Whether you feel Damien Hirst is a revolutionary artist, deserving of his estimated net worth (circa $300 million), or a hack capitalist who’s an easy target for critics who lack the nerve to go after Marina Abromovich, there’s no denying his flagrant use of mimesis.
And on and on. Of course mimicry and out-and-out theft are common in contemporary art, and sometimes that art is great. But if you’ve got three-hundred million dollars that you’ve earned on the backs of lesser known artists, I’m inclined to say you’re a square. You’re not necessarily a jerk, unimaginative, or, like I mentioned earlier, a hack. Although, you might be all these things, but mostly you’re a square. A lame-o. Rich artists are boring artists.
Taylor Wolf isn’t rich. Though he is a polymath wunderkind who’s stealing from the natural world to produce something new. The twenty-four year old collagist, sculptor, chef, and 3D printer user has given the world this:
That’s Wolf with his bone-thing sculpture he created using the Artec Eva-M, “a photogrammetric scanner that creates a 3D model by stitching together thousands of individual photographs,” and the Mcor Iris paper 3D printer.
The Mcor Iris is singular in the 3D printing world in that its material medium is layered paper. Wolf admits he could have made his pelvis and spine paper sculpture without these new technologies, although it would’ve been much, much more difficult.
As mentioned, Wolf doubles (really quadruples) as a chef, and while his culinary work doesn’t involve 3D printing, it’s still fascinating. His project involving removing the colours from foods and leaving in the distilled wake a series of white powders is like nothing I’ve seen before. Well, Tang springs to mind. But these are different things.
This photograph of Wolf working, all smiles and ingenuity, reminds me of better times. Youthful times. Exercises in expression devoid of pecuniary ambition. Though, I can’t speak much to process or expression. The furthest I ever got in the art world was giving my mother one of those leaves ironed under wax paper.
But at least I don’t look like this.
