Grizzly Bear Modern » Rafaël Rozendaal in a Brave New Medium

Rafaël Rozendaal in a Brave New Medium

www.jellotime.com

Occasionally during lunch I cruise down the street from my office and spend the hour at Barnes & Noble. Today I was thumbing through the debut issue of Elephant Magazine which featured the bold, crisp work of Internet artist Rafaël Rozendaal. The article was about Internet Art’s place in the art world, and how not many artists are fully utilizing the Internet as a creative medium. But aside from the debate, I was initially drawn in by Rafaël’s clean lines and accessible content, not realizing that each of the images included in the write-up were actually individual websites.

Rafaël creates these simple and clever web creations and sells the URL to collectors. Meaning, you too could be the proud owner of the above JelloTime.com or Vai Avanti.com below. Its a new and somewhat hard to comprehend concept: ownership of a public good. I’m not sure of how many sites he’s actually sold, but the concept exists nonetheless.

www.vaiavanti.com

Artist Bio:

“Born 1980 in Amsterdam.

Father Arie Rozendaal from the Netherlands.
Mother Heloisa Castello Branco from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Great grandfather Humberto Castello Branco, former president of Brazil.
Exhibited all over the world in galleries and museums,
makes installations with projections.
Makes websites as art pieces, pieces are sold with domain name,
work remains public, name of collector in title bar.
Collectors in France, UK, Spain, NL and Austria.
Lived in Amsterdam, Rio, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Portland and Berlin.
Lives and works in hotels.

Remember, all these images are of actual living, breathing websites that you can visit and experience for yourself. Which, I highly suggest. Be sure to click around on the pages; some are interactive and rely on your clicks and/or cursor movement to cause reactions. These sites are often numbingly simple, but then again, you didn’t think of it first.