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Art can be found in anything depending how you perceive it. Artists have explored their creative sides to share their visions since prehistoric men painted on cave walls with berries. Many modern artists have produced some incredible pieces using atypical and unusual media and presented here is just a small sampling of some of their works. I encourage everyone to explore further as there are more to be found. Perhaps nothing is more subjective than art so the list is in no particular order. Should you know of other interesting works please post them as I am sure many would be interested in checking them out.
Artist’s Medium: tires.
This woman from New York makes some amazing sculptures out of rubber tires and also makes some tire sculptures that are wearable and she is known for wearing them to art shows.
Artist’s Medium: computer pieces.
A Korean artist residing in New Zealand, he has made an interesting sculpture out of computer keyboards and mice.
Artist’s Medium: holography.
A British woman living in Australia, she has spent several years making numerous incredible holographic images.
Artist’s Medium: bread.
This Thai baker specializes in making gruesome body part sculptures out of bread. Warning although they are bread these images look like props from the latest slasher movie.
Artist’s Medium: coat hangers.
This British artist makes sculptures out of a variety of common objects such as car tires, bricks and coat hangers.
Artist’s Medium: colored pencils.
This American artist uses the more traditional medium in a new way as she makes sculptures out of colored pencils.
Artist’s Medium: chalk.
This British artist is known as the Pavement Picasso and makes amazing works of art on sidewalks with chalk.
Artist’s Medium: human hands.
This Italian artist takes bodypainting to a new level with the paintings he does on human hands.
Artist’s Medium: Lego.
This American artist has been featured on The Colbert Report. He is known for some amazing sculptures done with Lego blocks.
Artist’s Medium: Etch-A-Sketch.
This American artist specializes in lifelike portraits of top athletes and celebrities, the skill he displays working in such a fragile media is remarkable.
Artist’s Medium: bubble gum.
Ever wondered what an artist can create out of bubblegum? Check out some of the works created by this Italian artist.
Contributor: Clantargh
December 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Cool list! Check out Tim Noble’s shadow art here. Very impressive and kudos for him using rubbish to cast the shadows.
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/06/shadow_art.html
December 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am
How cool!
This is a good list, it me want to follow up and explore their galleries.
Thanks
December 7th, 2008 at 2:34 am
lol 1st!!
pretty crazy list dude.
December 7th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Crap.
December 7th, 2008 at 2:37 am
Here’s another…
Marzipan babies
http://www3.telus.net/camilleallen/camilleallen/id17.htm
December 7th, 2008 at 2:39 am
WOW these are amazing. I am blown away by most of them but that one out of bread is creepy
December 7th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Awesome!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Oops, nevermind.. after reading more and looking them up in snopes it says that they are made from polymer clay… not an unusual medium by anyone’s standards
December 7th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Lynn I dont think chalk is that unusual either but thats my favorite one. Fabo list, some people are just so clever!
December 7th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Kittiwat Unarrom, april fools day genius
December 7th, 2008 at 3:28 am
I have seen some of Julian Beever’s works, and they are incredible. So life like. Great list
December 7th, 2008 at 3:42 am
A good Kiwi bloke’s medium – corrogated iron!
http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue100/thomson.htm
December 7th, 2008 at 3:47 am
What about that guy who put up those orange drapes in Central Park a few years ago?
December 7th, 2008 at 3:50 am
One of my favourites is body painting. I’ve seen some excellent examples, some of which you would hardly recognise as a body. There are numerous websites for anyone interested.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Here’s a few:
Jennifer Angus works with insects and arranges them so well on the wall that they look like patterned wallpaper.
There’s a lot of land/earth artists out there, one of the finest is Andy Goldsworthy. What this man does with leaves, stones and sticks is unreal.
Scott Blake is of the bar code art aggregate…he’s more visible then many and does some fine stuff.
Brian Jungen makes killer masks from running shoes and other found materials. This sort of art seems to be on the rise…recycled and found material. Keeps the tradition that Duchamp was in on alive.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:43 am
beautiful, i love that hand art! great list.
here’s some more contributions;
Peter Callesen paper master
http://www.petercallesen.com/index/A4PAPERCUT_000.htm
and Willard Wigan microscopic artist
http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/microscopic.asp
December 7th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Re list item no 1: How does he blow that out of his mouth in that shape? Imagine attending careers counselling at high school. “What do you want to do when you grow up?” “I want to make amazing shapes out of bubble gum.” “No, when you grow up!”
