Janet Montpas presents … Terrarium Makers

 

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Jelly Island Cakes

‘You may have heard of river tables or ocean tables that are made from wood and resin. The jelly island cakes follow a similar approach, except that these use jelly and bread instead of wood and resin. There are people on YouTube who do these terrifying terrariums … nightmarish … with various media, using clear tinted acrylic for water so you can see what lurks beneath. Please DO NOT let them know about these jelly cakes as the cakes could become horrifying if these terrarium artists started making them. Although as I write this I know someone is probably already planning something suitable for a horror fan’s birthday.’ — RA

 

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Sammy Baloji

‘At the beginning of World War I, thirty-two Congolese immigrants in Belgium volunteered to fight in the Belgian army. Among them was Albert Kudjabo, who was captured in August 1914 and spent the rest of the war at a prison camp in Münster. There, he was forced to participate in an archive project of the state-funded Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission, which made acoustic recordings of African prisoners of war. Baloji’s work revisits histories of extraction and displacement, allowing silenced voices to finally be heard. In this work “and to those North Sea waves whispering sunken stories”, Baloji parallels Kudjabo’s story with the Wardian case, a glass container that transported plants on English ships. It marked a clear beginning of the domestication of plants, the expansion of British imperialism, and a global decline in biodiversity. Baloji’s Wardian case alludes to Congolese displacement: it houses plants native to Congo and takes the form of a crystal, referencing the minerals extracted in Congo that have shaped the country’s past and present.’ — beaufort21

 

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Walter McConnell

‘A series of male figures derived from familial models are central to Walter McConnell’s installation Of Fable and Facsimile. Rendered in moist, unfired clay and sealed in terrarium-like plastic enclosures, McConnell’s earthen bodies appear fragile, apparitional — sustained momentarily in their fictional landscapes — positing impermanence as the inevitable condition of natural systems. The figures in the installations are digitally scanned and prototyped from live models. A full body scanner housed in the School of Human Ecology at Cornell University, produces the files; prototyped models are CNC milled or 3D printed, plaster molds are made. The figures appearing in the installation are terracotta clays, cast and pulled from these molds.’ — American University

 

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Petite Green

‘Amy Wong is a painter, scientist, and teacher – but is perhaps best known as a creator of worlds. Miniature, botanical ones, that is. Over the past 3 years, Amy’s Melbourne-based studio, Petite Green, have been re-working the classic concept of the terrarium as simulated natural environment to produce new, narrative-driven mini-scapes, complete with human characters and stories.’ — The Plant Hunter

The function and meaning of terrariums has changed a lot over time. Where do your creations sit against the more classic concept of the terrarium?

Amy Wong: Originally, in the 1800s, when Nathaniel Ward designed the first terrarium it was for transporting plants across the world. Then he wanted terrariums to feed the hungry. Now, I think, with most terrariums these days being open rather than sealed, it’s less about creating something scientifically accurate or useful and more about possessing something that’s aesthetically pleasing. All the terrariums I create are, as much as possible, to scale. I want the plants and the figurines to relate to each other in a realistic way, rather than just being an odd jumble of plants and objects thrown together.

So a large part of your interest is in story-telling, rather than re-creating or simulating natural environments in a scientifically accurate sense?

AW: Yes I think so. Even though I approach the creation of the terrarium from a scientific, technical perspective, I want people to appreciate it from an artistic point of view.

A preference for the macabre – actually sometimes when I peer into your terrariums, even the seemingly innocent ones, I often have this impression of an undercurrent of maybe something darker, or more ominous, something unseen. What do you think of this?

AW: I think just about everything miniaturized could be seen as a little bit twisted, because everything seems so realistic even while it’s all trapped and frozen under a glass dome.

The humans are frozen but the plants are still growing. So there’s this tension, this threat, that the plants and the natural world might one day overwhelm and destroy the humans.

AW: I think so.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Max Hooper Schneider City of Yesterday and its Planning, 2016

Audio tapes, humidifier, soil, water, seeds, LED lights, custom acrylic glass case, painted stainless steel

 

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Vaughn Bell

Viewers experience the landscape at eye-level by placing their heads within the terrarium-like structures. The experience is multi-sensory and immersive, with muffled sounds and smells of earth and moss. Viewers find themselves in intimate proximity to soil, plants, and each other, sharing the same air.

 

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Richard Walsh

3rd habitat (vivarium terrarium), this one’s for a boa constrictor.

