An abandoned building becomes the setting for a surreal installation of colorful criss-crossing yarn as artist duo Toki seeks to render music in physical form. Recent architecture grads Toluwalase Rufai and Khai Grubbs present their visual soundscape as part of their ‘Synth’ series, temporarily altering public space “through establishing rhythm, movement, transparency, and ephemerality.”

The setting is a dilapidated building on the corners of Channing and Reed streets in Washington, D.C. It took the artists two days to install an undisclosed amount of yarn, winding it around support columns and occasionally using nailed-on boards for extra support. The project was completed guerrilla-style, and D.C. residents who tried to get in to see it in person report that it has since been cut down, with ‘No Trespassing’ signs posted on the property.

The first yarn piece Toki created was carried out in a more accessible place, enabling the public to watch  the piece take form over a period of three days. They hoped that occupying an abandoned building would “engage the viewer on an urban exploration… inciting a sense of wonder.” This edition of the series may not have been up long, but there will be more installed throughout the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

“Our initial decision to create this series was more impulsive than planned, and influenced by the desire to express the music we hear three-dimensionally,” say the artists. “These creations allow us to represent the sound of music as physical worlds. They start with lines of distinct colors you can follow and the more you immerse yourself, the more they blend in and the more you surrender to the symphony of color. Similar to music, the space we create allows you to slip between worlds, to be in two places simultaneously.”

What seems at first to be narrow rays of turquoise light streaming in through the stained glass windows of a vacant Gothic Revival church turn out to be over 6,500 feet of paracord painstakingly wound around ornate posts and columns. Artist Aaron Asis temporarily transformed West Philadelphia’s St. Andrew’s Collegiate Chapel, which has been closed for more than 40 years, with a geometric string installation that shifts the spatial perception within its darkened nave.

Entitled Ci-Lines, the project re-opened the disused chapel for three days over three weekends so visitors could take in both the grandeur of the church itself and the surreal sight of criss-crossing string creating new geometries within the negative space. Built in 1924, the chapel was used for sermon lessons and school services until 1974, and though the larger complex has been reclaimed for other uses, the chapel remains vacant.

“The geometry of Ci-Lines is like an artistic exercise in connecting the dots, crisscrossing overhead and inviting visitors to visually explore a sculptural form as a portal into the nuances of a vacant environ,” says Asis. “The resultant series of cords in tension draws direct inspiration from the existing architectural form inside the chapel. These cords literally render a woven and symmetrical connection between the ornamental posts lining the chapel walls and architectural columns featured along the balconies above, combining to act as a temporary catalyst for observation, investigation, conversation, and realization of spatial majesty in vacant context.”

Asis hopes that the project will renew interest in the historic structure, helping to preserve it as the cityscape around it shifts and changes. Making use of vacant spaces for art installations helps the public see them in a new light and can spur ideas for revitalization.

Miles of yarn and string stretch across inflatable structures, galleries and outdoor environments in these crocheted and knotted art installations, offering massive interactive playgrounds that invite people to climb, bounce and lounge. String is used as both an art medium and a functional, supportive structure in projects ranging from vast playscapes for children to a public NYC installation made of 1.4 million feet of hand-knotted rope.

Colorful Crochet Playgrounds by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam

Perhaps the most vast and complex crocheted works ever created, Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam’s colorful installations are literal playgrounds for kids and adults, installed in parks and playgrounds. The artist starts her design process by creating a wooden scale model of the space where the net will be installed, and thence rockets the piece in fine cotton thread. That design is then adapted to full scale with yarn. ‘Rainbow Net,’ her most famous piece, took three years to complete and is located at the children’s area of the Takino Suzuran Hillside National Park in Sapporo, Japan.

Crocheted Alligator Playground by Olek

An alligator the size of a particularly massive dinosaur is covered in colorful crocheted yarn in ‘Crocheted Jacaré,’ a piece in Brazil by Brooklyn-based artist Olek. The alligator was already a part of the playground, Olek simply created some temporary clothes for it that made it stand out even more.

