Brooklyn-based, Australian multimedia artist Sophie Kahn creates fragmented female bodies and faces by merging a classic sculpting approach with new and modern technology. She uses 3D laser scanning and printing combined with ancient bronze casting techniques to produce these lively formations that suggest the wear and tear that might occur across decades, yet many of the pieces have existed for only a few short years.
Each piece is a life-sized 3D print made out of metal, clay, or bronze, and some of which are set atop an aluminum base. Through her work, Kahn explores the idea that modern technology cannot accurately capture and portray life. The deconstructed figures are a result of 3D scanner that can only replicate traces of the body in lifeless, colorless form.
When speaking about her work, Kahn explains, “[The sculptures] speak to the impossibility of ever capturing more than a trace of the past, or of a living, breathing body, despite our grandest efforts to fix it in place. This concern with the instability of memory and representation is the common thread that weaves together the ancient and futuristic aspects of my work.”