 

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Daniel Zeller

‘Taking the concept of a terrarium to a new level, product developer Daniel Zeller has made the Terrarium Desktop to bring nature right at his workspace. Daniel created this custom terrarium desk after being fed up with the long, chilly winters in Norway. The Terrarium Desk hides inside a mini garden illuminated with LEDs and the beauty of green plants can be enjoyed from the tempered glass on the tabletop. The desk’s pullout drawer lets you water the plants with ease.’ — collaged

 

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Tetsumi Kudo

‘When people use the word “outsider” about an artist, the image it conjures up is of someone outside of the gallery system, making work with a sense of compulsion and hidden obsession. Yet the late, legendary Tetsumi Kudo had his own completely unique visual vocabulary and approach to art. He was someone who separated himself from country and category.

‘His work is mindblowing. Strange monstrous hands and melted faces grip aquariums filled with stripy phallus-fish and plastic crap. Acid-green cock caterpillars crawl around cages filled with violently unnatural roses. Lips, dicks, flowers and electronics are contained in odd boxes and cages exuding violent hyper colours. It’s like an alien gardening show in which human beings, supermarket shit and electrical engineering are fused together.

‘Kudo never showed in the US in his lifetime and is little known to the general public. Yet his legacy is huge; his influence can be seen in the work of David Altmejd, Jake and Dinos Chapman and the late Mike Kelley. “Kudo’s works looked less like sculpture than like movie props from lurid science fiction film,” Kelley wrote in 2008. “They did not resemble any other contemporary sculpture I was familiar with, and I admired them greatly.” He spoke of Kudo’s “grotesque rendering of the body, cut into pieces or dissolving into puddles of goo.” Paul McCarthy, meanwhile, has been discussing Kudo in lectures since 1968, and talked about him in his book Low Life Slow Life: Tidebox Tidebook.

‘According to the highly respected New York gallerist Andrea Rosen, who represents Kudo’s estate, the artist was recognised during his lifetime, but that attention faded. “It wasn’t just that it was out of fashion,” she says, “but that we actually stopped really being able to digest this more visceral work. It’s people like Paul McCarthy that allowed us to really look at Kudo’s work again. If you talk to Paul, he would say he was in Paris in the 60s looking at Kudo’s work and it was the greatest influence in his life. It’s two-sided – because of someone like Paul we’re able to really look at the works again. But it’s because of Kudo that we have Paul.”’ — Dazed Digital

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How to build a waterfall for a terrarium

‘To make this project waterproof I used a combination of two different sealers. After the waterfall construction was finished, I used four coats of a non-toxic acrylic -called shields all (found at this site: hytechsales.com/prod50.html). Then for the areas to be constantly submerged in water, I used aquarium safe silicone sealant (found at Home Depot)-by smearing one layer of the silicone all over what would become the two lagoons. To be safe, I went beyond what I knew would be the water lines, and then sprinkled some colored sand as a way of covering up the look that the silicone leaves behind. I also sprinkled colored sand all over the visible sections of the sculpture -after the last layer of acrylic was applied. This counteracted the “shininess” left behind by the acrylic sealant.

‘Special note: the second video incorporates an expanding foam product. Expanding foam is considered to be very toxic, and you should use a professional gas mask, gloves, protective eyewear and protective clothing when using it. Ideally you want to use this stuff outdoors and let it cure for over 24 hours.’ — Lizard-landscapes.com

 

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James Findley

You often mention that planning is the most important. Do you stick to that, or do you simply follow intuition?

James Findley: Whilst planning can be important, especially when you first start out, it is great fun to just play around with styles and aquascape instinctively. I never draw anything, or plan it out on paper, but I often wake up in the night from dreaming about what I’m going to do – especially when it is a very large display tank. I feel very lucky because I am always scaping a tank, or getting ready to scape the next one, so it means I am constantly lost in a world of aquascaping! So I suppose you could say that I mentally plan my aquaecapes.

An aquascape shows how it is only really child-like imperfection that can be perfect in the aquascaping world. If you plant a perfectly symmetrical, ordered, neat aquascape then it doesn’t look natural and it doesn’t look very beautiful either. Only by connecting to our instincts can we truly create something that is perfect imperfection: something that reflects the beauty of Nature’s genuine chaos.

What do you think about circulation and filtration and what is the flow in your tanks?

JF: There is a lot of discussion about flow lately, but I have run tanks with relatively low flow in the past and had fantastic results with them, so for me it is not such a vital issue, except on the larger 1000 litre or more displays, in which I often add an extra power head for additional movement. Because the body of water is so large in these tanks, I do find that a bit of extra flow helps – but I do not use a mathematical equation to work it out.