December 7th, 2008 at 5:15 am
Awesomely different list. These are amazing. I’m constantly shocked by the creativity and brilliance of people.
December 7th, 2008 at 5:39 am
I have to agree that while Beever’s work is amazing, chalk is hardly an “unusual” medium.
Here’s a couple you could have included.
Tasty…
http://www.daneyalmahmood.com/meataftermeatjoy.html
Gross…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_fluids_in_art
December 7th, 2008 at 6:22 am
Yeah, as Skydiver says, it’s hardly unusual to see people creating huge, astonishing masterpieces on city pavements using chalk… er…. every major artist of the last 500 years started out doing that… umm….
Love the list!
December 7th, 2008 at 6:38 am
#1, #2, #3 are gods everybody must worship
December 7th, 2008 at 7:19 am
awesome list!!
December 7th, 2008 at 7:36 am
#13 Tony, that was a strange agent from France named Christo and his equally odd wife named Jean-Claude who put up doorways made of fabric in Central Park. They seem to have fixated on covering stuff with sheets as they have sold (read “sold” as swindled) a number of Arts Commissions around the world into funding their self described “art”. It illustrates something that George Carlin once said about art: “If you nail two things together that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you.”
December 7th, 2008 at 7:37 am
That said, this is a great list and the creativity here is real.
December 7th, 2008 at 7:58 am
great list. I´ve been visiting this site a lot this week and I´ve found it quite entertaining. I really like all the lists even if i disagree with some from time to time keep up the good job
December 7th, 2008 at 8:02 am
WHOA! What a bunch of edginess!!!!!!!
I mean, That’s just EDGY and OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 7th, 2008 at 8:28 am
Amazing, simply amazing. The creativity at work here is staggering. Excellent list, great work Clantargh!
p.s. thanks for not including anything disturbing like “body fluids”….I was wary when scrolling that I was going to stumble across something I was never meant to see.
December 7th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Great List love the creativity in the world.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am
Nice list. I particularly liked no 1 2 3 and 5.
Why are there no links. I would really like to see more of their work, so a few links would have been great. But hey, there’s always google. Nonetheless, nice list.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I wonder if the dude has to chew all that gum himself
December 7th, 2008 at 9:15 am
A worthy addition to this list would be the UK artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey: “The artists essentially use grass as a form of photographic paper, projecting a black-and-white negative image onto a patch of grass as it grows in a dark room, and using the natural photosensitive properties of the grass to reproduce photographs.” you can see an example of their work here: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/grass-art/
December 7th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Goodish list but I would have preferred a little more information about the artists and their techniques. Also links would have been much appreciated.
Here’s one of my favorites, Nicholas Jones. He makes sculptures out of old books, either by folding or cutting.
Have a look-see.
http://www.bibliopath.org/photographs.php
December 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am
the key to art is creativity , not the actual medium used by the artist . Crap art doesn’t become good because it’s made out of something unusual . Look at Tracey Emin . her work is crap and her creativity is zero . Still she makes thousands out of it
December 7th, 2008 at 9:25 am
It takes creativity to work with unusual mediums, though, and produce something note worthy.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Short, but fun.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:53 am
http://andresserrano.org/
this should have been included.
December 7th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I love how the colored pencil one looks like one of those swaying things from the bottom of the sea, beautiful
December 7th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Great list, seen quite a few of body and sidewalk painting.
December 7th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Clantargh:
Facinating list. Thank you.
scottrodo:
To characterize Christo as a swindler (using deception or fraud) may equally be said of any artist.
See Mark Rothko’s “Red and Orange” at http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/moma.org-the-collection-mark-rothko.-red-and-orange.-1955
(BTW, personally I do not see either as a swindler, so please do not start a flame war
)
December 7th, 2008 at 10:57 am
Good list…. but you definitely can’t forget Willard Wigan, who makes microscopic sculptures out of dust particles!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Wigan
December 7th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I’ve seen all of these before. Were they all on different lists before? Especially the pencils one. I saw about 10 or 15 of her work somewhere else.
And the Lego guy too. There was a whole bunch and that one was not the coolest.
