Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Artist “Filfury” Makes Dynamic Sculptures out of His Sneakers

Eagles, butterflies, beetles, skulls and human hearts are just a few of the things that British artist Phil Robson, aka "Filfury" has shaped using sneaker parts. The self-described 90s child defines his work as a "a battle of pop culture vs nature", turning his obsession with sneakers, hip hop culture, and our own over-consumption of mass products into an unlikely source material.

Eagles, butterflies, beetles, skulls and human hearts are just a few of the things that British artist Phil Robson, aka “Filfury” has shaped using sneaker parts. The self-described 90s child defines his work as a “a battle of pop culture vs nature”, turning his obsession with sneakers, hip hop culture, and our own over-consumption of mass products into an unlikely source material. We first saw his work at Scope Miami Beach this month, an incredible “All Star Eagle”, featuring hardy canvas for feathers and soft laces as tough talons, but we weren’t the first to take notice. The artist has long received recognition from major companies like Nike and Reebok to design imaginative pieces for their campaigns. Sneakers are not the artist’s only materials, however. Filfury has also built his sculptures out of electronics like stereo parts and Casio watches, where bold and sharp plastics and ticking gears are translated into delicate details like a beetle’s wings and antennae. By the time Filfury is finished cutting and rearranging everything from metal grommets, rubber soles, and shoe tongues, only traces of the original object is left in each whimsical piece.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Jorge Mayet’s miniature floating sculptures serve as compelling metaphors for the artist's complex relationship to his native country. Mayet was born in Cuba, yet has been living and working in Mallorca, Spain as an expatriate. Despite the circumstances, his sculptures are devoid of any intentional political statement. Instead, they explore the artist's personal experiences with exile and displacement, and the powerful nostalgia for one's homeland left behind.
Over the past few decades, Shary Boyle has garnered attention for a multifaceted practice that includes ceramics, painting, installations, drawings, and more. In this post, we take a look at some of her recent sculptures, which toy with vintage and ancient incarnations of rendering humanity through ceramics.
Italian artist Lorenzo Quinn unveiled a new sculpture at Ca' Sagredo Hotel during this year's Venice Biennale. "Support," an enormous sculptural installation that appears to emerge out of the Grand Canal, appears as enormous, white hands. The work aims to display how humans have the ability and opportunity to “change and re-balance the world around them.” In particular, the hands are commenting on the urgency of climate change.
"I am inspired by the incredible variety and complexity of the natural world that surrounds me," says Southern France based artist Rogan Brown. Brown's winter wonderland of intricately cut paper sculptures first caught our attention in 2013, when we featured his abstract formations of florals and pathogens, hand-cut out of watercolor paper with exquisite precision. His latest series, created throughout 2015, combines the techniques of hand paper cutting and laser cutting, leaving the burnt edges of the paper for added texture and depth to his already complex works of art.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List