In Orbit: Transparent Suspended Net Playground

Transparent net hung over a four-story drop offers a rather frightening play experience for anyone with the slightest fear of heights. Artist Tomás Saraceno created the 2500-square-meter installation at the Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Dusseldorf, Germany, inviting visitors to walk out onto the cloud-like nets amidst mirrored spheres.

Inhabitable String Structure by Numen/For Use

Climbers make their way through a grid made of string in this ‘social sculpture’ installation by design collective Numen/For Use. The ropes are contained within an inflatable structure, secured to all sides of the interior. When the bubble is deflated, they fall to the ground, and when it’s inflated, they become a taut interactive playground. The designers describe it as “bodies entrapped in a 3D grid, flying in unnatural positions throughout superficial white space, resemble dadaist collages. Impossibility of perception of scale and direction results in the simultaneous feeling of immenseness and absence of space.”

Crocheted Net Nests by Ernesto Neto

Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto creates massive crochet installations reminiscent of the playgrounds by Horiuchi MacAdam, but in more muted tones. Strung from gallery ceilings, these strange little ‘nests’ offer an inhabitable space that can be either playful or quiet and comforting. Larger pieces encourage running and jumping, while the smaller ones are cocoon-like relaxation spaces.

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Crochet Playscapes 13 Interactive String Installations

What better way to immerse yourself in an artist’s work than to walk into a space that has been altered in amazing and unexpected ways? Installation art transforms galleries and other spaces from blank canvases to full-scale, interactive and often surreal environments. These 15 installations range from pristine spaces obliterated by children armed with colorful stickers to complex matrices of metal hangers that jangle with the movement of forty finches.

Suspended Bouncy Balls by Nike Savvas

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Thousands of balls seemed to hover in midair for the eye-popping installation ‘Atomic: Full of Love, Full of Wonder’ by artist Nike Savvas at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. Not only did the installation create a disorienting field of color, but air movement from a fan caused the balls to gently bounce and sway.

From Here to Ear by Celeste Boursier-Mougenot

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Hundreds of interconnected metal hangers provided an unusual perch for 40 finches in an installation called From Here to Ear (v.13) by artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in 2011. The installation was one of sound as well as visuals, as the movements of the birds caused the hangers to clink together.

Analog Interactive Installation by Karina Smigla-Bobinski

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A giant helium-filled bubble covered in dozens of charcoal nubs was bounced and flung around a white gallery space to create abstract markings on the walls and ceiling in ‘ADA – Analog Interactive Installation’, a sculpture by artist Karina Smigla-Bobinski. Eventually, after the participation of hundreds of visitors, the sculpture deflated and the walls were left nearly solid black.

Thousands of Flowers in a Mental Health Center

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A deteriorating mental health center in Massachusetts was a worn and rather sad place after 90 years of service to the local community. As the building was set to be demolished, artist Anna Schuleit set out to memorialize the building with “a respectful infusion of hope”. The resulting installation, called Bloom, filled the center with nearly 28,000 potted flowers. The public was invited for a four-day viewing. Read an interview with the artist at This is Colossal.

Bouncing Tennis Balls by Ana Soler

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At first, these images appear to be multiple exposure photographs in which the motion of a ball has been captured in its arcs across gallery surfaces. But it’s actual an installation, with hundreds of tennis balls hanging from strings to effectively capture a sense of movement. The work, by Spanish artist Ana Soler, was displayed at the Mustang Art Gallery in Alicante, Spain.

Cause & Effect by Do Ho Suh

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Amazingly precise spirals in varying shades of orange and red create a fiery-looking vortex at Western Washington University. Look closer and you’ll see that the installation, by Korean artist Do Ho Suh, is actual made up of thousands of tiny men. Says the artist, “The work is an attempt to decipher the boundaries between a single identity and a larger group, and how the two conditions coexist.”