And I don’t love love love the Cubs anymore. Gotta find a new team to cheer for.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’m thanking Clantargh in advance for this fantastic list. I noticed that the one made from bubblegum looks like the guy falling in the opening to MAD MEN. Now I’ll go and actually read this thing. Well done!
December 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am
great list. I have great respect for unusual art, and the brilliant minds behind it. Creative.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Mom424: wow – those book sculptures are amazing! I do cringe a little at the thought of a book being destroyed though
December 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
i read before about loads of etch a sketches on display in some place and the had a lil earthquake and all the drawings were ruined because to clear the board u shake it
December 7th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Not to blow smoke up Jamie’s ass, but you could add him to the list. Visually, this website is a work of art, even the ads have eye appeal.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I’d like to retract, but not delete comment #46. Jamie does not work in an unusual media. You can’t swing a mouse without hitting a web designer.
December 7th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Thank you, Clantargh, this was a great list! Now I have to go back and find out more about some of these artists and some of those mentioned in the comments. I love it when someone opens my eyes to something new and different and makes me want to explore!
December 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
These aren’t really that unusual. Using household and common items is rather strange compared to what we consider “normal” art, but I think that you could have gone further. For instance, Marc Quinn had nine pints of his own blood removed (over time, of course) and made into a life-size frozen sculpture of his head. Or consider the Capuchin monks who dig up their dead fifty years after burial and use their bones to decorate a massive crypt.
This list is good in that the mediums aren’t entirely conventional, and some of them are certainly innovative (I love the coloured pencil sculptures!), but I think that you could dig deeper and make this list even better.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I was blown away by the Etch-a-Sketch guy.Having the talent is one thing; having the PATIENCE to create it is another thing altogether
December 7th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Guido Danielle reminds of this guy I stumbled across on Flickr. He paints his head with a new picture every day and the results are pretty amazing most of the time.
http://flickr.com/photos/hawhawjames/sets/72157605129258648/
December 7th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
George Vlosich III is amazing!
Back when I was majoring in Art/Photography and my brother was majoring in Fine Arts/Painting, we and our friends would have Etch-A-Sketch play-offs. We’d have to do portraits or landscapes or still-life’s, it didn’t matter as long as it was representational. No abstracts allowed.
We got pretty good, but *this* guy! Manohman! He’d have wiped the floor with all of us combined!
And yes, Phillies, it took patience, patience, patience, and practice, practice, practice (all this while we had real classes to attend to! The competition became fierce, though, and you’d find yourself practicing a sweeping curve while reading for lit. class!).
I was a major fan of the modernists of the late 60’s – mid 70’s. Rothko, Sam Francis, Andy Warhol (before he became “ANDY WARHOL”), Roy Lichtenstein, so many more…
Art is always in the eye of the beholder. What I produce and offer as art might be seen by you as ugly, or nothing special, or amazing. Offering yourself to the world as an artist (whether it’s creating images or stories) is incredibly bold. You open your soul to everyone to be picked over, to be judged, to be (possibly) mocked.
I had to put art on the back burner while I raised 3 children alone, nursed both dying parents, and worked 60 or more hours a week.
Now, with the luxury of time, I can play. I make art every day. I am putting together a portfolio to take to the various art galleries in the Village. I’ll start my 4th major career (with luck!), and be happy with new career, as I was happy with my previous careers.
I loved each and every medium the artists used. They showed joy and life and exhilaration.
They showed art!
December 7th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Has anyone seen that guy who covers everything in cheese?
http://www.cosimocavallaro.com/html/cheese_room_page.html
Kind of bizzare, but it takes all kinds.
I guess he could be on a cooking list too…
a little art with your wine??
December 7th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
This is awesome!
December 7th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
verryyyyyyyyy cooollll list indeeeeeedd!
December 8th, 2008 at 12:32 am
I find one quite interesting, my girlfriend’s family owns a company that makes chewing gum base and she has a letter from Salvador Dali to her grandfather, apparently Dali wanted to use chewing gum base as a sculpting medium at one time. He wasn’t satisfied with the results though.
December 8th, 2008 at 2:34 am
that guy that uses gum hates chewing the stuff, he despises it
December 8th, 2008 at 3:56 am
What about that guy (think he was Italian) who made meatballs out of his own fat? My boyfriend made some cool sculptures out of paperclips – he made a really cool minotaur kind of thing. It takes a lot of time though so he only made a few.
December 8th, 2008 at 5:37 am
love this list!