Which type of lighting do you use (t5, MH or LED)?

JF: My favorite kind of lighting is halide lighting, followed by T-5s. I have tested various LED lights on planted tanks but unfortunately so far I have not found one that is good enough. Because I make sure that everything in The Green Machine works for planted tanks, they do not currently stock any LEDs – everything in there has to pass our rigorous tests first, and so far we have not found any LED that passes our tests. But I hope that there will be some good LEDs soon. Personally I hope that one will be developed quite soon, so I think it is best to save your money for a little longer until a really great LED light is developed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mark Dion The Library for the Birds of New York, 2016

‘Artist, environmentalist, and obsessive organizer-of-everything, Mark Dion has constructed a “Library for the Birds of New York” at the Tanya Bonakdar Gallery… and the birds themselves couldn’t care less. A single white oak tree acts as a bookshelf and temporary habitat for 2 species of birds: Canaries, and Zebra Finches (the brown ones are male, the white ones are female).

‘The 22 birds nest, perch, and poop on hundreds of books ranging in topics from bird identification, navigation, and predators. They do not however, read any of them. And I think that’s the point. There is a human need to investigate, categorize, transcribe, and too often kill/capture nature, that all seems uninteresting, if not completely pointless, to the “nature” itself.’ — David Behringer

 

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Plant-in City

‘Plant-in City is a collaboration between architects, designers, and technologists who are building new ways of interacting with nature. Our 21st century sculptural terrariums combine modular architecture, basic laws of physics, embedded technologies, and mobile computing to construct a “Plant City” where the aesthetic meets the pragmatic.

‘Each frame is made with cedar wood and copper piping, with digital sensors and integrated lighting controlled by smartphone app. The plants live in an artful structure that’s nearly self-sustaining. The project’s embedded technologies provide ambient and mobile interactivity. Through a network of Arduino micro-computers with sensors for soil moisture, temperature, humidity and light the plants are able to “speak” about their environmental wellbeing. For example, they make a sound when the soil is dry and a different one when it’s wet. Additional sounds for day, night, humidity and temperature levels are heard over time.

‘Units can operate as independent terrariums, or with extensive modular components to create a diverse ecosystem – your own personal park. Just think of Plant-in City as bionic plant furnishings for the information age that are equally at home in galleries, public spaces, cultural institutions, or apartments.’ — Plant-in City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Budowa terrarium

‘Budowa terrarium narożnego wykorzystując zabudowaną wnękę na poddaszu. Terrarium ma wymiary 115cmx130cm (szerxdł), a wysokie w najniższym punkcie 70cm i w najwyższym 120cm.

‘Building a terrarium using the built-corner alcove in the attic. Terrarium has dimensions: 115cm x 130cm and high in the lowest point 70cm and 120cm high.’ — mowiszimasz

 

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Mariele Neudecker

‘Looking into Mariele Neudecker’s terrarium’s, like looking into the Chapmans’ multi-part Hell, is a lot like watching TV; we suspend our sense of our own scale in relation to the model in the tank. This, too, was one of the functions of the otherwise merely unfashionable and ostentatious glazed and gilded frames Francis Bacon used on his paintings. Like the proscenium arch, the frame and the glazed box cue our theatrical suspension of disbelief. Like the picture frame, the vitrine is in fact a device with an old-fashioned purpose: to remove the object under scrutiny from the everyday world, the laws of time and place. It obeys instead another law, that of artistic and museological displacement.

‘Neudecker’s work is supremely conscious of this – presenting us with a world at a remove, a kind of wondrous 3D picture. It is, frequently, a picturesque or gothic sublime, often based on an even earlier picture, and often derived from the Romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich. She re-creates misty forests, mountainscapes, tumbles of rock and scree, peaks and valleys in miniature. All that’s missing is the pondering subject, the figure in the painting to witness the scene and give it its sense of scale, immeasurable distance and magnitude. We wonder, too, at the artifice with which Neudecker creates an illusory geography as much as we do at the meaning of them. Up close to her vitrines, we happily – willingly – choose to forget we are in a nicely-heated art gallery, and imagine ourselves in the forest or high mountain pass with Friedrich, or on a ship at the edge of an ice-floe, with Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.’ — Adrian Searle, The Guardian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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RedlineHybrid

I finally got my plumbing sorted out and fixed so that i have adequate pressure in the return line to feed the waterfall/lagoon and now i can get to work on filling in the leaky spots with epoxy to make it perfect and silent like the rest of the tank. For now the tooth picks are keeping the stay water off the boardwalk and kind of channeling it back to where i want it to go to – The toothpicks can also give you a sense of the size that i built this all to, they are standard toothpicks.

