COLLAPSE
Collapse seeks to explore the myriad limitations, failures and collapses that occur as data is translated into physical form. Printing in 3D with clay presents a number of challenges: the clay cannot support sharp angles or overhangs; the extrusion process never stops, so objects need be designed in one ‘coil’; and the slurry mix is unstable and inconsistent, requiring constant attention to ensure a uniform print. Errors in any calculations ultimately result in sudden implosions. Yet, the forms of Collapse find their own beauty in their impossible-to-replicate, truly one-of-a-kind nature.
Collapse represents a taxonomy of these implosions. Some fall in; some fall out; some twist; some buckle but hold another part upright; and some completely flatten. Through failure they take on a more dynamic form, which is both impossible to precisely plan for, and resists re-printing. Through the dissection of previous failed structures, the studio has engineered the forms of this exhibition to collapse, planning for both the forms construction and deconstruction. The works in Collapse began their lives as unstable forms, frozen in time, fired while they collapsed. Collapse is an interruption of the assumptions about the precision and mechanization of 3D printing. It rejects this notion of sterility, rather presenting 3D printing as a dynamic semi-industrial process, poised between precision and luck, creating irreproducible objects that are ultimately engineered to create the perfect collapse.
Collapse was exhibited in Electric, a 2016 exhibition presented at Craft Victoria.