Mutant sea urchins seem to have evolved into monstrous, buoyant creatures capable of rising above the surface of the sea, glowing softly against the skyline in Singapore. Made from crocheted lace, these three oversized urchin installations by Choi + Shine invite passersby to pause within them and take in the city through their patterned shells.

Created for this year’s i Light Marina Bay Festival, which focuses on sustainability, The Urchins are hand-crafted and interactive, each one hanging high enough to dwarf even the tallest visitors. Made from UV- and weather-resistant polyester cord stretched on an aluminum frame, the urchins hang from ultra thin cables.

“At night, the mysteriously hovering and glowing large Urchins create a sense of magic as if time has stopped,” says Choi + Shine. “When viewers enter into the Urchins, they will be surrounded by a single layer of glowing, lacy surface, where they can enjoy the detail and texture of the Urchins and see the city, water and the sky through this visual filter.”

“When other viewers see the occupants in the Urchins, the occupants will glow within the lacy room, creating an illusion of ethereal levitation of the occupants, while the occupants become a part of the artwork.”

Athletes have arrived in Rio for the Olympics on a massive scale in the form of two monumental photographic installations supported by construction scaffolding, one looking like he’s about to back flip over an entire building. French artist JR brings his signature black-and-white style to the streets for a dramatic addition to his ‘Inside Out Project,’ a global series bringing real people and their personal stories to public spaces through art.

The athletes depicted aren’t household names – in fact, they’re not even Olympic athletes who will be physically present in Rio for the Games. The first, installed on the roof of a large residential complex, represents Mohamed Younes Idress of Sudan. “He lives and trains in Cologne, Germany,” says JR. “He missed out on the qualifications for the 2016 Rio Olympics but he is there some how.”

The second figure appears to be that of a diver about to leap into the adjacent ocean. This installation rises from a rocky jetty overlooking the water in the Barra neighborhood. JR says he’s been working on this new technique, with the images supported by metal beams, for almost a year.

We previously featured JR’s large-scale work of urban camouflage outside the Louvre in Paris, where a black-and-white photographic installation made the museum’s iconic 11,000-square-foot pyramid by I.M. Pei seem to disappear. Other ‘Inside Out Project’ installations have included massive paste-ups inside Paris’ Pantheon building as well as covering a mass area of the ground in New York City’s Times Square.

Busting out beyond small proportions, delicate materials and indoor settings, origami has a chance to bloom, bringing bold colors and unexpected patterns to urban surfaces around the world. Paris-based street artist Mademoiselle Maurice installs large-scale origami artworks on public walls, ceilings, crumbling stone castles and even beach rocks, everywhere from Singapore to San Francisco. While some of her creations are made on canvas or installed in galleries, others are made to be destroyed, as ephemeral as real flowers blossoming and then dying on a branch.

Maurice says she was first inspired to work with origami while living in Tokyo for a year. She was there when the devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant explosion occurred in 2011, and wanted to make art reflecting how she felt about the tragedy. Her first project came from the legend of 1,000 origami cranes, an ancient tale promising that anyone who manages to fold that many tiny paper cranes will be granted a wish by the gods.

Growing up in the urban confines of Paris, which she found rather grey and monotonous, Maurice wanted to add more color to the world with works that “emanate a carousel of emotion.” In the past five years, the young artist has collaborated with heavyweights like Louis Vuitton, Google, Vice Magazine and Issey Miyaké, and her work has been installed in Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, China, Vietnam, Australia, Mexico, the U.S. and many more countries.

“This is my way to stay discrete and not to impose myself too much on the walls,” Maurice said of her choice to use paper outdoors. “But otherwise I love doing something telling me that it will not last, ‘dust thou shalt return to dust.’”

How do you stop a 15-foot-tall, 250-pound ball when it’s rolling down the street, running over cars and treating the city like a giant pinball machine? Employees at the Toledo Museum in Ohio had to figure out the answer to that question really quickly one day last August when a storm swept through the city, dislodging the giant sculpture from its perch on a downtown rooftop and sending it barreling through the streets as if it had a mind of its own. It even pauses at an intersection and then makes a left turn, as if trying to determine the best escape route, as the frantic museum workers run after it.

An observer who happened to be on an adjacent rooftop captured much of the ensuing chaos and put the clips on Instagram and YouTube. Luckily, the ball is inflatable, so there was no risk of it actually crushing the cars it rolled right over, though it did bend a few street signs and freak out a few drivers. The ball itself, created by artist Kurt Perschke, sustained a little bit of damage on its adventure, but returned to the museum to finish out its residence in Toledo.

The sculpture has traveled around the world, lodged in every imaginable urban nook and cranny, from alleyways in London and bridges in Paris to the Montreal Biosphere and Chicago’s Grant Park. It’s currently en route to Memphis, Tennessee to begin its next residency.

“Through the RedBall Project I utilize my opportunity as an artist to be a catalyst for new encounters within the everyday,” says Perschke. “Through the magnetic, playful and charismatic nature of the RedBall the work is able to access the imagination embedded in all of us. On the surface, the experience seems to be about the ball itself as an object, but the true power of the project is what it can create for those who experience it. It opens a doorway to imagine what if?”

That last statement is especially true when the question is, “What if the ball gets loose and runs around the city?” It’s kind of a shame it didn’t get to travel farther before it was captured and returned.

In cities where greenery can be scarce, these art installations call attention to everything from wall-climbing ivy to weeds growing out of sidewalk cracks, turning bushes into luscious manes or tree hollows into canvases for oil paintings. Moss graffiti enlivens urban surfaces without damaging them, grass carpets unfurl across stone streets and mini greenhouses protect even the most modest of plants.

Floral Sideshow Bob by OakOak

When French street artist OakOak saw these flowing purple flowers in his hometown of Saint-Etienne, he instantly pictured it as the untamable hair of Simpsons character Sideshow Bob. Careful placement of a paste-up on the wall just beyond the flowers creates a 3D street art effect.

Bush Trimming by Banksy

Ivy draped over the edge of a wall in England gets a ‘bikini wax’ from a worker in this interactive piece by famed street artist Banksy, captured by photographer Duncan Hull.

Where the Red Fern Flows by Aakash Nihalani

Aakash Nihalani is known for perspective-shifting geometric street art , typically made of cardboard and neon tape. The graphics are placed around New York “to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city.” This piece, entitled ‘Where the Red Fern Flows,’ enhances some wall-clinging ivy in Brooklyn.

Mini Greenhouses for Sidewalk Weeds

Scraggly weeds poking out of sidewalk cracks may not be much to look at, but sometimes their very existence in a concrete urban environment can seem miraculous. A group of art students in France developed simple ‘urban greenhouses’ that highlight the plants and protect them from being stepped on.

JustCobe in Freiburg, Germany

Hyper-realistic eyes make this illusion even more effective as German artist JustCobe puts a curving wall edged with greenery to use in the city of Freiburg.

Tree Planter Art for Toronto

Grass pours out of a cracked concrete planter in Toronto as part of the ‘Outside the Planter’ project, calling attention to the neglected state of these containers around the city and engaging with passersby in a playful way. Dozens of artists participated; this one is by Sean Martindale.

Grass Carpet

A green carpet weaves through the stone streets of the picturesque French city of Jaujac, traveling up and down stairs, meandering over bridges and traversing a park. Public artists Gaëlle Villedary used 3.5 tons of living turf for the 1400-foot installation, connecting the heart of the village and its inhabitants with the nearby valley.

Next Page - Click Below to Read More:
Urban Art Interacts With Nature