 

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Paula Hayes

‘What does it mean to own an artwork that will never look the same from one month to the next? And how does an ever-changing, living sculpture tweak our preconceptions of what it means to conserve an artwork for posterity? Paula Hayes is an American visual artist and landscape designer who works with sculpture, drawing, installation art, botany, and landscape design and is known for her terrariums and other living artworks.

‘Hayes’ work uses living plants, minerals, and crystals; sculptural forms made of blown glass, silicone, cast acrylic, and/or ceramic; and both natural and built environments. Hayes often makes use of 3D rendering programs and works with fabricators to manufacture her large-scale sculptures. For her living artworks, Hayes relies on caretakers within the gallery or museum (or, in the case of those who purchase the works, the collectors themselves) to help maintain the pieces. Hayes considers this collaboration with the caretaker/owner a very important aspect of her work; she created an “Agreement for A Living Artwork” to ensure that the owner is committed to caring for the work.’ — collaged

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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How To Make A Carnivorous Plant Terrarium Inside A Light Bulb

‘In this video I demonstrate how to convert an incandescent lightbulb into a carnivorous plant terrarium. Small carnivorous planst such as a pygmy sundew, venus flytrap, or some butterworts will fit nicely in these light bulb terrariums. The beauty of using a light bulb for a carnivorous plant terrarium is that it intrinsically provides a feeding hole as well as helps retain moisture in the growing medium so one need not water as frequently as one would if planted in a regular pot.’ — Handini7

 

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Allison Moore The Enchanted Woods, 2016

‘The Enchanted Woods is a 3-walled immersive video terrarium animating an imaginary forest landscape. The open narrative follows a single day loop of different characters wandering in the woods. Using photo-collage, animation and costumed characters filmed on green-screen composited together, the work speaks a hybrid language that is more painterly and performative than cinematic. A lumberjack cuts trees, witches appear at night conjuring spells in the mist, insects crawl up mossy logs as ferns unfurl as the wild man of the woods watches from his tree. It is a surreal mix of memory, myth and mystery. I want the viewers’ eyes to be diverted in all directions. In the spirit of the Dada and Surrealist art movement, my work is influenced by a culture of collage, and follows panoramic traditions of the 19th century.’ — Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui

Experience it here

 

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Omni Nest™ Vertical – Large

‘If Milton Levine, the inventor of the classic Uncle Milton antfarm were alive today, I’m positive he’d be amazed at the advancements of the new world of ant keeping that began with his iconic upright design.

‘AntsCanada.com is proud to launch the brand new Omni Nest™ Vertical (Large), sporting an impressive 55 chambers and 11 floors, it is our newest and most dynamic formicarium under our ever-popular Omni Nest™ Series.

‘The most important and unique feature of the Omni Nest™ Vertical which sets it apart from the regular Omni Nest™, is that it is a modular formicarium. You can restrict or allow access to various ‘floors’ of the Omni Nest™ Vertical by way of sliding walls located at the sides of every floor. Therefore, if you would like to start a smaller colony off in a smaller space of the formicarium, you now have the option to gradually allow your colony’s formicarium to grow as your colony grows, so that your ants don’t have to live in a huge space if they are still small.

‘It is fully clear, fully hydrating, fully disassemble-able (making cleaning easier in case you would like to use it again for another colony), mold-resistant, rearrangeable, connectable, and affordable formicarium + outworld homes for your pet ant colonies. Observation of the colony is excellent due to the 360 degree transparency of the Omni Nest™ Vertical. Hydration of the nest exists via side wells that distribute water throughout the nest via capillary action. The nest stays hydrated for a few days.’

 

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Jos van den Brand

Pc controlled Paludarium creating a sunrise and a thunder and lighting storm. There are two Paludariums. The upper is occupied with two chinese waterdragons. The lower by poison dart frogs. Both Paludariums are controlled with a PC and the program is written in Labview. The system can be used through a Touchscreen panel to bypass routines or start demo’s.

