Australia’s often forgotten, being so far away from everything else. However, I’ve seen a pretty decent portion of art, culture and design news flowing out from our borders over the past few years.
Just came across this 15-year-old girl who did an amazing rendition of David Bowie’s song ‘Space Oddity’ on The Voice.
In other news – check out this incredible Australian artist Joshua Smith, a former stencil artist and gallerist turned miniaturist. He creates incredibly detailed and life-like miniature urban landscapes, working at 1:20 scale.
Joshua primarily uses MDF, cardboard, and plastic for the framing and base, followed by layers of paint and chalk pastels. Each detail is carefully considered – from the grime on the sidewalk to the discarded cigarette butts and graffitied walls. They show the existence of people in urban environments in cities such as Hong Kong, Sydney and Los Angeles, through the detritus left by the diverse population in each city.
“My work captures the often overlooked aspects of urban life from discarded cigarettes to trash to grime and rust on buildings,” Smith writes to My Modern Met. “The works I create are of buildings long forgotten and soon to be demolished. I capture their current state of a once thriving but long forgotten space.”
Although Joshua has been fascinated with miniatures and modelmaking since he was a little boy, he didn’t move into this direction till 2 years ago. Before pursuing miniature art, he had a career as both a stencil artist and a gallerist and his 17-year-career includes a stint founding and running Espionage Gallery in Adelaide, South Australia.
Joshua’s newest four-story work took him three months to complete, often working 8-16 hours a day. His life-like miniature urban landscapes have been showcased in London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Sydney and Melbourne.
What’s his advice for young artists? “Research. If you are doing miniature streetscapes like myself I often look at all the things that everyone overlooks like rust coming down a wall or where grime is forming. Things like gum on the sidewalk and discarded cigarette butts are the small things that can make a miniature street scene go from looking good to looking great. It is all these small details that make it.”
Via My Modern Met.
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