Drawing from a multidisciplinary group of cuttingedge Bay Area artists, Radical Shift highlights the exciting intersection of fine art and new technology. Engaging in this exhibit, museum- goers will have the opportunity to see firsthand what happens when artists utilize three dimensional printers to create perfectly modern works of art.
3D printing was once limited to the fantasy of science fiction. Today, it's a disruptive technological phenomenon that is transforming markets and manufacturing practices around the globe, in the form of medical implants, dental braces and more. For artists, 3D printing presents an opportunity to join this 'second industrial revolution,' and act as catalysts in a creative and evolutionary new process.
World-renowned sculptor Bruce Beasley was one of the first artists to adopt design software into his work. “I’ve always held the belief that fine art is the vision of the artist and not defined by the tool of production,” said Beasley.
Bruce Beasely - Coriolis XVII
“These Coriolis works utilize CAD technology that best allows me to investigate and communicate what has fascinated me for over sixty years – the aesthetic and emotional potential of complex shapes in space. Computer modeling and 3D printing give me the ability to make sculptures I could not execute in any other way. The creative impulse remains the same whatever tools an artist uses, but it is liberating and exciting to explore a new vocabulary of shapes—part mechanical, part organic—made possible through innovations in technology.”
By using cutting edge CAD software and state of the art 3D printers, the boundaries of art and technology are tested and a new medium is born.
Scott Kildall is a new media artist who creates algorithms, sculptures, performances and videos. His work frequently explores futuristic themes and offers translation between the virtual and the real. The Crystals Data Crystals are 3D-printed sculptures, which Scott Kildall generates algorithmically from open data sources pulled freely from San Francisco Open Data Portal. In this series he captures incidents of crime data that are reflected in size of the “sugar –like cubes” the worse crimes and less severe from San Francisco’s Open Data Portal.
Scott Kindall - Data Crystal
Kildall sees a growing usage in data streams that is finding its way into apps and creative reuse by artists. “I see data a sculpture material, like clay, plaster or steel. By using code to transform columns of number into 3D models, I call myself a “data miner, where I extract data into small gems. The question that underlies this work and what drives our curiosity is “what does data look like?”
Artist Wei Li explores fantasies and desires with visual, visceral and whimsical language. She examines taboo subjects in her work, and succeeds in pushing the boundaries of people’s comfort zone. Wei Li hopes to evoke a direct emotional response from her audience, and wants them to become empowered enough to submit to their own fantasies.
Wei Li - Encasement
“Radical shift” will not be complete without the inclusion of Bill Kreysler work and his Associates who lead the way in the use of composite materials in construction, a company that Born out of the high performance boat industry. “Since our start in 1982, we have been pioneers in adapting state-of-the-art technology to problem-solving in construction, art and design. We built our first CNC milling machine in 1985 to create large-scale sculptures based on 3-D laser scanning.” The SFMOMA model to be featured at PMA is a scale down façade of panels that will be the largest architectural application of composites technology in the United States and the signature architectural feature of the museum’s new building, according to Kreysler.
Bill Keisler - SF MOMA Addition
Other artists included are: Sayed Reza Ali, Jennifer Berry, Donald Farnsworth of Magnolia Editions, Jon Kuzmich, and Sebastian Martin and Kristina Larsen of Cloud Ear.
Sebastian Martin