ships+at+sea
Opening reception: March 19th 6pm-8pm
Andrea Legge continues her practice of altering commercial media, this time using stock photography of tall ships and promotional materials for yachts. These images were (legally) obtained online using internet searches of the words ‘ships at sea’.
The images are printed on archival canvas and stretched, or printed on paper and adhered to Masonite. Using acrylic paint, Legge retouches the subjects out of the photos (tall ships, yachts, sailboats, land). Empty seascapes remain.
The gray frames for each picture are low resolution 3D printed copies of traditional baroque style wood frames. The artist likes to say she ‘collaborates’ with the consumer technology she uses to produce these 3D printed frames: She allows photogrammetry software (for this project, Agisoft Photoscan), to interpret what her iPhone captures during ‘amateur’ photogrammetry shoots of each baroque style frame.
‘Photogrammetry’ is the science of making measurements from photographs. In the digital age, it can mean taking many pictures of an object from different angles for the purpose of constructing a digital 3D model of it.
While shooting the original baroque frames, Legge does not use a professional photo setup. In her studio, she makes an honest attempt to light the frames consistently, using both natural and artificial light. The look of imperfection or deterioration in some of the final 3D printed frames is caused when the software inaccurately interprets the form of the frame. Reflective surfaces such as gold leaf on an original frame, or inconsistencies in lighting during photography cause these misinterpretations of form.
Once the photogrammetry software produces a basic model of the frame, Legge uses Meshmixer, an open source 3D modeling software, to make the models printable and to construct a backing to hold the paintings. Other than these necessary alterations, she tries not to do any other work to the model such as smoothing, reshaping or filling holes. Larger frame models are cut into parts to conform to size restrictions of the 3D printer beds.
The 3D printed frames, of a biodegradable corn-based plastic called PLA, were made at Voodoo Manufacturing in Brooklyn. Surface striations on the frames are layers of plastic laid down in this low resolution printing process, much like pixelation visible in low resolution images.
Serendipitously, the entire process of producing the 3D printed frames gives them a blurry effect, as though viewed underwater or having spent years there, submerged at the bottom of the sea.
andrealegge.com