Category: visual

This week the construction of Cloud Arch, a Junya Ishigami-designed steel archway planned for George Street, was deferred until after the tramline is finished. Originally dubbed “the most significant artwork built in Australia in decades” by Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, the council blamed cost blowouts and obstruction by the light rail contractor Acciona. – The Guardian

The mural of Ava Gardner on the wall of a public school campus in Koreatown recently drew objections from a Korean group that argued the sunburst in the background looks too much like the World War II-era Japanese imperial flag. After the LA Unified School District agreed to paint over the mural, Shepard Fairey warned that he’d cover his own mural on the same campus if the district went through with its plan. — Los Angeles Times

Google Arts & Culture has just opened a virtual recreation of the pre-fire museum, which was completely destroyed in a fire in September. In addition, the Smithsonian has launched a program that will let 14 displaced researchers continue their work with residencies at the National Museum of Natural History and the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. — The Art Newspaper

Not only must it continue to amass money toward the $650 million project, but it also must pack up its collection to prepare for construction. And it faces lingering questions about whether an increasingly uncertain economy will hurt fundraising in 2019, whether the museum’s long-in-progress environmental impact report will further delay the project, and how much competition, if any, it will face from construction campaigns at other museums, including the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures next door. – Los Angeles Times

Stadiums and other sports venues have become more opulent. They not only have to be functional, they more and more serve as marquee symbols on the skyline. Here are ten of the best in 2018. – Dezeen

About 36,000 additional three-dimension objects belonging to the art gallery are already on display at the West Campus at its recently opened Wurtele Study Center. This is all on top of a $135m renovation of the main building that opened in 2012, doubling the museum’s size through the imaginative reuse of two adjacent existing buildings. Few if any museums in America have undergone a more dramatic transformation, and for the better. – The Art Newspaper

The artists Mai-Thu Perret and Lili Reynaud-Dewar, along with the curator Chus Martinez, signed the petition statement published on the Mediapart news website in early November, saying that Jean De Loisy is “near retirement… and the symbol of a hegemony”, adding: “We ask that our voices are heard, denouncing the hold that conservative [views] still exert on the cultural policy of France today, despite a desire for renewal.” – The Art Newspaper

“Using historical data, 3D-printed pieces, and architectural software, archaeologist Alexei Vranich from UC Berkeley has created a virtual reconstruction of Pumapunku — an ancient Tiwanaku temple now in ruins.” — Gizmodo

“Over the past 15 months, experts have cleaned and repaired surviving fragments of the 12th-century masterworks, preserving 1,345 square feet (125 square metres) of what was once 21,528 square feet (2,000 square metres) of glittering gold and glass. The rest has been eaten away by wear, humidity, wars and earthquakes.” — Yahoo! (AFP)