on wheels with zero space for disconnection and solitude. And if you managed to make something cool, suddenly you are pressured to grow and expand and look for investors and whatnot. Even job-wise, in the US for example, there's this hustle culture where you are somewhat expected to keep grinding after work, and if you don't, you are either seen as less productive, a slacker, or even terminated for performance issues. If you decide to quit, you might end up homeless, so you are in this never-ending cycle where your life is about grinding and being busy with what's considered "productive". Not to dismiss the rest of the world, but my focus was on the western side, not so sure how it goes in other parts of the world.
- harimau777 7mo agoThis could be a really cool practical effect in a movie. Imagine the protagonist of a horror movie walking through their house when suddenly a mirror breaks and it's a face watching them.
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- victor871129 7mo agoYep, in The Exorcist deleted scene. They removed that scene because demons are not ugly
- password4321 7mo agoCould this be automated, some type of "printer" that breaks layers of glass? Interesting to consider how different mediums are mechanically reproducible to varying degrees as AI and automation grow more capable.
- vstm 7mo agoThat dude hits the nail on the head with those portraits.
- peddling-brink 7mo agoWhen all you have is a hammer…
- dev1ycan 7mo agoAI bros in the comments criticizing a real artist, lol.
- computator 7mo agoAlthough I liked the video of the artist working, I didn't appreciate that they took away the controls to pause, play, seek. Is there a workaround to get back the playback controls on websites that disable it?
- farceSpherule 7mo ago[dead]
- royletron 7mo agoI went into this fully expecting that I was going to be outraged that someone can trash glass and call it art, but it actually is!
- indubioprorubik 7mo agoCould you do this in 3d? Like a iceblock, with cracks running through it, the cracks forming a 3dimensional statue?
- aakresearch 7mo agoFictional artist Feofan Kopytto, who was immortalized in "The Little Golden Calf" [0] used oats and other cereals for his paintings. On the back of the book authors' talent it became customary to refer to his artistic endeavours as "charlatanism". Having internalized it through my Soviet upbringing, I struggle to see why the same wouldn't apply to the art being discussed. LLM kindly helped me to generate hypothetical ad copy for Kopytto in the same style [1] - I honestly see no reason to not relate to both with the same reverence (or, rather, lack thereof!). I'd appreciate a human explanation (re: why?), if anyone has a minute or two. It would help me (and maybe others) to guide understanding why AI slop of all kinds may or may not deserve the same treatment as intent-driven human "output". Interestingly, I think this HN topic is very relevant to understanding of contemporary LLM hype, as it illustrates the power of language (and propensity of human mind) to create an appearance of substance and meaning even where there is absolute emptiness (or, worse, manipulative fraud) underneath. - [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Golden_Calf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Golden_Calf - [1] https://pastebin.com/j7wsXQxe https://pastebin.com/j7wsXQxe