Quayola's Virtual Materia

CyberEmpathy - Visual and Media Studies Academic Journal ISSUE 9 2014 Cyber Art ISSN 2299-906X

Source of Image: http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/captives-cg-geological-formations-as-life-size-unfinished-sculptures/

Marika Ika Wato

Quayola’s Virtual Materia


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.


"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:


"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.

1 Cf. Anthony Blunt, "Michelangelo's Views on Art" in Readings in Art History, vol. II, ed. Harold

Spencer, p. 116


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


the process of transformation of the solid of original material into a statue, which in front of

the viewer undergoes the never-ending change.



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.



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"


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/

http://www.quayola.com/matter/


Figure 5. "Matter" by Quayola, 2012


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-as-

life-size-unfinished-sculptures/

5. J. Baudrillard, "The Simulation and Simulacra" ed. Sic!, Warsaw 2006.

http://www.quayola.com/

http://www.quayola.com/captives-1/

http://www.quayola.com/matter/

http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/captives-cg-geological-formations-as-life-size-unfinished-sculptures/

http://www.creativeapplications.net/featured/captives-cg-geological-formations-as-life-size-unfinished-sculptures/


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

http://www.cyberempathy.com/

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Quayola's Virtual Materia