Fabian Hesse & Mitra Wakil – Crop. Algorithmic Rendering

Artist duo Mitra Wakil and Fabian Hesse mine information from databases to create digital renderings and then use a 3D printer to transform them into physical objects. The exhibition showcases a dialogue of the sculptural works – anthropomorphic silver sculptures made from bioplastics – and the color renderings used in creating them.

In recent years, "post-photography" has become the umbrella term for digital, virtual, and hybrid forms of contemporary photography and its intersection with other imaging technologies. The new software allows 3D models to be generated from photographic data, thereby transforming the relationship between image and reality. Hesse & Wakil’s art inhabits this space, where photography, software, sculpture, and big data converge.

The "Crop" of the title alludes to crops of plants as well as to the cropping of digital images, simultaneously referencing the exhibition’s subject matter and the technology used to create its exhibits. The artists take 3D scans of plants from agricultural crops such as tobacco and millet, rearrange the data, and use algorithms and digital modeling to produce new, virtual shapes from the individual elements. This results in an array of fantastical flora, reminiscent of both plants and the human body, where leaves, tubers, and fruits produce unexpected hybrid forms. Hesse and Wakil use 3D printing to transform this abstract data into physical objects. Crop offers a prime example of the capacity of databases to provide artists with a rich source of photographic data and digital material, redefining the relationship between images and 3D objects.

Curator: Nadine Isabelle Henrich

Artists: Fabian Hessen & Mitra Wakil