Skull Nickels. My friend Ben (previously) shot me a link to this article about carved coins called Hobo Nickels. Although the history of carving miniature bas relief sculptures into coins stretches back to the 18th century if not earlier, it was greatly popularized in the early 20th century with the introduction of the Buffalo nickel. This particular coin was minted using soft metal and was imprinted with the portrait of an indian with bold features, making it easier to deface and transform into the portraits of other people, animals, or even scenery. Add to that the idle hands of unemployed artists during the depression (thus, “hobo”) and soon a flood of curious numismatic treasures were born.
Most of the images on hobo nickels are too folk artsy for my taste, however a number of artists etched away the flesh of the subject to reveal these awesomely macabre skulls. Hobo nickel carving remains a popular hobby today and it even has a society. Don’t you wish we had actual money that looked like this? Glass Pixel Cell Rabbit by Kohei Nawa. Japanese artist Kohei Nawa (previously) just unveiled his latest creation, a small rabbit taxidermy covered in hundreds of translucent glass beads. Nawa refers to this sculpture series as pixel cell animals, and explains that “by covering the surface of an object with transparent glass beads, the existence of the object itself is replaced by ‘a husk of light’, and the new vision ‘the cell of an image’ is shown.”
This appears to be his first new pixel cell animal in nearly two years. (via mu-um) Trees in clouds testing doubts. Alive but barely breathing. Colossal | art + design.