China Research | Tile 1

The digital composites used previously for the vases were also morphed and distorted over an arrangement of 3-D virtual vase forms to create a graphic, 2-D “still-life” to be transferred over porcelain tiles.

China Research | Tile 2

From this altered composite, a digitally printed ceramic decal was produced and transferred to the tile for firing. After firing, some silk-screened decals were added to complete the image. A particular visual experience is created in the relationship between 2D and 3D, surface and form, found in ceramic objects, here reduced to “flat” images.

China Research | Tile 3

Here is a completed porcelain tile of the digital composite “ Matt over the city at sunset”, morphed over a still life of vases distorting the figure(s). Shown below is an arrangement of virtual 3-D vases over which more photographic composites can be morphed, then printed and fused to other tiles. The intent of this work is to explore the aesthetic potential of digital technology while reusing the same material differently, in a more graphic, bi-dimensional yet illusionist manner., to create an experience that is at once familiar and unsettling.

China Research | Vase 1

Using Edward Weston’s photographs “Six Nudes of Neil” from 1925, as a source, photographs were taken of two models (Ian and Matt). The model was photographed each time from four viewpoints, front, right side, back and left side, so that the images could be organized continuously all around porcelain vase forms. Six completed vases are shown here.

China Research | Vase 2

These digital photographs were then photoshopped as a continuous composite, showing the four views of the model with a variety of backgrounds: views of Vancouver, sunrise and sunset, construction sites, gardens, flowers, interiors, etc. The spatial relationship of the figure to the ground is always ambiguous, unresolved, even awkward, on purpose, and the disruption of the figure and the landscape caused by the photographic compositions is also retained, even stressed, deliberately.

China Research | Vase 3

Each composite was then morphed and distorted, in a variety of ways, all over a series of virtual vase forms using 3-D animation software (3D Max or C4D). Eight digital photo stills were printed for each vase. These 8 prints were brought to China to be hand-painted over specifically made porcelain vases, by experts, in Jingdezhen, China.