This morning’s adventure involved doing the first zoom interview and recording it for a presentation soon to be shown at University.
I would like to thank my good friend David Orme for being part of this.
David and I have had an ongoing dialogue for around 13 years. This Dialogue involves conversations about our Art practice, methods, tools that we use and family life.
Watch this space
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Finally today’s fun at university was an introduction to working with resin , something I have wanted to do for some time.
Today we leant how to make prosthetic eyes, and how to colour them using alcohol inks.
If only I knew this information some years ago when I needed it.
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Whilst in University on a training course on how to make prosthetic resin eyeballs I was able to collect my latest 3D printed head.
This is the best yet due to a couple of factors, the first being that the 3D scan worked really well and the second being that it was printed on a finer setting.
Some of the detailing is a lot clearer on this head compared to yesterday’s but still it has that ghost of a memory feel to it.
What is also starting to interest me is the concept of translation.
I am also as they say chomping at the bit to find some time to 3D scan each component that goes in to making one of my bigger sculptures. This would include the stone, the shards of brick, the concrete block and the wooden blocks. for one of the sculptures I would like to create peg and holes so that it all clicks together like leggo but I would also like to make two sculptures out of one by mixing the 3D printed elements with the original components.
There is so much scope for this and directions that it is going in that my head is starting to spin. In some ways I can see comparisons with the sculptures of Constantine Brancusi, his use of different materials / components, carved wood and stone. The other comparison is how Brancusi stacked and balanced his objects.
TO be honest this is where the comparisons end as Brancusi’s sculptures are thought out and have an air of refinement where as mine have a brutality and roughness to them. But what is really interesting is the question what if Brancusi had access to the technology we have now ? How would this technology impact on his practice? Would he have embraced it as a way to realize his sculptural dreams quicker? or would he have shunned it?
For many years Technology in art has baffled me, Like Brancusi I come from the school of ” I want to carve something in stone, so I will teach myself how to do it” the human element in this process is important part. So I shunned technology, I really could not see how it would be of use to me until now. I expect this is why I am getting so excited My work / sculptures have jumped a level with the 3D printing. My real worry now is will I be able to continue with this research? or will Covid 19 get in the way again, with more lockdowns and restrictions after the Christmas period? If this were to happen I would be rather upset and slightly annoyed, as the whole point of doing my MA was to learn and research new skills and directions for my art process, and to use these new skills to create a new way of thinking what I can and am able to achieve with my art.
Well while some are already in bed asleep I’m rolling round the floor with glue preparing another Amazon Envelope drawing surface.
Even this looks like a sculpture of sorts
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I know I’m blowing my own trumpet but so what.
There is just so much poetry in this one photo the interplay between the found objects and the stone carved head, the assembly has really worked.
So the conversation about my current 3D print progresses with Lea Bigot. It’s great how two artists are able to communicate through digital platforms
Apologies for the clutter around this piece but it has jumped ahead in a couple of minutes. The head needs a little bit more work, but not too much.
The additions I have been looking at for some months through the clutter and then boom every component comes together and works so well and harmoniously, it really is visual poetry and pleases me no end.
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This is where the 3D printed head becomes interesting. It has a strange yet strong fragility to its structure.
A solid yet not fully formed solid.
As can be seen it is Strong enough for a heavy piece of stone to rest on it and create a new sculptural form.
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Today I was able to collect my current 3D printed head from university.
The photos show the differences between the original and printed piece, and as @leabigot.sculpture said in a previous conversation what I have ended up with is a ghost like memory of the original.
All the textures and scars from working the stone I are gone, what is left is an organic yet alien object.
I also like the little additions to the print, these structures would normally be cut away and discarded, their only use being to support the model while it is printing. In this case I feel they should remain as the help add another dimension to the sculpted piece.
As can be guessed I’m rather excited by these developments as I feel I am on the cusp of something new, a new visual and sculptural language, using technology to add to and make us reevaluate what is in front of us.
I was having a conversation with my friend Ian Rainford, he was saying how he is finding my current explorations really interesting, how I have taken a manufacturing / prototyping technology and have started thinking how I can use it in a fine art sculptural way.
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So here is the latest Instagram conversation with Lea Bigot, around the above 3D printed head. I really like how we are forming a dialogue around the process and the effects that are coming from printing this stone head.
These dialogues with others not only validate what I’m doing and thinking, they also help to unravel the tangle of what I’m trying to achieve in my mind.
The Art and musings of Jeffrey Knopf 