Dutch sculptor Caspar Berger is known for the series of self-portraits he’s made over the past few years. Most recently, for a piece aptly titled Skeleton, he’s used data from a CT scan of his body to 3D-print life-sized replicas of his bones in translucent resin, which he then used to make silicone molds to cast the bones in bronze, silver, and plaster.
From his site:
The self-portrait – or ‘mirror portrait’ (ritratto allo specchio) as the earlier Italian painters referred to it – is not a common genre in the history of sculpture. The reason that sculptors have rarely portrayed themselves is a prosaic one: for a long time they had no way of seeing themselves in three dimensions. … In Skeleton I have made use of the incredible possibilities to reveal the invisible that modern medical techniques offer, in order to make tangible what lies beneath the skin. I have had my entire body scanned using the very latest CT scanner, which can divide the body into cross-sections measuring just half a millimetre. The digital information reveals my bones individually.
Additionally, he sent his 3D-printed skull to a forensic anthropologist and only provided him with the knowledge that the skull belonged to a man in his mid-40s born in Western Europe. Through the fascinating clay layering process of facial reconstruction, Berger’s head was recreated, and the finished piece, named Self-portrait 21 is also part of the series (a not-so-self-made self-portrait).
[via Gizmag]
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