Made From What? (11 Photos)

Sculptures and mosaics made from unexpected materials

A body seems to blow apart into rusty gears. Car tires become a giant duck, discarded plastic becomes a falcon, and thousands of tiles carry an ocean up a San Francisco staircase. There’s even a greenhouse built from old church windows.

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💨 “You Blew Me Away 8” — By Penny Hardy in the UK 🇬🇧

Gears, rings and scraps of rusted steel hold the front of the body together, then scatter behind it as if a gust has caught them. Penny Hardy, a sculptor based in Devon, builds with found metal objects that are allowed to rust. The series is about the physical effect of strong emotions.

💡 Artist Fact: Hardy has worked as a sculptor since 1998. Before that, she trained in scientific illustration and worked as a freelance illustrator for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

More: You Blew Me Away 8 by Penny Hardy

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🗡️ Knife Angel — By Alfie Bradley in the UK 🇬🇧

The wings look feathered until you notice the blades. Alfie Bradley built the 27-foot (8.2-meter) angel at the British Ironwork Centre using more than 100,000 surrendered knives. It was created as the National Monument Against Violence & Aggression.

💡 Knife Fact: The British Ironwork Centre built more than 200 knife banks and offered them to police forces across the country. Each blade was blunted and sterilized before Bradley could work with it, and some of the wing blades are inscribed with the names of loved ones lost by families who support the project.

🔗 Follow the British Ironwork Centre on Instagram

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🌊 16th Avenue Tiled Steps — By Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher in San Francisco, USA 🇺🇸

Fish and shells give way to a swirling sky across 163 steps. Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher used more than 2,000 handmade tiles and 75,000 fragments of tile, mirror and stained glass to build the mosaic on Moraga Street.

💡 Neighborhood Fact: Neighbors spent two and a half years raising funds and lobbying the city before the steps were unveiled in August 2005. The names of more than 300 sponsors are woven into the sea-to-sky design.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced facts16th Avenue Tiled StepsAileen Barr & Colette Crutcher · 2005 · San Francisco163 mosaic risersCeramic, glass & mirrorSea-to-stars design1The city records 163 mosaic panels, each fitted to the riser of its own step.San Francisco Arts Commission2The organisers trace the idea to Jessie Audette’s walks on Rio’s decorated Santa Teresa steps. She had lived in the city for five years.Project: inspiration20059 AugConstruction photo: grouting under way200527 AugOpening ceremony, organisers’ record202529 AugAnniversary visit report; event the previous week202626 MarChronicle walking report and photographsRead the full file →

🔗 Visit the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps website

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✊ “Release” — By Marco Cianfanelli near Howick, South Africa 🇿🇦

Tall steel columns stand in rows on a brick platform, and from one spot on the path they line up into Nelson Mandela’s profile. Marco Cianfanelli made Release for the Nelson Mandela Capture Site near Howick, where Mandela was arrested in 1962. The portrait comes into focus from about 35 meters (115 feet) away.

💡 History Fact: The sculpture was unveiled on August 4, 2012, the eve of the 50th anniversary of Mandela’s arrest. There are 50 columns, one for each of those years, and the artist writes that they also suggest “the idea of many making the whole; of solidarity.”

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🦅 Peregrine Falcon — By Bordalo II in Sintra, Portugal 🇵🇹

The falcon’s gray and blue feathers are made from plastic and other waste, and paint drips down the white wall around it. Bordalo II made it for SMAS de Sintra’s 75th anniversary in 2021, on the utility’s workshop buildings in Portela de Sintra. He describes the idea as an image of nature built from what destroys it.

💡 Bird Fact: A peregrine falcon can reach 320 km/h (about 200 mph). In Portugal the species is classed as vulnerable, threatened by building along the coast, and it nests on rocky cliffs.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsFalcão-PeregrinoBordalo II · 2021 · Portela, SintraA peregrine falconBig Trash Animals seriesOn a water utility wall1Sintra’s municipal water and waste service commissioned it for its own 75th anniversary.SMAS de Sintra2A local blogger reports that an old tyre forms the falcon’s eye and a rubbish-bin lid sits in its chest.Arca de Darwin202121 MayUnveiled by SMAS20231 DecBlog photos, Arca de Darwin202329 DecStreet Art Cities photo202425 JanKomoot photo uploaded202527 DecMarked as seenRead the full file →

More: Bordalo II Builds Animals From Trash (30 Photos)

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🌈 “Sacré Blur” — By Heywood & Condie in London, UK 🇬🇧

Pointed church windows become the walls of a greenhouse, glowing with colored figures after dark. In Sacré Blur, Tony Heywood and Alison Condie give salvaged stained glass a new structure to light up.

💡 Glass Fact: The panels are salvaged 18th- and 19th-century church stained glass. The greenhouse stood at 25 Porchester Place until January 2024 and is now in a private collection.

🔗 Visit Heywood & Condie’s website

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🪞 “Metalmorphosis” — By David Černý in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA 🇺🇸

David Černý’s mirrored head stands in a reflecting pool at Whitehall Corporate Center in Charlotte. Its steel layers are designed to turn out of alignment and reassemble into a face; this photo also shows its water jet in action.

💡 Motion Fact: The head contains 40 steel pieces grouped into seven independently rotating segments, each designed to turn a full 360 degrees.

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🪵 From the “Torso” Series — By Nagato Iwasaki in Japan 🇯🇵

Driftwood follows the curves of a bowed head, shoulders and chest, with the pieces fitting together like muscles. In Nagato Iwasaki’s Torso series, the wood keeps its irregular shapes.

💡 Driftwood Fact: Iwasaki uses wooden stakes instead of nails, with no glue or other adhesives. Even the joints are wood.

More: 10 Driftwood Sculptures

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🦆 “Kumiankka” (Rubber Duck) — By Villu Jaanisoo in Tampere, Finland 🇫🇮

Black car tires loop and twist around each other to form the body, head and pointed tail, with orange autumn trees behind. Villu Jaanisoo, an Estonian-born sculptor and former professor of sculpture at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, made the duck, which stood about three meters (10 feet) tall.

💡 Tire Fact: The duck was finished in 2003, and its lifespan was estimated at about ten years. It lasted 17. By then time and sun had worn down the rubber, and in May 2020 it was removed from the yard of the Tampere Art Museum.

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🥋 Kicking the Kegs — By Angus in Bristol, UK 🇬🇧

A tiled fighter’s kick seems to send real beer kegs tumbling down the wall. The mosaic supplies the action; the stacked kegs supply the punchline.

💡 Artist Fact: Angus has no formal art training. He taught himself and works in an 8-bit, tongue-in-cheek style.

📷 Photo by Hannah Judah

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⛏️ A Miner’s Pickaxe in Tiles — By Invader in Potosí, Bolivia 🇧🇴

A black-and-white figure made of square ceramic tiles swings a pickaxe across a small yellow building on bare, rocky ground. Invader took the pose from the cover of The Clash’s London Calling, where Paul Simonon smashes his bass, and swapped the bass for a miner’s pickaxe.

💡 Altitude Fact: Invader has placed 53 mosaics in Potosí, one of the highest cities in the world. The first, POTI_01, went up on December 31, 2021, at about 4,000 meters (13,000 feet), and it was his 4,000th invader.

More: Space Invaders – Around the World

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