Book Review: Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan

Making this from a cast-off that

It's not often that you'll come across a book that can be opened at any page and be grabbed by what you see. These pages are crammed with student work inspired by Kevin O'Callaghan who teaches 3-D design at New York's School of Visual Arts. His course seems to be a think-outside-the-box approach to design where he gives students cast-off anything and they have to create something new. The results are really quite amazing.

The 120 assault rifles featured in the chapter called 'Disarm' were given to sixty-five students and they came up with, for example: a tricycle; kitchen blender; casual table; baby buggy; teddy bear; violin. Forty students given seventy-five obsolete typewriters in 'The next best...Ding!' created a waffle iron; vacuum cleaner; hot-air hand dryer; miniature ice hockey rink; plate cup and place setting for one and a bubble gum machine amongst other items. All these become more intriguing because there is a time element, both these exercises had to be completed in three weeks.

The book kicks off with probably O'Callaghan's most ambitious and famous exercise: what thirty-two students could do with thirty-nine out-of-time Yugo cars. Twenty-one are featured, mostly still as cars but turned into something else. Perhaps the most flamboyant is James Korpai's New York subway car (pages thirty-six and seven) and has to be seen to be believed.

The book is nicely produced with a few hundred color photos and fortunately presented in a straightforward way because the images are interesting enough without the need for flashy page graphics and as I said earlier you can look at any page and be grabbed by what you'll see.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 01

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 02
Subway train and close-up made from a Yugo car.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 03
Ice hockey from an old typrwriter.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 04
Most of the chapters open like this listing the items used and the number of artists. The little graphics across the middle indicate the chapters in the book.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 05
Practical things to do with guns.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 06

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 07
Right: one use for a section of an engine's transmission.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 08
Uses for gas-guzzler parts.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 09
Sculpture to promote a new Toyota range.

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 10

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 11

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 12

Monumental: The Reimagined World of Kevin O'Callaghan - 13
The first illustrated section in the book has a whole load of Yugos (39) converted to different uses by O'Callaghan's students.

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Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.co.jp | Amazon.cn

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