Kate Chapman: Falling Down
Artist(s):
Title:
- Falling Down
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2005
Medium:
- Fused deposition modeling ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), bronze resin, patina
Size:
- Approximately 8 inches x 8 inches x 7.5 inches
Category:
Artist Statement:
My sculptures represent motion in static form. Using digital tools, the shapes are derived from various animations of a figure, with the arc of a body’s motion defining each form. Though the work may be compared to early Modernist paintings by Duchamp and Balla, they depict time as a continuum, rather than as a collection of discrete points. Falling Down was created with video, 3D animation software, rapid prototyping technology, and meticulous hand-finishing. I began by filming reference video of a woman falling down. With the reference footage, I rotoscoped (animated over video) a 3D-animated character of the woman. Next, I modeled a mesh over the trajectory of the character’s motion, filling the entire space of the action. The digital mesh was then output into physical form using a rapid prototyping machine (fused deposition modeling) and hand-finished with bronze resin and patina.While one might argue that this piece may have been created entirely by hand, the technology used was essential in visualizing the boundary of a woman falling through space, with many subtle fluctuations in shape. Animating the actions in 3D provided me with a much deeper level of analysis to create the work than I would have gotten from observing the action from a single vantage point.
