Output details

Still life No. 1 (Dark Matters: Shadow, Technology, Art)

Still Life No.1 is a large scale shadow installation by Brass Art (Anneke Pettican, Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz), commissioned by the Whitworth Art Gallery for their Sculpture Gallery, as part of the exhibition ‘Dark Matters: Shadow Technology Art’. The installation builds on research into 3D body scanning and 3D digital printing technologies to create ‘digital doubles’, coupling the artists’ bodies with mineralogy specimens selected from University of Manchester Museum archives. Investigation of new scanning procedures: hand held laser and computerised tomography, has been integral in developing this research and secured an Innovative Application of Technologies grant from the Association of Art Historians, as well as Research and Development funding from Arts Council England. The research engages with the shadow as a visual tool and philosophical entity and examines new ways to reanimate museum artefacts. Our inclusion in ‘Dark Matters’ positions our practice within a field of international artists who use technology and shadow. This research formed the central focus of a conference paper ‘From Wunderkammern to Kinect’, for ‘SIGGRAPH 2012’, and published in the peer-reviewed academic journal Leonardo (Vol. 45, 2012). It also formed a chapter, ‘The Creation of a Collective Voice in Collaboration through Craft’, Bloomsbury (2013). The installation comprises: 9 rapid-prototype sculptural figures and rocks, 1 large antler rapid-prototype, cellophane sculptures, 2 metre table and orbiting light. The pioneering nature of the project attracted corporate sponsorship from Ogle Models Ltd and leading material technologists Huntsman. The ‘Dark Matters’ exhibition drew 57,622 visitors, the largest audience for the Whitworth Art Gallery to date, and included artists: Daniel Rozin, Idris Khan and Pavel Buchler. Brass Art were invited to discuss their collaborative practice in an interview with curator and writer Axel Lapp for Corridor 8 #2 Borderlands Edition, alongside Heather and Ivan Morrison, and Iain Sinclair (2011).