WANDERING IN AN INFINITE MAZE
This series of arcades and arches post-modern concrete architectural sculptures began around 2017 and is still ongoing. I keep telling myself it’s time to move on to other things, but somehow I always come back. Looks like I’m an addict.
Back in my Arch School days, I wouldn’t have dared to pull out one of these arches. It would have been labelled as “Post-modern,” the mortal enemy of the Dominant and All-powerful Modern chapel.
I was among the herd anyway, so I wouldn’t have done that. Years later, it still itches me every time I draw an arch, but I keep doing them because I think there’s something I’m trying to figure out.
Is it classic, is it modern, is it functional or just decorative? If you go back to the Romans, arches were marvelous works of engineering. You could have said it was industrial. Nowadays, we still use them structurally, but the perception is more ambivalent.
DÉAMBULATOIRES
“Déambulatoires” is the main series of my Arches corpus. They’re all about 30 x 30 x 30 cm (12 x 12 x 12 in) in size, with some being a little bit bigger.
Déambulatoire no.4
The concrete version of this piece is a unique edition.
It was showcased in the “Infrastructures” Exhibition at Art Mûr Gallery
www.artmur.com
Digital editions also have been released on Teia Tezos NFT platform
https://teia.art/david.umemoto
DÉAMBULATOIRE no.8
This piece is different than the others as it has been designed as a concrete sculpture but also as a digital generative project. It has been published on fx(hash) as a generative token (NFT) and some editions have been 3D printed. Click the post link for the full story.
www.fxhash.com
Déambulatoire no.8
physical and digital sculpture This project is part of the series of sculptures called “Déambulatoires” started in 2018. The particularity of this edition is that
Two Towers
After years of drawing 3D objects in a sketch book and precisely modeling them on computer, I’d like to think I’m in total control of the design process and that I can clearly know what the “real” thing would be when I pull it out of the mold. I modestly think it’s true most of the time, but every once in a while a piece surprises me.
I designed the “Two Towers” very fast, but I wasn’t sure about the inverted curves and couldn’t decide how tall it should be, so I just put it aside and forgot about it. Months later, while preparing an exhibition, I had a sudden last-minute freak-out realizing that I might be missing a few pieces for the show. So I pulled out the schematics from this piece and made it without further thinking. Since I’m always looking forward, I usually lose interest very quickly in my past production, but this one still gives me a smile.
The naming came when I installed it on a plinth during exhibition setup. Originally, it was supposed to be a Déambulatoire, but then I saw the Two Towers. Some people argue that there are three towers, but I think they’re wrong..
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