All things fall

MAT COLLISHAW, 2014

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Mat Collishaw is a British artist associated with the YBA (Young British Artist) generation. Factum Arte has worked with the artist to produce one of his celebrated zoetropes - inspired by a painting by Ippolito Scarsella of The Massacre of Innocents . The work, named "All things Fall", presented during the solo exhibition "Black Mirror" at Galleria Borghese in Rome is made of steel, aluminium, plaster, resin, lit by LED lights and a powered by an electric motor. The "Black mirror" exhibition shows four works, including three video pieces inspired by the paintings of Caravaggio, alongside the zoetrope produced by Factum Arte.

Of the zoetrope, Collishaw says: “The Massacre of the Innocents painting functions in a very different way to the Caravaggio works I've selected. His paintings are solitary and melancholic, whereas the latter thrive on the repetition of characters spread across the canvas. They are designed to excite our emotions and to keep our eyes moving around the surface in an agitated manner without intimacy and with no focal point. The zoetrope capitalises on this, literally repeating characters to create an overwhelming orgy of violence that is simultaneously appalling and compelling.”

The zoetrope was originally designed in three dimensions . Each model figure was 3D printed at Sicnova 3D, a Spanish company specialising in ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) printing. The ABS material is a special strong plastic used in this additive prototype systems called FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling).

3D models being processed for 3D printing

 

Some of the 3D printed models in Sicnova

It was decided to print the models in ABS instead of Epoxy resin, which is usually used, to avoid the risk of breakage due to the movement. The Zoetrope works as a 3D animation designed as a carousel that spins at a certain speed generating the illusion that every figure is moving. In total there was more than 200 figures.

Detail of a 3D printed model with layering

 

The figures when the emerge from the 3D printing process have a layered artefact aspect as an effect of the 3D printing. The layered effect has to be removed in order to obtain a smooth surface without losing detail. A group of expert craftsmen from Factum Arte retouched every figure manually. The surface was then finely coated several times to obtain a perfect object.

Ania Martin and Izzy Kent working together to remove the micro layered lines from the deposition process produced by the 3D printing

Juan Carlos Arias retouching the base of each figure

The coating process. Several layers of coating were applied to obtain a perfect surface.

The final figures ready to be assembled

 

 

 

The video of the zoetrope installed at Galleria Borghese, Rome

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