seductiveGROTESQUE
black and white
black and white
“Seductive Grotesque” is a series images re-imagining the allegorical figurative sculpture in a 21st century form. In my work, I invite the viewer to stand somewhere between the imaginary and the real and consider new notions of authenticity and lived experience. These images depict antique sculptures whose history is chronicled, like bruises on skin, by the rough textures and blemishes on their surfaces - but these sculptures do not exist in physical form, and their history is an illusion. The scenes depict virtual objects and spaces created with 3D digital techniques commonly used to make convincing illusions in moviemaking. In this medium the 'camera' is directed inward, taking a picture of an imagined environment, instead of taking in the visible and material world.
Like the figure in the allegorical sculpture tradition, the sculpted body here stands as a symbol of a seductive platonic ideal attainable only in the imagination. The grotesque, on the other hand, brings the body back to earth, to the corporeal and visceral - the faces, distorted with emotion, celebrate the physical and material life of the body.
These black and white photographs are created by rendering computer generated 3D scenes as large size film negatives. The negative is then contact printed it in the darkroom on traditional black and white fibre paper. The ritual of darkroom printing, with its slow and decidedly material nature, along with the tactile surface of the final print, infuses the image with an added material presence.
Like the figure in the allegorical sculpture tradition, the sculpted body here stands as a symbol of a seductive platonic ideal attainable only in the imagination. The grotesque, on the other hand, brings the body back to earth, to the corporeal and visceral - the faces, distorted with emotion, celebrate the physical and material life of the body.
These black and white photographs are created by rendering computer generated 3D scenes as large size film negatives. The negative is then contact printed it in the darkroom on traditional black and white fibre paper. The ritual of darkroom printing, with its slow and decidedly material nature, along with the tactile surface of the final print, infuses the image with an added material presence.
Perpetually Sitting |
Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 11x14"
The Increasingly Difficult Task of Walking | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 10x12"
Disgust | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 10x12"
The Story Lies at the Bottom of the Ocean | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 10x12"
Double Scream | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 12x12"
Perpetually Sitting | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 32x40"
The Increasingly Difficult Task of Walking | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 32x40"
Their Story Lies at the Bottom of the Ocean | Silver Gelatin Fibre Print 32x40"
seductiveGROTESQUE
Augmented Reality Installation
Viewers can interact with the virtual 3D sculptures in three dimensions
in the physical space using Augmented Reality for smartphone
Presented at Inside AR - Augmented Reality Conference. Munich, Germany. October 2013.
2nd Place in "Work of ARt", International Augmented Reality Art Competition
The sculptures and images in the Seductive GROTESQUE series are made using the same formal process associated with the making of actual sculptures, but they do not exist in physical form, they are computer-generated objects made visible as artificial photographs and brought into the 3rd dimension to coexist with wood and brass bases through Augmented Reality.
The digital forms coexist with the physical world in the installation and can be viewed as human size sculptures as well as small sculptures on pedestals. Using an Augmented Reality App on smartphone, viewers can interact with the virtual sculpture in the real space of the gallery. Like traditional sculptures, the figures exist in three dimensions, viewers can move around them to see them from any angle by pointing a smartphone to the sculpture base.
The digital forms coexist with the physical world in the installation and can be viewed as human size sculptures as well as small sculptures on pedestals. Using an Augmented Reality App on smartphone, viewers can interact with the virtual sculpture in the real space of the gallery. Like traditional sculptures, the figures exist in three dimensions, viewers can move around them to see them from any angle by pointing a smartphone to the sculpture base.