Danish artist Nina Maria Kleivan replaced her new-born daughter’s baby clothes with uniforms of known dictators .

No, Ms. Kleivan is not a fan of dictatorship, she just used this opportunity to show that evil is present in all of us, no matter how innocent we may look. The idea for this unusual art project came to Nina after she suffered some complications from her pregnancy,and was forced to spend some time at home.

Away from her art studio, the artist chose her young daughter, Faustina, as a canvas. Looking at her, Nina started contemplating on the idea that each human being starts with a clean slate and has the opportunity to do good or bad, in life. “Even my daughter could end up ruling Denmark with an iron fist. The possibility is still there,” she says.

Like the Childzilla series, Potency may be comical, but it’s meant to have people ponder on where evil comes from. Read More »

Modern pole-dancing may be attractive to look-at, but in terms of difficulty, it’s nothing to the old Indian sport of Mallakhamb.

Mallakhamb originated in Maharastra, India, during the 12th century, as a form of training for wrestlers. The word “Malla” means wrestler, while “khamb” translates as pole. This old art had almost been lost throughout the centuries, but it’s become increasingly popular, in recent years, mainly due to the efforts of coaches like Uday Deshpande.

The sport of Mallkhamb has athletes climb up a wooden pole, 55 cm in diameter,at the base, and 35, at the top, and perform various poses and feats. The pole is most often made of teak, because of its sturdiness, and before exercises begin, it’s rubbed with castor oil, to prevent friction.

Even though Mallakhamb is yet to be recognized as an official sport, in India, it has been embraced by visually-impaired boys. This art is about feeling and understanding the strength and balance of one’s body, and that’s why blind Mallakhamb athletes are just as good as those with perfect eyesight.

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Phillip Levine began noticing a receding hairline, in his early twenties, and instead of wearing a wig or getting implants, he decided to use his head in the name of art.

With the help of talented body-painter, Kat Sinclair, the British artist immortalizes his designs, on the top of his bald head. “Unlike a wig where you are hiding what maybe seen as a deformity what I do is tell people feel special, original and embrace what could be looked at as a weakness and turn it into a strength.”

28-year-old Phillip Levine and Kat Sinclair often spend up to 4 hours working on a single head painting. One of the most memorable pieces had Phillip carry 1,000 Swarowski crystals glued to his head.

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Designed and built by Jili David, voted the most influential Czech artist of the last 20 years, this impressive work of art was unveiled on March 9, in the Franz Kafka Square of Prague.

Made using 85,741 metal keys, the sculpture symbolizes the 20 years that have passed since the Velvet Revolution. Keys were picked as the main theme because jangling keys were the symbol of pro-democratic rallies, organized by Vaclav Havel, in 1989.

The 6-meter-tall artistic construction spells the  word “Revoluce” (Revolution) with the lower letters considerably distorted. There has been some controversy regarding Jili David’s key sculpture, because the work was commissioned by international telecommunications company, Vodafone, who also collected the keys. Money from an international company, for a national symbol raised some questions in the Czech Republic.

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Made by the guys at RoboSteel, an Irish company specialized in creating artistic sculptures out of scrap metal, this Optimus Prime replica is the best I’ve ever seen.

Characterized as “the most amazing steel sculpture ever created by RoboSteel” this Optimus Prime sculpture is made of over 5,000 recycled steel parts, collected from a car, a boat, a motorbike, a dishwasher, a television and others. It’s 2.5 meters tall and weighs an impressive 550 kilograms.

Recycled Optimus Prime has been coated with several layers of strong, protective lacquer, and all the sharp edges were removed. Now it’s ready to guard your home against Decepticons, provided you’re willing to fork out 5,500 euro for it. It may not be as big as the Transformer drying laundry in Taiwan, but it definitely looks better.

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A Russian ship enthusiast spent two and a half years working on a 1:200 scale model of the RMS Titanic, made mainly out of paper.

A Ukrainian forum user that goes by the name of Henschel has posted some interesting photos of a Titanic model, on which he has been working for over 2 and a half years. Apparently he studied blueprints of the iconic ship from books and online, before he began his work.

Apparently, the main material used to build this model was paper punch cards. He also made good use of drawing paper, yarn, fishing line and wire. The paper components were covered with waterproof varnish, and the RMS survived the bathtub test, as you can see in one of the photos, below.

Henschel also fitted his paper Titanic with some electrical equipment, powered by a 6-volt battery, located below deck. The rudder is operated via remote-control and the entire ship is illuminated by small light bulbs and LEDs.

The awesome paper Titanic model apparently cost around $125 to complete. Pretty cheap for such a thing of beauty. Te photos aren’t exactly HD, but you can get an idea of how much work went into this project.

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Spanish industrial designer Enock Amengol has designed a set edible of chairs and a side table that seem stolen from the gingerbread house of Hansel and Gretel.

