Marika Ika Wato Quayola’s Virtual Materia
Source of Image: http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/captives-cg-geological-formations-as-life-size-unfinished-sculptures/
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Marika Ika Wato
Quayola’s Virtual Materia
Abstract: "Captives (1)" is an audiovisual sculpture installation by Quayola presented in the MU Gallery in Eindhoven (Netherlands) between 19.10 and 12.22.2013. The installation consists of the physical and digital sculptures; the latter are presented in the form of animation. The sculptures from the "Captives" series combine the features of the figurative representations with the computer generated geometric forms that mimic the natural geological phenomena.
Independent film and video artist, book app designer. Creative director of CyberEmpathy – Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal. PhD student in the fields of design and cultural studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
"Captives (1)" by Quayola is a modern interpretation of the "Prigioni" by Michelangelo, and the “non finito� technique used in it (meaning the keeping of the raw parts of the natural material giving the impression of a partially unfinished work).
Figure 1. "Prigioni" by Michelangelo, 1513-1534
The installations title "Captives" ("Prisoners") refers to the famous Michelangelo speech about the sculptural presentations somehow "trapped" in the solid of the material:
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
"The greatest artist has no conception which a single block of marble does not potentially contain within its mass, but only a hand obedient to the mind can penetrate to this image.�1 (Michelangelo)
The sculptures from the "Captives" series combine the features of the figurative representations with the computer generated geometric forms that mimic the natural geological phenomena.
The first part of the installation consists of three physical sculptures depicting the consecutive phases of the "emergence" of the statue from the solid of the original material. The first sculpture is monolithic, rustic cuboid. The second sculpture is a transition phase between the cuboid and the statue "emerging" from it. The third sculpture is completely deprived of the cuboid form; it precisely defines the composition of the statue, but does not determine its final appearance. The statue is intentionally incomplete.
Cf. Anthony Blunt, "Michelangelo's Views on Art" in Readings in Art History, vol. II, ed. Harold Spencer, p. 116 1
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Figure 2. "Captives (1)" by Quayola, 2013
The sculptures are made of polystyrene foam (High-Density EPS). They arose in result of the mechanical process using the computer-controlled milling machines (CNC Milling). The second part of the "Captives (1)" installation consists of a series of the digital sculptures presented in the form of animations displayed on the vertically disposed rectangular screens (of frame type). The use of the computer animation technique exposes the dynamic nature of
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
the process of transformation of the solid of original material into a statue, which in front of the viewer undergoes the never-ending change.
Figure 3. "Captives (1)" by Quayola, 2013
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Qauyola moves the "non finito" method to the virtual ground. He does not try, however, to imitate the visual-sculptural effect obtained in the case of a handicraft. The artist makes rather a conscious transposition of this method, exposing the sculptural possibilities offered by 3ds modeling.
Figure 4. "Captives (1)" by Quayola, 2013
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
The very process of the formation of the sculpture is fundamentally different from that of the real carving of a solid of material. Quayola does not try to emerge the sculptures from the established at the outset spatial form. He does in reverse. The statue inspired by the "Prigioni" series of Michelangelo, the artist places in a block, which in the next phase of work he gradually "deconstructs". That deconstruction involves not only the "emergence" of the statue, but above all, it gives a possibility to expose a full range of effects of the computer modeling.
In terms of the origin, the pieces of sculptures from the "Captives (1)" series are completely contrary to the idea lying behind the creation of the "Prigioni" series of Michelangelo, which is their primary inspiration. Looking at the works of Quayola, we get the impression of the visual fraud, the consequence of which is to put the viewer in the order of "simulation and simulacra"2. Moreover, the simulation is revealed by the artist himself, presenting the documentaries at the exhibition in Eindhoven that accurately elucidated the mechanical way of creation of the physical sculptures, as well as the method of generation of the digital sculptures. This action demonstrates the importance, which Quayola attaches to the nature of the creative process, raising it to the level of a component of the artwork.
The confrontation with the works from the "Captives (1)" series of Quayola puts us in the face of two worlds: the physical and the digital, generating the disturbing question about the nature of the virtual matter. In the "Captives (1)" the virtual matter enters the physical world, 2
J. Baudrillard, "The simulation and simulacra"
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
becoming not only a visual ornament, but a rightful physical being - tangible, knowable through the senses. The purely geometric nature of the virtual matter in the case of the works from the "Captives (1)" series becomes a simulation of the transformations of organic origin.
The topic of the visual matter is not undertaken by Quayola for the first time. In the audiovisual installation, aptly titled "The Matter", the artist presents “a continuous dynamic articulation of a solid, pure block of matter, from the simplest primitive forms to the highest details of geometric complexities… from the unpredictable grace of geological processes to the perfection, beauty and precision of man made crafts.”3 The work is inspired by the sculpture "The Thinker" by Rodin, and the installation consists of a large-format, vertical screen, which presents a computer-generated animation. Similarly, in a series of the previous works inspired by the paintings of the ancient centuries ("The Loss", "The Topologies") Quayola transforms the visual matter using the computer effects into the pulsating geometric tissue. However, only in the work "Captives (1)" from 2013, the artist achieved the effect of crossing the border of the virtuality and the audio-visuality, offering the recipient the opportunity to get the spatial and sensual experience of the computer-generated work and, therefore, in my opinion, this very work of Quayola is worth the special attention of the contemporary audience.
3
http://www.quayola.com/matter/
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Figure 5. "Matter" by Quayola, 2012
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Figure 5. "The Loss # 4" by Quayola, 2011
Bibliography: 1. http://www.quayola.com/ 2. http://www.quayola.com/captives-1/ 3. http://www.quayola.com/matter/ 4. http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/captives-cg-geological-formations-aslife-size-unfinished-sculptures/ 5. J. Baudrillard, "The Simulation and Simulacra" ed. Sic!, Warsaw 2006.
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X
Quayola’s Virtual Materia/ M.I. Wato. CyberEmpathy: Visual Communication and New Media in Art, Science, Humanities, Design and Technology. ISSUE 9 2014/2015. Cyber Art. ISSN 2299-906X. Kokazone. Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web: www.cyberempathy.com
CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X