Emerging Austrian artist Oliver Laric’s solo exhibition at Schinkel Pavilion is proving how the popularisation of 3D technologies is now capacitating a new artistic dialogue between photography and sculpture. Photosculpture -a new medium that is still in its infancy- has become central to his practice in recent years. The repetitive scanning and composition process of a predetermined imagery end-result reflect his continuous search of relational aesthetics, especially in redefining the language of sculpture and its relevance in our digital age. Laric’s new, modular sculptures at Schinkel Pavilion’s octagonal space consist of his frequented materials: glyptotheques and plaster-cast. By juxtaposing contrasting materials, the result appears to be original and unique. It signals the next phase of finding his sculptural form and language.
Laric’s photosculptures fairly present the dilemmatic features of photographic images. His project threedscans.com challenges museums -whom he continually works with- and their reluctance in dealing with a digitalising world. The website makes all the 3D scanned images available for anyone to download and distribute. In a way, Laric is advancing the digitalisation of museums by drawing a more diverse audience. His 3D scanned images appear in music videos, on skateboards, and more. Some museums have to decide whether to make their collections public or remain private. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is one of the harbingers in digitalising their museum collection. They encourage people to download the collection images from their online database and reward those with the best appropriations.
Renderings of sculptures from the Vatican Museum, Musée d'Orsay and Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (mdbk), Laric’s versions resonated more with my contemporary eye than the originals. Standing in front of the Vatican Hermanubis, the d’Orsay Pan et Oursons and the mdbk Beethoven, my dialogue with the 3D scanned sculptures become more composed, without the heavy bearing of history. Time froze when I looked out of the Schinkel Pavilion and saw a bronze sculpture- I felt distant and alienated. The intimate ambience inside the octagonal space reflects the fragile, ephemeral and evocative society. On the one hand, we celebrate the efficiency of the digital present. On the contrary, we long for the lost time from a distant past. #oliverlaric #schinkelpavillon #schinkel #photosculpture #sculpture #3d