December 8th, 2008 at 7:06 am
What about Ferro Fluid?
December 8th, 2008 at 8:07 am
I don’t know if anybody’s already mentioned this but how about Vanessa Tiegs? She works with her period blood:P The paintings are pretty and I heard it actually doesn’t stink.
December 8th, 2008 at 8:39 am
They other day I StumbledUpon an artist who made people’s faces out of phonebooks…that was pretty cool.
December 8th, 2008 at 8:42 am
wowww..this is so cool. I remember when I was little I would stick things together with colored pencils and bubble gum..not so much “art” as “my mom getting super mad at me for leaving bubble gum all over”
There’s this one guy who makes sculptures out of trash that look like nothing but a pile of trash, but then he shines a light on it and the shadow makes something really awesome. I wish I could find the link but I don’t even know how to start searching for it. It’s neat, though.
December 8th, 2008 at 8:44 am
never mind, I forgot Google is my best friend. It’s a couple, not one guy. Here’s a link
http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/onemanstrash.htm
December 8th, 2008 at 8:45 am
How about Gunther von Hagens.
“Art” with corpses, controversial: yes, impressive: hell yes!
http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/gunther_von_hagens/life_in_science.html
December 8th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Sand projector art is amazing and very fluid from one picture to the next. I linked to a few including a very talented woman, Ilana Yahav, but there are many great artists who use this method.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
God, I love Beever. I saw my first Beever when I was in college, and was instantly infatuated. I’ve even attempted to purchase a Beever, but they’re pretty tough to find for sale, even though we have a lot of streetcorners, at least where I live. I think you need to go to a major city to find the really good Beevers, though.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Tom Friedman is also amazing.
http://www.designboom.com/portrait/friedman_bio.html
December 8th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Terrific list, Clantargh. I have seen the works of the artists of # 8, 5 and 2 only online, but I would love to see them in real life.
I love the art by Jennifer Maestre (#6). This is a very unique and creative artistic medium.
The #9 entry is just damn creepy even more than the entery below it.
Thanks again for the list, Clantargh.
December 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Awww, I was going to mention the BodyWorlds guy. Saw his exhibit a couple years ago and it was very cool.
Excellent list. Thanks for the daily entertainment.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:16 am
cool list…love the variety here: from bread to gum
December 9th, 2008 at 7:46 am
About #8…. why would you do that? Why?
December 9th, 2008 at 8:20 am
If ever there was an unusual media. Check out this one.
The cloaca machine by Wim Delvoye
http://www.cloaca.be/
December 9th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I don’t think the BodyWorld guy wants it to be art so much as science and learning how the body works. At any rate, I saw the exhibit when it was in my city this summer..it was amazing.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
72. Randall: Some people have suffered head trauma. We should pity them, but not enable them by buying their “art”.
December 9th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
# 8: are we sure that´s bread? I had to keep reminding myself of the fact while I looked at the pics… Very disturbing…
December 9th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
76. GTT: # 8: are we sure that´s bread? I had to keep reminding myself of the fact while I looked at the pics… Very disturbing…
****
See my response to Randall, above.
Whoever did this is quite ill. Kept making me think of Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
December 9th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
segue- In Silence of the Lambs the character of Buffalo Bill was making a body suit out of human skin, not making bread. Just thought you should know (he,he).
December 10th, 2008 at 4:28 am
Banksy!
December 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
78. bigski: Yes, I know, but the gruesomeness of the bread-head, the way some of the pieces appeared to be folds of skin, just had the same image for me. Looking at the bread was like looking at severed body parts, which I suppose is the point of the artist.
Weird.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
You gotta be very twisted to eat any of that bread,but the artistry is in no doubt.#9 was unsettling.#7 looked like Pinhead from Hellraiser movies.#4 where`s the thumb at ? When I find out I won`t be so freaked out.#2 anyone who could make a circle out of these bloody instrument`s was a better artist than me.
December 11th, 2008 at 1:13 am
I don’t know stevenh (#39), I’m gonna have to agree with scottrodo (#23) about the Christo thing…
December 11th, 2008 at 7:05 am
81. bigski: #2 anyone who could make a circle out of these bloody instrument`s was a better artist than me.
****
Refer to my #52!