Sure they’re shaped like chairs, but judging bu their frail look, it doesn’t seem like they can handle some real weight. But, on the other hand, they do what no ordinary chair can: they feed you. That’s right, just pour some olive oil on these babies and you got yourselves some delicious over-sized bruschette.

Baked to symbolize the short-time life of furniture, nowadays, the bread furniture of Enoc Amengol, also known as Panpaati, are 100% degradable and 100% cool.

via Core77

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Huang Cheng-nan, a ceramic master from China, has created a series of beautiful ceramic bowls, thinner than China’s Jingdae bowl, the thinnest ceramic in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

Huang Cheng-nan’s ceramic bowls range from 12 cm to 20 cm in diameter, weigh between 4 and 8 grams, and are between 0.15 and 0.18 mm thick. His works are so light they can easily be supported by a cobweb. These fragile works of art are on display in Taipei, and will soon be acknowledged as the thinnest ceramic bowls on Earth.

Photos by REUTERS via Daylife

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Named “A Noiva”, which translates as The Bride, the 5-meter-high tampon chandelier is one of the main exhibits at Joana Vasconcelos’ “Netless” exhibition, in Lisbon.

If you’re unfamiliar with Joana Vasconcelos, she’s the artist behind the amazing stainless pot shoes installation that we featured a while back. “The Bride” is one of her most original artworks, made up of over 14,000 tampons, wire and cotton thread.

There’s nothing peculiar about Joana Vasconcelos’ chandelier, if seen from a distance, but as you approach you begin to make out the strange materials she used. Right now, the tampon chandelier is only soaking up the gazes of art lovers, and will continue to do so until the Belem Cultural Center exhibition ends, on May 18, 2010.

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Through her “Dream Anatomy” collection, artist Rachel Wright give anyone the chance to explore the realms of human anatomy, as they walk on the streets. She uses private clothing items like women’s slips and nighties, and transforms them into dresses meant to be worn outside.

Her Dream Anatomy models include “diafragma, pneuma, circulation or sacrum (sacred bone)”. Check out the whole anatomical collection on Rachel’s website and stop by her Etsy shop, if you want to buy some of her creations.

via StreetAnatomy

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Korean art Ji Yong Ho uses pieces of used tire to create rubbery artworks he refers to as mutants.

You’ve definitely seen tire sculptures before, and I posted some cool photos, a while back, but now, I can finally associate these recycled masterpieces with a name. And that name is Ji Yong Ho, a talented artists who likes to show the material’s possible mutations.

Ji Yong Ho wants to show tires, which are made from natural rubber liquids, pass through several stages, but can also be reborn as a whole new other form of life. His new creations are mutants of the original rubber. His works vary from an 11-inch-tall dog to a 10-foot long shark.

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Rachel Betty Case uses finger and toe nail clippings to create cool jewelry she refers to as Human Ivory.

The artist acknowledges nails are neither bones nor teeth, but that hasn’t stopped her from comparing them to precious ivory. She uses clipped nails, resin and amber to create bizarre unisex jewelry that make perfect gifts for offbeat people.

Rachel doesn’t claim her artworks are made of real ivory, she uses the term Human Ivory, because she gets her main material (nails) from humans, and her designs have an ivory color. You can check out the rest of her works by visiting her Etsy shop or by going t her appropriately named website, ThatWomanMakesCrazyArt.com. Keep in mind you can send her your own nails, if you want to.

via StreetAnatomy

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Things don’t get much boring than plastic cutlery items, but put them together like Sayaka Ganz, and you can call yourself a very talented artist. And for good reason, too.

33-year-old Sayaka Ganz, from Indiana, USA, collects most of her working material from dustbins and charity shops, and the rest is donated by friends and family. The young artist uses all sorts of plastic junk, from cutlery to sunglasses and baskets, and sorts them into 20 different color groups.

Then she meticulously ties every useless piece of plastic to a wire frame, until she achieves the shape she first envisioned. Sayaka Ganz’s works range from 18 inches to 8 feet long and the most complicated ones take up to a month to finish and contain 500 pieces. Still her efforts pay off, considering some of her plastic artworks have sold for as much as $12,000.

Photos via SayakaGanz.com

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The Wolfgang Keyboard Bench is designer Nolan Herbut’s of making you engage with a “piece of furniture in a very up close and intimate manner while pressing in the keys.”

This unusual bench is covered with 2,000 keys, all embedded into a layered Baltic birch wood. It might not look like the most comfortable bench, but hearing each key make a clicking sound every time you sit on it, is compensation enough.

coroflot via NerdApproved

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Looks like a real nice late 19th century painting, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s a real girl wearing body-paint, and standing against a painted background.

‘Makeup Girl‘ is a very clever advertisement spotted, and photographed by Peter Kun Frary,  in front of a MAC cosmetics shop, in Hawaii. The girl is a really well painted model, posing against a painted background. Now, you might think she’s naked, but she is wearing strips of cloth in all the right places.

I must say the artist did a banged-up job on this one, and credit goes to the real-life ‘Makeup Girl‘ who kept a still pose and hardly ever blinked.

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