Art Spotlight: Dennis De Bel

I just tripped across the work of Dutch artist Dennis De Bel today, and I couldn't wait to share it.  The piece which really caught my eye was 'Naaitafel', in which De Bel re-engineers a vintage Singer into a record player (probably appealing because it marries my two favorite vintage appliances into one twisted monstrosity of nostalgia).  The title is derived from the similarity between the Dutch words for "sewing table" and "turntable."

Check out his website for many other quirky objects, many of which toy with off-beat overlaps of form and/or function, as well as our culture's unholy reverence of technology.

Another gem is the 'Stratenspeler,' which signifies a "street-player" as opposed to a record player.  It amplifies the sound of whatever textural surface it's placed on, allowing the user to create a looped feed of say, a crack in the sidewalk, the sound of grass on a warm summer evening, or the sweet song of hot inner-city asphalt.

--gillian