What would outdoor art look like at -34C? The Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel gives us the answer by leaving his artistic mark in one of the coldest places in the world: the Lake Sajsary in Yakutsk, Siberia.
Photo by Okuda San Miguel
A four-metre high sculpture in the shape of a head is decorated with seven sharp spikes. The artist named it Ancestral Retromirage, and placed the head in a ‘puddle’ of colour which creates the illusion of it slowly melting away. This presents an artistic challenge to the freezing outside temperature of -34C. In the sculpture, Okuda used his signature geometric style and rainbow coloured spectrum.
Photo via streetartnews.net
The artist’s creation was inspired by Yakut mythology and ritualism. Okuda presented a portrait of a primitive man who is plagued by restraining civilization thus making a contrast with a modern man who tends to hide his original instincts.
Photo via streetartnews.net
Ancestral Retromirage was installed as part of the public art programme for the international Contemporary Art Biennale organized by ARTMOSSPHERE. The sculpture is the eighth public art object making it the last in the programme of the Yakut Biennale of Contemporary Art.