PROJECT

sequence portrait

Viewed in three phases, a gigantic drilling apparatus strikes confrontational postures in this portrait triptych.

Inspired by Jules Verne’s novel Voyage au Centre de la Terre, the Sequence Portrait is one of three interconnected collections – including the Costume Triptych and Chikyū Hakken – that reimagine the story as a parable for the malignant dimensions of the Industrial Revolution. Each collection explores a central component from this narrative.

Sequence Portrait presents an enormous Nautilus-like boring vessel (homage to another of Verne’s creations) observed in three phases – Dormant, Ignition, and Standby. Pictured from its top elevation (facing the drilling planes) the machine’s proportions are obscured in favor of its thematic symbolism: an embodiment of mankind’s hubris and lustful contempt towards nature. The vessel is an incarnation of primal sentiments – ones consecrated by the industrial age and fated to envelop the world in the following centuries. And yet, in spite of its menace, the machine’s apotropaic semblance betrays an abiding fear of that which it would subjugate.

Although the machine was built as a digital sculpture the artwork is exhibited as traditionally printed photographs. To achieve parity with the resolution of medium format film, the project’s 3D Director overcame grueling specifications – modeling every facet of the machine’s immense geometry, including billions of polygons and several hundred functionally illuminating elements. Each composition was then assigned to a farm of computers specialized in rendering technical engineering simulations, which still required several days per-image to calculate and amass the tonal depths required for a photographic exposure.

The series includes 3 artworks.

1st Edition, 1/3 

MEDIUM Silver Gelatin Photographic Prints

Credits

DIRECTOR OF 3D PRODUCTION & MODELING: Michael Marcondes

design & production