Seamlessly connecting realistic facial features with organic architecture, these sculptural works bridge reality and fantasy, natural forms and built scenes blurring scales and dimensions.

Artist Yuanxing Liang, a graduate of the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts,deftly connects heads and landscapes — the latter populated with ponds, trees and bridges — in wraparound works.

One of these, Peach Blossom Island (above), was created for the Wonder Festival in Shanghai. It was inspired by the fable of Peach Blossom Dragon Spring, a phantom-dreaming world equally surreal in legend as in the sculpture.

Many of the elements in these works transition with remarkable clarity from human to architectural forms, with windswept hair morphing into tree branches or vegetation-covered hillsides, or crumbling faces breaking into rocky facades. The effect brings the viewer inside the mind of the figure, making it easy to imagine they are lost in thought in the landscapes spilling out all around them.

Tattoos are generally lauded for their intricacy and complexity, but these bold, beautiful and simple alternatives become artfully different thanks to a simple trick: the use of a single continuous line.

Made by Mo Ganji, a Berlin tattoo artist, each of these works (if you look closely) starts and ends at a single pair of points, no matter how they appear at first glance.

The zigs and zags required to make this approach work are what signal the viewer to make such a closer inspection in the first place.

Despite the simplicity and consistency of the method, the results are surprisingly varied, from very geometric shapes of human-made objects to organic curves of human and other natural forms.

In some cases, pointillist patterns are added to add texture, creating leaves, shadows or other details, but kept intentionally non-linear so as not to detract from the primary lone-line drawing. (via Colossal)

Unlike some other prominent artists working with more seamless urban camouflage in strange or offbeat settings, this work in NYC by Trina Merry allows for curves and distortions, and operates with the interplay between painted nudes in more public and iconic surroundings.

In this series, her work features backdrops that are prominent points of interest and world-famous landmarks of New York City, from famous architecture and infrastructure (the Guggenheim Museum, Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge) to urban and organic landscapes (like Coney Island and Central Park).

Thanks to the prominence of these locations, this colorful work naturally becomes a live spectacle beyond the sculptural photographs taken of the models in place.

Other body paintings by Trina range from referential to abstract, with blank black or white backgrounds in some cases and period or modern artwork in others.

From the artist: “my surface is living, breathing human beings, making this a highly relevant & immediate. I use non-toxic hypoallergenic paint applied with a brush or airbrush. the painting is temporary like a Tibetan sand painting, beginning to [shift] into another work as soon as I stop painting, changing texture and color.”

Sitting in a single position for long periods is not just uncomfortable but also a health hazard, but is the solution to be found in a single form or something more pliable and adaptable?

London designer Kirsi Enkovaara (images by Aava Anttinen) explores plasticity and comfort in this project titled The Body, a thesis work completed at the Royal College of Art.

The idea is in part to avoid presuppositions about ‘best ways’ to sit or lie down, letting a user bend and twist their furniture into shapes suitable for different activities and allowing for various positions of rest.

The structure itself is composed of canvass and filled with rice, giving it the right combination of flexibility and rigidity to support a person while also allowing it to be reshaped on demand.

From the designer: ‘The Body’ encourages a person to find their choice of sitting by discarding learned cultural norms. Trusting in their touch, movement and the feelings that arise in reaction to these in order to create the most comfortable way of sitting. The structure of ‘The Body’ is made from canvas and rice allowing it to be formed into reconfigurable rigid structures.

“The project started from an interest in emphasizing the psychology of sitting. When we are sitting or laying down we are less aware of our surroundings and in a more relaxed state. This is why the construction of the seat needed to reflect the qualities of human touch, the tactility and safety of which provides us with great comfort.” Many of her other works, both of art and design (or somewhere in between), likewise explore different relationships between ourselves and everyday objects.

Its organic form fits its function as a Cité du Corps Humain (Museum of the Human Body) like a metaphorical glove – interlocked fingers were, in fact, part of the conceptual inspiration for this new museum in France.

With a medical school more than a millennium old, Montpellier is a fitting location for a nearly 10,000 square-meter place for people to “explore the human body from an artistic, scientific and societal approach through cultural activities, interactive exhibitions, performances and workshops.”

Working with local firm A+ Architecture, BIG was first shortlisted then selected to complete the project. Their ability to format compelling modes of visual communication no doubt helped improve their prospects with the jury.

Weaving together nature and the city, a series of indoor and outdoor spaces interlock to shape programmatic and public areas. “The museum’s roof functions as an ergonomic garden – a dynamic landscape of vegetal and mineral surfaces that allow the park’s visitors to explore and express their bodies in various ways – from contemplation to the performance – from relaxing to exercising – from the soothing to the challenging.”

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Human Body Museum Undulating Design Wins Competition