Michael Kontopoulos' sculptures that almost tip themselves over
Michael Kontopoulos made these wooden sculptures that hit themselves with a hammer and almost tip over. He calls it "a system of sculptures that is constantly on the brink of collapse. My intention was to capture and sustain the exact moment of impending catastrophe and endlessly repeat it." (via bangocibumbumpuluj)
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Thank you , Mr. Kontopoulos. I was just thinking we needed more of those.
it's definitely somewhat suspenseful to watch! i think if i walked into a gallery without knowing what they were i would definitely be waiting for them to fall over.
Those are lovely! It looked like they might also be slowly pushing themselves forward with each strike. It might be interesting if they somehow shook a little bit of chalk dust onto the floor with each strike, so you could see how much ground they covered.
I keep sort of jumping on the inside, wanting to catch them when (if) they fall over.
This is so amazing. All art (that i am aware of) plays off of some sort of emotion. Love, joy, and sorrow seem to be the most common emotions expressed by and reflected in mainstream art. I find this so fascinating because it plays with such an exotic emotion. This feeling, suspense and anticipation combined with twinges of fear, that i associate with these sculptures is something you normally only feel in brief, fleeting instances. The way this work magnifies and multiplies this feeling creates such a surreal sensation. I love it.
My life, artified!
Could swear I saw this vid many months ago, presumably here on BB since I can't think where else it would have appeared... I'm confused.
paleoweebles
That's actually somewhat unsettling. I'm sure I'd get over the urge to catch them, in person, but the first few times would mess with me, I'm sure.
UCLA D|MA FTW
I don't feel the need to catch them. I feel the need to gently lower them to the floor and pin them there with three or four wood screws.
Psychologists probably have a name for this.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/09/25/failure-is-art-if-yo.html
@Joanna #6: Mine too! Exactly. As I pondered why I liked them so much, I realized that the only thing that is more fascinating to watch than a train wreck is a train that almost goes off the tracks every day.
Repost or not, this is a remarkable composition.
I'm not usually a fan of modern/abstract uhhh...sculptures? Art? But this piece is quite compelling.
If only he could have designed machines that actually SUCCEED in tipping themselves over. So close but yet so far!
It would be even more awesome if he made machines that hit themselves and then start swearing (much like me whenever I hit my thumb with a hammer).
@16
I would very much like to see that.
woohoo! he was my t.a. last quarter at UCLA! good job michael. i definitely stalked your website before and was very impressed.
-kate
I could have sworn you guys posted this already, ages and ages ago. Can't think of where else I would have seen it.
I think that this idea could be taken further. It looks like the form of the object could meet the nature of the piece better - maybe the piece is made of a material that is more fragile than wood, maybe a seocnd object sits teetering on the top of the piece. I would like to see a further rendition of this idea.
i do like this, it's much nicer than a lot of modern art concepts - i think he could have taken it further though - built more interesting machines, maybe beautified them?... it's like he's had this cool idea then just been really lazy in executing it
Great, but they don't tip quite far enough for my liking. I never really felt they were going to tip.
Reminds me of Jam's suicide by jumping 40 times from the second floor...
Personally, I'd like to walk up to one and place a penny at the top of it. At the least, that would tell us how close it was to falling over.
Itried to comment on the site, but nothing works.
his name is michael can't topple us. like his sculptures.