Fabricating Piranesi

Giovanni Piranesi was an 18th century Italian artist known primarily for his Carceri prints, 16 utterly baroque and fantastic prison scenes. However, he had an eye for gorgeous detail, and a group of modern artists has recreated several objects found in Piranesi’s illustrations.

Factum Arte, voxelstudios and a team of specialist craftsmen working in Madrid have produced these objects. Some have been made using traditional modelling skills while others have been made digitally using ‘organic modelling’ software. This mix of technology combined with traditional craft skills and materials will hopefully result in a meaningful C21st re-interpretation of Piranesi’s interests in an excessive and incorporative sense of design. The output from the digital file to the physical object is achieved by using a variety of fabrication technologies including stereo-lithography, milling, fused deposition modelling and 3D printing.

Each object has been finished in the original materials specified by Piranesi – these include bronze, marble, silver and gold leaf. There are seven objects that have been produced in small edition, these include a marble chimney, a coffeepot, two bronze tripods, a chair, a vase and a candelabra.

[Via Beyond the Beyond]