Virtual Reality to Bronze

This brand new series of virtual reality drawings were inspired by Picasso’s drawings with light, made in the 1950’s. Then, a revolutionary photographic technique using long exposure and an LED light allowed the artist to capture drawings in space. Now, seventy years on, Virtual Reality technology finally allows artists to take drawing in three dimensions a step further and preserve the traces of their marks as a digital file.

Working with the digital department at Pangolin foundry, Fred made a series of drawings that could be 3D printed in parts. Then, with a great deal of trial and error, coated in wax and cast in bronze. The sculptures are based on a series of rapid sketches made from life of a bullfight in Seville. The artist wanted to use the new technology for its gravity defying ability to capture quick, gestural marks in space. The result is a series of sculptures that partake of space and air, whose supple levity defies the weight and hardness of their material construction, and whose apparent ease of construction belies the incredibly labour intensive method of fabrication.

These sculptures, represent the meeting of the very newest technology in collaboration with one of the oldest; that of lost wax casting in bronze. They are also an exciting launching off point into the examination and investigation of the formal possibilities of linear sculptures.