 

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Twig Terrariums

‘Twig Terrariums is a verdant venture sprung from the minds of two old friends, Michelle Inciarrano and Katy Maslow. Twig’s open studio and shop is located in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn (County of Kings, NYC). Twig began on a whim – Michelle, a lifelong plant nerd, convinced Katy, a skeptical poet, to gather some mosses and repurpose a cruet jar from her kitchen cabinet. What happened from there is a devotion and obsession that has yet to quit. The Twig chicks spent the next year experimenting with terrariums in all types of glass vessels, apothecary jars, kitchenware, tiny perfume bottles, gum ball machines, giant handblown pieces, chemistry flasks, and any odd glass object found on one of their epic antiquing adventures across the country. Each Twig creation contains something special – a snapshot in miniature of one’s daily life or passions; a brief moment of urban living amongst the mosses; a bucolic scene of a yogi by a waterfall; grazing sheep on rolling hills. Twig is about perspective and perception, creating lush backdrops for whimsical, ironic, and natural scenes.’ — twig terrariums.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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p.s. Hey. Today a very fine blog follower named Janet Montpas, who curated a lovely, kind of scary Xmas post for the blog ages ago, gives us her rundown on some terrariums that she thinks are worth our time, and, needless to say, I think her instincts are highly correct. Follow her bidding today, and have fun galore. Thank you so much, Janet! ** Tea, Hi, Tea. Someone else mentioned that particular draw of Kojima’s games yesterday. I must’ve been in a flat state when I played the games I played because I don’t remember that lure at all, which is obviously strange. Of course I’m going to have to play one now. Thanks. ** Dee Kilroy, Hey. I’d been avoiding Oval for a while after trying one of his post-glitch albums, but this new one is pretty worked out. Wow, I think lucky you’re on the coffee allergy? I dig the stuff, but needing it to even wake up in the morning is a little slave-y. ** Misanthrope, As intended. I’m lucky because my body is hanging in there physically so far, but I’m sure if I was transported into my 30 yo body, I’d be shocked. ** _Black_Acrylic, It’s a good record, the MJ. ** Darbz 🧸🌹, I believe you. Ouch, okay, yes, I remember you telling me about him. He’s a real time bomb. Chris Burden was great even after he stopped hurting himself in his work. I guess I have to try to read ‘Rose Garden’ then. Never would have imagined I would, which is exciting. Traditionally my favorite animal is the giraffe, so I guess I’d be one. What animal did you choose, or did you get to? ** Steve Erickson, Glad you like the Sheffield. The album’s quite mesmerising. I don’t know any of those records you’re hearing atm. I’ll see what I can find, although I don’t think I can go all the way to the Kesha. And I’m assuming you recommend CEASE & RESIST, which, no, I don’t know. Really sorry about the panic attacks. I hope you find a way clear. But good news about your song! Everyone, Mr. E has a new song available to be streamed by all and sundry. It’s called ‘Orange Harvest’ and it’s here. ** T, Hi, T! I’m so sorry not to have gotten back to you. The editing has really taken over 90% of my time and life right now, and most everything else is lost. I’ll get the Amy Cutler tonight, thank you. Sparks were a complete and total joy. Oh, you’re back to the UK for the summer? Okay, I hope the money flows there. Hopefully by September the film will sufficiently in place that I’ll be able to be out and about. Seeing you will be top priority. Let me know how and what you’re doing over there if you get a chance. ** Sypha, Yep, they’re still around and pushing it afar as always. My dregs period of Ministry starts earlier than yours. ** Charalampos, Hi. If Sparks ever plays near you, go. They were incredible. Congrats on your poem. I look forward to reading it. Everyone, Charalampos (Tzanakis) has a poem up at Don’t Submit, and why not go read it and get the pleasure? Here. ** Bill, In my opinion, based on his new album, he has finally found a new spot where he’s making pretty interesting work. Not as great as in his early glitch phase, mind you. As a passionate non-fan of Joni Mitchell, I appreciate the name attack. ** Mildred, Hi. Right? Re: Seabrook. Thanks for the Death’s Dynamic Shroud tip. I’ll go spin it. ** Kettering, Hi. I don’t remember feeling dizzy. Maybe I’ll try again. Yes, agreed, about the video game build/effect. Yes, having taken my share of bad drugs, being sick can be a little like being high. Q.1 I never knew where that gif was from. I just found it in a random search. Q.2 I have a little portable AC unit for when things get awful. It has a tube you stick out the window, sucks in air, cools it. It’s shit, but it’s better than baking to death. Q. 2.2 See above answer. Q.3 Sure, it’s too long a story for the p.s., but if we can find a more conducive context, yes, I’ll trade ‘ya. You be well too. ** Okay. Dwell amongst the Terrariums until I see you tomorrow.