Massimal by Design Office Takebayashi Scroggin

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The ghost of some kind of massive animal lurks in a warehouse in this installation by New York Design Office Takebayashi Scroggin, created for the 2011 Beau Arts Festival. Entitled “massimal”, which the firm describes as “design objects that serve as prototypes to examine how physical form can engage the public realm,” the work is made of 20,000 white zip ties.

Suspended Dandelions by Regine Ramseier

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Two thousand dandelions were painstakingly plucked, sprayed with adhesive and loaded into a custom-made wooden transporter so they could be brought to a gallery and hung from the ceiling in a surreal installation by Regine Ramseier. The work was created as part of ArToll Summer Lab 2011.

Field of Steel by Zadok Ben David

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An artificial meadow covers the floor of Artclub 1563 in Seoul, South Korea in this art installation by Zadok Ben David. The work, entitled ‘Blackfield’, changes as you walk from one side of the room to the other. 12,000 botanical specimens modeled on textbook illustrations were cut from steel and imbedded in a layer of sand. All black on one side, the tiny plants are revealed in full color from the alternative perspective.

Melting Woman by A.F. Vandervorst

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A woman melted before viewers’ eyes at the Arnhem Mode Biennale in 2011. The installation, by artist A.F. Vandervorst, was comprised of a wax sculpture imbedded with wicks that slowly eroded the woman’s body, drastically altering the shape of the work within hours.

The Obliteration Room by Yayoi Kusama

(images via: queensland gallery of modern art)

A pristine room, with every surface painted a stark shade of white, was completely covered in a chaotic jumble of colored stickers for Yayoi Kusama’s installation, The Obliteration Room. Constructed at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, the installation gave the room over to thousands of sticker-armed children over a period of two weeks. By the end of the installation, the white surfaces were barely visible.

Post-It Structures by Yo Shimada

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Entire architectural structures were built from nothing more than 30,000 brightly colored post-it notes in an installation called ‘Post-It Structures’ by Yo Shimada of Tato Architects. Installed at the Artzone Gallery in Kyoto, Japan, the structures were created by sticking the notes to each other so that they created cell-like shapes.

Forever Bicycles by Ai Weiwei

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1,200 bicycles were welded together into a gigantic, glittering cavern by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. ‘Forever Bicycles’ was located at the center of the show ‘Absent’ at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the title of the exhibit referring to the dissident artist’s political detention.

Plexus 5 by Gabriel Dawe

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It looks like an optical illusion – a rainbow created by light and water, perhaps. But Plexus 5 is actually an installation of colored strings, attached to the walls and floor of the Pump Project Art Complex in Austin, Texas. Artist Gabriel Dawe is known for his often-complex string art installations.

Field Guide Butterflies by Eiji Watanabe

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Thousands of butterflies were freed from the pages of field guides and ‘let loose’ on gallery surfaces in ‘A Butterfly’s Eye View’ by artist Eiji Watanabe. The insects were carefully cut from the books and pinned to the walls and ceilings, with the cast-off books left, like cocoons, on tables within each room.

Hundreds of printed elastic strings come together to create strange and startlingly realistic portraits of human faces and limbs in this series by Hong Sung Chul. The South Korean artist creates layered compositions by stringing the cords between two platforms; the resulting images change and shift depending on one’s perspective.

Calling to mind lenticular images, which use a rippled surface to create images that change from one point of view to another, Sung Chul’s three-dimensional sculptures don’t quite come together unless you’re standing in a particular spot.

A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Sung Chul uses his art to promote interaction with viewers. The artist’s current string series of printed portraits almost have a sense of voyeurism to them, as if the various body parts depicted are being glimpsed between window blinds. An earlier project, called ‘String Mirrors’, used a video camera and projector to cast viewers’ own images onto the strings.

Says his artist statement at the Hada Contemporary Gallery, ‘The viewer must abandon reliance on their eyes alone and use their bodies and voices to prompt cooperation with the work. Stripping away the isolating experience traditionally encountered within art galleries, Hong initiates a dialogue with and between viewers, instilling the sense of community prised in Korean culture.”