Amazing 15-Foot-Tall Crocheted Doilies Consume Gallery Walls

Keeping Up Appearances is an ongoing, site-specific installation project by Ashley V. Blalock in which she strings up huge crocheted, web-like doilies throughout different gallery spaces. The American artist uses bold red cotton and yarn to create forms that burst from corners and walls, and cover the floor. Although the project changes from one location to the next, the consistent theme is an exploration of domestic living and the concept of how people try to maintain outward appearances for the world.

Based in Southern California, Blalock describes her work as a fusion of craft with fine art. The typically delicate doilies are presented as enormous, intricate sculptures sometimes spanning as high as 15-feet-tall. At such a massive scale, the explosion of abstract kaleidoscopic shapes no longer appear delicate, and thus, inherently overpower the viewer with the immense size and the intense, stimulating color.

Blalock says, "The doilies themselves represent a certain desire to keep up the appearance of gentility to the outside world expressed through the arrangement of objects in the domestic setting."

Amazing Ceramic Sculptures That Look Like Wood

Believe it or not, these sculptures by Christopher David White are not made of wood. There are knots, twisting veins and even a mossy mildew to disguise the work. However, White uses only clay to create deceptively detailed ceramic sculptures that look impeccably like real wood. White explains, "I utilize trompe l’oeil as a stylistic choice to emphasize the concept that our understanding of the world is an illusion."

Photos of High Speed Bullets Microseconds After Being Shot

Finnish photographer Herra Kuulapaa has spent the last seven years capturing dangerously beautiful images of bullets being discharged from firearms. His High Speed Ballistics photography shows ammunition ripping through the air in mere microseconds from when the trigger is pulled. Each photo captures a solitary bullet in mid-flight, turning the aggressive action into a poetic visual.

With a puff of smoke and burst of flaming powder surrounding and trailing each round, there's something inexplicably conflicting about the duality of its image and purpose. Despite a gun's symbolic representation of violence, Kuulapaa insists that his images emphasize the importance of firearm safety. They reveal just how explosive a projectile can be and how quickly it is released from its chamber. In fact, many of the images in the photographer's portfolio feature bullets shooting through the air at more than 800 mph.

Brothers Hilariously Recreate Photos From Their Past

Then/Now is a series in which the Luxton brothers recreate moments from when they were very young. The personal photographs, reinterpreted in adult form, are hilarious depictions of grown men placed in unusual circumstances.

As children become adults, a certain uninhibited spirit can be lost amid the chaos of "grown-up" responsibilities. These brothers have a great sense of humor as they remember their youth by throwing on silver capes and priceless expressions that are more fitting of a baby than a bearded man.

They pay close attention to details and match old clothing, curtains, and poses to the original shots and the adorable innocence of those two young boys lives on in the highly entertaining scenes that will make you laugh out loud. Imagining the creative process and then seeing the final results is quite amusing and hopefully the clever pair will continue to make us laugh with more comical recreations!

GIANT SKELETONS FOUND IN WISCONSIN

Scientists are remaining stubbornly silent about a lost race of giants found in burial mounds near Lake Delavan, Wisconsin, in May 1912. These were not average human beings. Their heights ranged between 7.6ft and 10 feet and their skulls “presumably those of men, are much larger than the heads of any race which inhabit America to-day.” They tend to have a double row of teeth, 6 fingers, 6 toes and like humans came in different races.Heads usually found are elongated believed due to longer than normal life span. The excavators found an elaborate system of defensive works which they named Fort Aztlan.

Incredible Sculptures of AfrikaBurn 2013

AfrikaBurn is an annual event held in the deserts of the Tankwa Karoo in South Africa that invites artists to display their work and then eventually light it up in a blaze of glory, in true Burning Man fashion. The regional event, which most recently hosted approximately 6,500 people, follows the same eleven guiding principles as Nevada's famed Burning Man festival, encouraging "communal effort, decommodification and total expression of the self."

Following the basic guidelines, the festival's 2013 Archetypes theme welcomed thousands of visitors and participants with some truly incredible installations. One of the most prominent figures included artist Daniel Popper's massive, 9-meter-high sculpture of a man with outstretched arms. The three-story structure was fitted with custom LED lights with seventeen different simulations programmed by Justin Eastman. Other structures ranged from abstract pieces of land art to illuminated pathways.

Check out some of the best photos of AfrikaBurn 2013.