In the last post I wrote about how re-purposed used tyres can be used to mitigate the formation of cyclones in tropical areas. Which is a pretty cool thing when you think about it! Today I’m going to take a less technical approach to re-purposing old or used tyres and see how, what is essentially a one use item, can be remade and re-purposed into astounding art that can bring unreal and unbelievable creatures to life. Even if we think we will hold off on switching from tyre dealers to art dealers just now!
Introducing South Korean artist Yong Ho Ji. A native of the capital of Seoul he has been creating these gargantuan works of art for some time now and boy has he built some brilliant pieces!
These artworks are awe inspiring and are easily some of the coolest things I have seen for re-purposing anything.
Constructed with a mixture of materials ranging from Styrofoam and resin to wood then of course capped off with tyres for a rich sinewy texture and style the sheer imagination and time that must have gone in to each and every one of these pieces is astounding.
When asked about his artworks Ji said in an interview;
“I wanted to express strong living things under, what I thought of as, the term ‘Mutant’. So I looked for some stuff which could express the concept of both soft and powerful. Also I thought that life belonged to Mother Nature, so I brought that into consideration as well. At the time, I had found tire scraps stuck behind my jeep, all roughly cut and stuck between the surfaces of the wheels. I felt that these grooves and slivers could be controlled, and soon enough, they became the body of my actual work. After a few years, I’ve been able to establish my style that you see today. I don’t think there is only one way to expression. The tire was just the best material to express my vision of ‘Mutant’,”
This mutant series of artworks is full of imaginative and surreal creatures based in the real then taken past that into something else. Some of the highlights may be the Hybrid Human category with (my personal favourite being the supremely confident looking Jackal Man), the woman lion or the bull man.
Representative of the term mutant Ji combines and blurs the line between real life inspiration and imagination. Some of his creations looking like they just stepped straight from the Narnia or Pokemon realms. In all though we shouldnt think about this too literally Ji himself hopes that his artworks are “interpreted emotionally rather than cerebrally.
Feeling the artwork is very important to him and when you look at the provocative poses that most of them display you can see he has put a lot of thought into conveying the animal/hybrids moods or emotions. Arguably one of the best examples of this is the Wild Dog which almost makes you ‘awww’ at the sight of its bowed head and doe eyes.
That’s just another awesome thing about people and the things that we can create. Its virtually limitless.
If you’d like to know more about the artist or the artworks or view an extensive gallery of the works you can can find all of them on Yong Ho’s website. Be sure to check out the scale of some of these animals too in some cases up to 5x the size of the actual animal!
Cheers,
Kevin Wood
