{"id":33977,"date":"2017-08-31T17:29:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-31T21:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/?p=33977"},"modified":"2022-09-28T13:20:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T17:20:20","slug":"remixing-ancient-art-samson-youngs-venice-biennale-exhibition-songs-disaster-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shapeways.com\/blog\/remixing-ancient-art-samson-youngs-venice-biennale-exhibition-songs-disaster-relief","title":{"rendered":"Printing the Impossible for Samson Young’s Venice Biennale Exhibition ‘Songs for Disaster Relief’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cosmo Wenman looked to design a massive 3D collage of a set of iconic forms, from an ancient Greek statue to a rendering of the space station, for artist Samson Young. With only three months to complete the project, he wouldn’t be able to carve the piece from marble \u2014 much less clad it in antiqued bronze \u2014 in time. Read on to learn how he used Shapeways to realize a grand project for a legendary art fair, and how you can print a piece of the exhibition<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the top of the legendary Daru staircase in the Louvre stands Winged Victory, or the Nike of Samothrace, a Greek sculpture dating from around 190 BCE.<\/p>\n

In the center of the Hong Kong Pavilion<\/a> at the 2017 Venice Biennale, there was also a Winged Victory. This one, however, was made of 3D printed nylon, and it seems… pretty defeated. Instead of standing triumphant, she lays burdened and fragmented, with busts of Pythagoras and Ronald Reagan \u2014 not to mention a space station \u2014 emerging from her body.<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: M+ Museum of Visual Culture<\/p><\/div>\n

What does it all mean? This dramatic and slightly unsettling piece is part of sound artist Samson Young<\/a>‘s exhibit, “Songs for Disaster Relief.” Young looks to deconstruct the idea of charity pop singles like 1985’s “We Are the World,” critiquing the whole idea of “saving the world with music.” Young filled the exhibit with installations that reflect the cultural and political circumstances that gave rise to these songs in the first place. “Palazzo Gundane (homage to the mythmaker who fell to earth),” the title of the altered Nike of Samothrace, takes aim at Western culture’s lofty ideals and idols, from classic statuary and philosophy to Ronald Reagan and the idealistic international space station.<\/p>\n

What might be less apparent than the meaning of the piece is the fact that the sculpture, partially 3D designed by Cosmo Wenman<\/a>, was entirely 3D printed at Shapeways.<\/p>\n

bring your art to life<\/a><\/h4>\n

Wenman, a multimedia artist and 3D fabrication consultant<\/a>, contributed elements of the design. He began by 3D scanning the plaster cast of the Nike of Samothrace<\/a> made by the Louvre’s atelier. You can order a 3D print of his final model of the classical sculpture in his Shapeways Shop<\/a>. In his own words<\/a>, Wenman “took hundreds of carefully staged photos of Victory and used Autodesk’s ReCap<\/a> Photo photogrammetry software to process them into this high-quality 3D model.” The overall design was conceived by Young and executed by a team of 3D modelers. Wenman explained, “Young hired his own 3D modelers to digitally design the additional elements \u2014 the heads, the space station \u2014 and to remix them with my Winged Victory scan, per Young’s concept. I was a design consultant… selecting the best 3D printing solution, and making sure the design was on course for being 3D printable.”<\/p>\n

When the Winged Victory base had been digitally combined with the other elements, Wenman took charge of preparing the design for printing, “digitally cutting it into a hollow shell, with interlocking segments, connected along hidden joints with internal flanges,” and making sure that each piece would “conform to Shapeways’ nylon printer specs, including sizing and orienting the pieces to be as large as possible while still fitting within the printers’ build volumes,” he told us. The sculpture was printed in Shapeways’ White Strong & Flexible nylon plastic<\/a>. Wenman then finished the piece with patinated bronze for the green and copper blended surface, creating the impression of a heavy, monumental work of art.<\/p>\n

The designer outlined his process below:<\/p>\n