Frank Officier, Digital Clay Sculpture 2, 2022.

Signed and printed on 50×50 cm / 350 gsm Hahnemühle Baryta paper including frame.

When the first lockdown occurred, I had to stop my ceramic work at the studio and replace it with something else. The corporate world switched to zoom and teams and I was wondering if I could also switch to the digital space with my ceramic work.  I started creating ‘digital clay sculptures’ and found that they were a perfect alternative. Shapes I could only dream of creating in clay revealed themselves by clicking and typing. My hands missed the touch of wet clay, but my eyes were treated to an explosion of pixels on my screen.

There were infinite creations possibilities thanks to the use of the software. And inspired by the many appearances of ceramics I experimented with the texture of the clay and the glaze, colour or finish it needed. Cobalt, Celadon, Oxides, Translucency, it was all in control but they needed some randomness like the alchemic process in the kiln which I added by using some programming.

The aesthetics, algorithms and the new, all came together in a way that made me feel like I was working with a new craft, a digital craft. The captivating thing about digital art is the way it brings together aesthetics, mathematics, and computer code. This strange mix is fertile ground for interesting, peculiar, and beautiful things. Though it’s satisfying to create these pieces, I missed one thing, which was the physical existence of it, I decided to convert them to ink droplets on paper.

Throughout this series, I experimented with the scale and size of the objects, showing only a glimpse of what is concealed, what is not visible is unknown, unexplained and nonexistent, it is up to the spectator to imagine what it may be and tell the story untold.

For gallery Pansa I created 6 digital clay sculptures, each piece is unique, signed and printed on 50×50 cm / 350 gsm Hahnemühle Baryta paper including frame.