****
82. NLynn: agree with scottrodo (#23) about the Christo thing…
****
I was living in Northern California when he did the “Running Fence” installation. http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/rf.shtml It was breathtakingly beautiful! My husband of the time and I drove the entire distance, getting out to walk some sections not accessible by car. I followed his career closely, and though many people had no understanding of what he was doing, or why it was Art, the answer was really simple to those who got it.
All art is only Art to those who find it beautiful or moving or life-affirming in some way. No artist is that to all people. He was, and is, to me (okay, I didn’t “get” wrapping the quays; everyone has an off day).
He wasn’t out to rip anyone off. He was as serious as could be about his art. That’s why it was FREE to look at. It was available to all. It was art for the masses, though the masses (overall) didn’t understand it.
December 11th, 2008 at 10:06 am
you should check out the art made by menstrual blood!
December 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
segue- like they say patience is a virtue.
December 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Cool list!! Another weird medium is… life. There’s those living sculpture things and there’s transgenic art.
December 11th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
# 84 stef- is that for real ? Never heard of such.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
not really a weird medium list…..the chewing gum yes, but the rest of the list is just basic stuff artists use all the time for abstract pieces. this should be a list of strange ART not strange medium
December 24th, 2008 at 1:37 am
wow! the pavement is really cool. at first sight i thought it’s real
the bread… is scary… looks like the guy used meat to make it, not bread
February 14th, 2009 at 1:34 am
I personaly think phil hansen should be on this list.
he’s made a portrait kim jong il out of his own blood, jimi hendrix out of matches (then he burnt it) rosa parks out of bible passages as well as the KKK
here’s his web site
Philinthecircle.com
February 20th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Julian Beever creates a 3D look to his sidewalk chalk by using extreme perspective. It only looks right in one specific spot.
Here’s the correct view:
http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/swim.htm
And the wrong view:
http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/wrongview.htm
Just adding a little tidbit. …but chalk really isn’t a weird medium. Neither is colored pencil but the way the artist used it is. I like! Makes me want to flip it open like those compact hairbrush/mirror combos of the early 90’s and color something just to see what I end up with.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Wow..its amazing what people can do with such random things
March 24th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Artists have both very, very specific minds and very, very random minds at the same time. They’re convoluted. Consider a Mandelbrotian design, an image which grows both larger and smaller in perfect harmony, identical, beautiful…ah ha! The mind of an artist! It touches this over here, but wonder of wonders, it also touches that over there! So they come together in lovely balance.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am
That Etch-A-Sketch thing is pretty amazing.
They wouldn’t top the list, but I recommend Devorah Sperber and Mark Jenkins
April 6th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
wow it must take some patience to produce things like this
April 16th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
number one has too much gum in it hehehhe..how do he work on it anyway, chew 1 ton of gum for one masterpiece?? takes up a lot of saliva i guess…
May 16th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
julian beever is awesome :p some of the best trompe l’oeil works i’ve ever seen.
May 16th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
My media is not unusual, per se, but my vision, my *application* of the media is unusual. That’s what I love about art, you can take anything and turn it into something else, something beautiful, even if the beauty is obvious only to you.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:10 am
For those interested in unusual media, you should check out http://philinthecircle.com if you haven’t. A lot of interesting art pieces including one made out of different colored matchsticks into a Jimi Hendrix portrait, then set on fire. go Go GO!
July 12th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
That chalk drawing is out-of-this-world amazing!!!!!
July 12th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
@packedourthings (99): Thank-you for the link…very talented artist!!
July 17th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
i think number 1 woulda been the guy who makes sculptures out of human remains by plastizing it
October 13th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
the pavement picasso is fantastic. when u see him doing his art it never seems possible that he can achieve that kind of out come.
i saw his art and was like ”wow!!”,he really is very clever
October 13th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfn8Dz_13Ms
check out the art in progress
November 24th, 2009 at 7:16 am
I think street graffiti artists should also be given credit for their creativity. In a way they are also pushing the boundaries further. Here’s my top 5 street art graffiti artists:
http://limatik.com/2009/11/street-art-graffiti-limatiks-top-5-artists/
enjoy!
January 4th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Have a look at http://www.vincentcastiglia.com
Vincent is a surrealist visionary painter whose unlikely medium is his own blood. There are a scattering of people out there who “paint” in blood- it’s usually not their own, a lot of the time not, and DEFINITELY never on this scale or with such amazing skill. Vincent Castiglia is by far the most accomplished blood-painter out there.