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Skyscraping

This research, undertaken by the collective ‘Brass Art’ of which Mojsiewicz, Anneke Pettican, and Chara Lewis are members, developed from an AHRC funded enquiry, ‘Digitised Doubles’ (PI: Anneke Pettican, www.digitaldoubles.org), which investigated the creative potential of non-invasive white light 3D bodyscanning for self-replication and self-portraiture.

The exhibition ‘Skyscraping’, (Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2008) included a new commission ‘Moments of Death and Revival’, employing 3D bodyscan data to unsettling effect. It also included a series of drawings, videos, sculptural installations, which, like the use of the bodyscanner, experiment with the generative possibilities of shadow and light. ‘Skyscraping’ used innovative applications of cutting edge technologies and simple tools to create metamorphic, animated shadow plays and uncanny doublings.

The artists in ‘Brass Art’ were scanned at the London College of Fashion, Glasgow University and Wicks & Wilson Ltd. Further investigations of rapid prototyping technologies and materials were undertaken at the University of Huddersfield, RapidformRCA and prototype company Ogle Models, with sponsorship from 3D Systems. Innovative aspects of this research included a thorough examination of how to retain detail in 3D printed artefacts. This methodology questioned and tested the limitations of scanning technology.

‘Skyscraping’ was the culmination of two years work encompassing two large drawings, two video pieces, four small drawings, one neon installation and an immersive shadowplay installation. David Thorp, (former Curator of GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy, Curator of Contemporary Projects at the Henry Moore Foundation, and Director of the South London Gallery) and YSP Director of Programmes, Clare Lilley, positioned ‘Skyscraping’ in relation to the history of women’s art practice and the field of contemporary sculpture.

The underpinning research formed the basis of papers selected for conferences ‘ISEA:2010’, Ruhr, and ‘Technologies of Drawing’, at University of Huddersfield, 2011. Two collaborative drawings were selected for the ‘Jerwood Drawing Prize’, 2008 exhibition.