Stratasys is, as a high-technology company, producing some of the world’s most advanced 3D printing systems, most people are familiar with their technology being used to rapidly prototype new design ideas and improve time-to-market for new products. Customers of Stratasys are companies in industries ranging from architecture, medical, consumer electronics, … . Nevertheless, at Stratasys they also understand that to create great products you need to live and breathe at the intersection of the arts and sciences. By this, there arose a new collaboration between Stratasys and the artist Nick Ervinck.
Fostering a cross-pollination between? the digital and the physical, Nick Ervinck explores the boundaries between ?various media. He applies tools and techniques from new media to explore the aesthetic potential of sculpture, 3D print installations, architecture and design.
Through his divergent practice, a strong fascination with the construction of space is noticeable. Not only focusing on the autonomous sculptural object, he also questions its spatial positioning and points to the phenomenological experience and embodiment of space.
In his sculptures, the incorporation of motion into a stationary sculpture takes precedence and in his recent works with Stratasys, Ervinck focused on reflection, color and movement to create sculptures that seem to escape the virtual world, yet don’t seem to be born from it. Each sculpture refers to a natural element. In GNILICER the colored lines remind us of the light cycles in the science fiction movie TRON (1982) or of the complex structure computer grids have these days, the lines in BRETOMER are at their turn an imagination of a smoke or a wind.
MYRSTAW represent splashing water. The imagery used is clearly inspired by macro photographic images of splashing water, and thus sculpturally interprets the encounter between nature and technology.
NOITULS and NOITENA display a mysterious movement. These sculptures were intertwined through various renders, each focused on reflection, color and movement. These sculptures are a homage to Eadweard James Muybridge (1830-1904), one of the first photographers who was using his 'zoöpraxiscoop' to visualize motion in an animation. Inspired by this groundbreaking achievement, many 20th-century artists (Duchamp, Boccioni, Bala, etc...) aimed to capture motion, emotion and time in their own artistic medium. Ervinck tries to do the same. It is not just an interpretation though, with the help of 3D software, he has renewed the art historic tradition. Just like photographers experimented with new techniques in the beginning of 20th century, Ervinck attempts to push the boundaries with 3D-printing in the 21st century.
There is currently no other technology in the world capable of achieving these unique, transparent 3D printed art pieces like GNILICER, BRETOMER, MYRSTAW, NOITULS en NOITENA. Therefore we can speak of an unique result, an outcome result from an enriching collaboration between Nick Ervinck and Stratasys.
The sculptures, named GNILICER (LIGHT), BRETOMER (WIND), MYRSTAW (WATER), NOITENA and NOITULS (MOVEMENT), explore the boundaries of the natural and virtual worlds, capturing nature’s elements in motion and making them tangible via a stationary digitally made object. Ervinck’s inspiration comes from light, wind and water, and how reflection, color and movement could produce artworks that suggest the escape of physical boundaries. According to Ervinck, bringing these concepts to life is something that could only be realized using Objet Connex3 3D printing technology:
“There is currently no other technology in the world capable of achieving the unique, transparent 3D printed art pieces I’ve created with Stratasys. My work has always been a hybrid between the virtual and physical world and a 3D printer is one of the few tools, if not the only one, that can efficiently mediate between the two. With the level of accuracy achievable with this technology, it is now possible to compose complex structures and designs that were unthinkable before in contemporary sculpture, pushing the limits of what is realistic to create.”
Light and Wind
GNILICER, features colored lines that resemble light cycles in the classic science fiction movie TRON (1982) while BRETOMER, encapsulates the art form of smoke or wind held captive and moving within. With both pieces, Ervinck explores the destruction, perception and definition of mass by questioning spatial positioning and oscillating between the static and the unknown. This was made possible by replacing the hard materials associated with traditional sculpting, with a combination of rigid opaque and translucent color digital materials 3D printed on Stratasys’ unique Connex3 technology.
Water and Movement
MYRSTAW simulates splashing water, representing an encounter between nature and technology by making a natural occurrence tangible with a digital creation. This explores the limits of possibility for artists and revitalizes traditional sculpture with 3D printing.
Completing the collection are the stunning artworks, NOITENA and NOITULS, which capture motion in a tactile medium. Inspired by mysterious movements and optical illusions, these sculptures can be read in multiple ways and angles, escaping a defined space. Requiring the highest level of intricacy and detail, these complex pieces cannot be sculpted by hand. Utilizing the power of Stratasys’ triple-jetting technology, Ervinck is able to mix ABS digital materials that include VeroClear, VeroCyan and VeroMagenta, making it possible to print the different materials required, multifaceted shapes and opacities sessional in a single print job.
Ervinck continues, “The level of detail possible using the Objet500 Connex3 is unsurpassed, as it is the only 3D printer that enables me to combine colors, transparency and multiple materials at the same time to create organic, geometrical, fluid and large scale sculptures. I now see 3D printing as a tool to use in creating my work just as a painter considers his brush a tool; it is that integrated into my design process.”
Naomi Kaempfer, Stratasys Creative Director Art Fashion Design concludes, “These artworks perfectly encapsulate Nick’s design style of balancing spatial interventions, digital aesthetics and object-oriented eclecticism. It is a privilege to work with an artist that constantly challenges the power of 3D printing and produces such thought provoking, wondrous pieces.”
Soon you can find photo’s of these new sculptures and glass on our website www.nickervinck.com
For more information
Studio Nick Ervinck
heleen@nickervinck.com
+32 (0)51 620 437
