It's the sort of thing you just walk by, maybe, just maybe, with the feeling that something is not quite right. Once the double take takes effect, it sinks in. The excavator is burying itself. The Glue Society has used 300 tons of sand and a 25-ton excavator to create a work of public art in the Danish city of Aarhus at the Sculpture by the Sea festival. Likewise, we are all too capable of burying ourselves without taking the slightest bit of notice. So what does it take to wake up before the end?

Artist: The Glue Society
+ gluesociety.com

"Crisis wasn't a crisis until people who know about it admitted it was. While it was a simple rumour among people who were suffering obvious symptoms. But until the Stock Exchange showed the figures and the mass media echoed the news, the government had to admit the terrifying word. In this manner the crisis began suddenly, like an uncontrolled virus that had been transported by air without warning." Luzinterruptus has been at it again. This time the focus is on the global economic crisis and the appropriate venue is the steps of the Madrid Stock Exchange. The group used the financial pages from influential newspapers to create a light installation at a spot they believe the virus began to spread, as though borne by the wind.

Artist: Luzinterruptus
+ luzinterruptus1.blogspot.com

Winter's just about over in some places, but before it goes for goof, we wanted to share some Ice Hands by AT.AW. These urban interventions are even more temporary in nature than most, given that small ice sculptures don't stand much of a chance. But think of the smiles when passers by got close enough to see this work. Were any of them able to read sign language? Shown above is Chilling. Find Love after the jump.

Artist: AT.AW
+ at-aw.com

James Clar's current show of lighting designs in Dubai features an exciting variety of work that has never been previously exhibited, including Spike Light. In architectural terms, a spike light is an outdoor luminaire with a small spike that sets it into the ground to illuminates trees, but Clar's version is 1.2 metres high and has a massive chrome-plated chain. Ball & Chain has a similar chain connected to a light sculpture that incorporates 24 headlights into a sphere. Coming Soon is a light sculpture meant to represent a lot of Dubai architecture today. Covered with scaffolding, buildings offer the promise of something new and exciting once the green tarps come off. But while they are still on, the light underneath keeps the promise alive. Other work includes neon sculptures and tensile wires, clear boxes with prismatic film, argyle and mirrors.

Artist: James Clar
+ jamesclar.com
+ viatraffic.org

Spanish light intervention team Luzinterruptus spent one hour and twenty minutes creating an installation in Madrid entitled A Cloud of Bags Visits the Prado. Eighty recycled shopping bags were lit up outside the museum, bobbing in the wind in an attempt to see the art inside. The effect is rather ephemeral and pretty, in fact. The installation lasted four hours. Hopefully it brought a smile to a few faces during that time.

Artist: Luzinterruptus
+ luzinterruptus1.blogspot.com

Ceramicists Laura McKibbon and Jasna Sokolovic turned an outhouse inside out for an installation at the Come Up To My Room show. It just happened to be a bathroom. Nature in the form of ceramics came indoors to pretty up the outhouse, where trees grew in the tub, birds nested on the toilet and in the sink and flowers grew wherever they felt like it. Hundred of porcelain raindrops kept it all fresh, and leaves fell to grass below. This was a cheerful, cosy installation that clearly took a lot of work.

Artists: Laura McKibbon & Jasna Sokolovic
+ culdesacdesign.com
+ jasnart.com
+ comeuptomyroom.com

Kwangho Lee's knitted lighting was spectacular, hanging throughout the ballroom of the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto during the Come Up To My Room exhibition. All from the Marble Grey series, the lampshades were chunky knits of electrical wire paired with elegant sockets, displaying all manner of cavalier attitude. The landscape of lights had a messy, defiant (or perhaps devil-may-care) feel to it, and was beautifully set off against the brick walls and wooden floor.

Artist: Kwangho Lee
+ kwangholee.com
+ comeuptomyroom.com

Jeremy Hatch's installation at Come Up To My Room was a series of large-scale ceramic pieces that mimicked tools, wood, rope and other items that are not usually reproduced in such a way. These cast porcelain sculptures provoked a sense of anxiety in viewers, despite a deceptive air of tranquility in the space. All pieces were white, but the precarious nature of the material (especially when used for the ropes, pulleys, clamps and shelves) provoked visions of white dust everywhere once one false move brings all crashing down into smithereens.

Artist: Jeremy Hatch
+ ricochetstudio.blogspot.com
+ comeuptomyroom.com

An obscure fairy tale called The Juniper Tree by the Brothers Grimm was the theme of an installation put together by Einav Mekori, Erin McCutcheon, Annie Tung and Andrée Wejsmann for Come Up To My Room 2009 at the Gladstone Hotel. Each artist had no idea how the others would be interpreting the theme, but despite a wide range of materials and styles, the various sections of the room came together as a cohesive whole. A flock of birds hovered above a pile of ceramic wheels; a large crow with a fancy ruff around its neck looked on from a corner; a heap of apples lay beneath a headboard with laser cut symbols from the tale. The atmosphere was slightly disturbing and a sense of traditional fairy tale darkness lingered.

Artists: Einav Mekori, Erin McCutcheon, Annie Tung and Andrée Wejsmann
+ comeuptomyroom.com
+ erinmccutcheon.com
+ shesmiledandran.com
+ softdogstudios.ca

One of our favorite rooms during the Come Up To My Room show at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto a couple of weeks ago was Derrick Hodgson's room full of creatures. In the centre of the room was a fort made out of the screens he uses for his prints; block structures coloured the corners; puzzles were mounted on the walls, along with wallpaper; and an electrical pulley system with some of Hodgson's characters in perpetual motion rounded things off quite nicely. The installation was a great mix of brights, pastels, subdued tones, black and white, a dose of sunshine, and those little creatures tying it all together.

Artist: Derrick Hodgson
+ madreal.com
+ comeuptomyroom.com

The Gold Desk is a collaboration between designer Melanie Zanker of Mazzie Design and Sandy Plotnikoff whose speciality is print work. This installation was part of the Radiant Dark show curated by MADE who describes the desk as fusing "classic materials with punk rock attitude." The desk features solid walnut trim, gold laminate and unusual hardware and is further embellished by Plotnikoff's foil stamping that is a blend of glamour and graffiti. Details such as the padded drawer and the glitter in the stamping make the desk stand out even more, and touches like the pair of silver gloves and foil zines complete the installation.

Artists: Melanie Zanker & Sandy Plotnikoff
+ mazzie.ca
+ laundry-line.net