"Geode" Street Art Project

Street art is a ubiquitous part of most urban landscapes. However, when I usually think of the term "street art" graffiti always comes to the forefront of my mind. Living in Philadelphia has exposed me to other various forms of street art, like "yarn bombing". I like the idea of transforming our urban landscapes with street art, which was why I was so excited to come across the "Geode" Street art project by Paige Smith, who operates under the pseudonym "A Common Name". The "Geode" project alters urban landscapes by creating paper shapes that "represent geodes, crystal, quartz, or any mineral formation" that are normally found in nature:

These are installed in empty spaces, like unused public telephone boxes and holes of missing bricks on buildings. Smith uses paper, which makes their presence ephemeral. She writes, "So far I've made twenty—several have been trashed or taken away, and one has fallen apart due to rain". Smith invites people living locally to treasure hunt for her installations and features a map on her website. Do take a visit.

Anne Devries

Anne Devries produces sculptures and installations that explore meaning and truth of current realities. In her piece "Based on Memory" she created coins that she had drawn from memory and  she writes that it "is a visualization of a currency that centers on memory...Ever since the detachment from gold, one could say that currencies are based on the memory of the value of gold, and as such can be seen as a virtual construction of material value":

In another compelling piece Devries deploys excerpts from Bertrand Russell's "ABC of Relativity" over a 3D video of flat cloudscapes that are seemingly interconnected to each other:

FORECAST from Anne de Vries on Vimeo.


Devries is constantly exploring the meaning and concept of reality in her work, a theme which we all can relate to in our material world and the world we explore digitally. Take a look at her website for more interesting data.

Baptiste Debombourg

I have been interested in Baptiste Debombourg for quite some time, without even knowing who he was. The first images I was attracted to are in his series "INCEPTION" (2010):

Debombourg's restructured particle board furniture invokes a quality of our culture that is often prefabricated and meant to look like more expensive material. A thematic element of breaking known items apart and piecing them together again runs throughout his work.


His most recent piece is entitled, "AÉRIAL" 2012:

It is as if the pressure of the outside world has caused the windows to fail and come through; the glass looks like frozen water in motion. About this work from his site, "The mind is everything. The material is the servant of spiritual".  Take a visit.