Links we’re loving: Snow day edition

Snowballs, snow angels, snowdrifts…the splendour of winter is upon us.  And we are tired of shovelling. But good news! When it comes to digging out quirky art and culture stories, the AGOinsider is here for you.  Read on and get cozy while we ride out the rest of the snowy season. 

Since being snowbound, we’ve started reading Bob Eckstein’s book The Illustrated History of the Snowman − he makes a great case for snowmen as one of the oldest forms of folk art.  Just look at Athens. A snowstorm hit the Acropolis and the locals turned out in droves to build a few new godlike figures.

The Swiss even keep one year-round − since November 2020, Snowman, a sculpture by Swiss artists Fischli/Weiss, has resided in the park of the Fondation Beyeler. Solar-powered, it remains happily all year round in its own freezer section. 

Surely, that's a mirage? Not, but Canadian photographer Simone Engels photographed one. Turns out the giant iceberg she thought she snapped off Vancouver Island was a ‘superior mirage’ caused by a temperature inversion.  What she actually saw was Mount Cheam on the mainland of British Columbia, nearly 200 km (124 miles) away. 

Yeti or not? In the frigid north-eastern frontier of China, American artist KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) has unveiled another new abominable snowman-inspired sculpture. This is the eighth in the series, following displays last year in the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore − and even outer space. 

But could you ski down it? Seems Olympic organizers in Beijing are now racing to make at least 1.2 million cubic tons of artificial snow in time for the Winter Olympics because China’s capital city has none. Thanks to Italian snowmaking supplier TechnoAlpin − and their 170 fan-power snow guns − the job has been a breeze… or maybe a blizzard? 

Selling Snowman NFTs? You’re not the only one. Famed recording artist Jezzy is following the lead of his peers The Weeknd and Wu-Tang Clan into the Non-Fungible Token business. Teaming up with global blockchain company Liquid Avatar Technologies, Jeezy recently offered fans a custom designed, animated NFT of his iconic snowman logo.    

Do you fancy your snow fluorescent? For 12 years, installation artist Toshihiko Shibuya has been adding additional sites to a winter land art project called Snow Pallet, in and around the Japanese city of Sapporo. On each site, Shibuya crafts a series of sculptural metal objects with fluorescent paint applied to their underside, reflecting bright and playful colour back onto the pristine snow they emerge from.  

Finishing our icy voyage a little closer to home, the annual international design competition Winter Stations is back. Large artful installations are taking over Toronto’s Woodbine Beach. Six winning projects from across the world will be on view. Look out for a series of outworldly reimagined lifeguard stations along the shoreline this February.