Nick Ervinck Releases His Book of Amazing 3D Printed Art, ‘GNI_RI_2014’

If you haven’t seen Ervinck’s work, you should take a look. The pieces he has created have taken his home country of Belgium by storm and are sure to expand to well beyond its borders. His new monograph book ‘GNI_RI_2014‘ includes a number of images of his striking sculptures that he calls “a cross-pollination between the digital and the physical.”  A large number of these sculpture have been 3D printed with the help of a company called Materialise.

To realize the pieces that he has designed, he began working with experts at Materialise in 2008. He has continually challenged the company’s engineers to keep pace with his innovation. His interests are broad and through his work he tries to challenge dichotomies such as that created between digital and physical or between the static and the dynamic. The pieces that he created, not only exist as objects, but Ervinck is particularly interested in the ways in which they are positioned inside of and interact with space.

After finding himself frustrated with traditional media and the boundaries that had been set for sculpture, the artist noted:

“The studio takes a vanguard position in the field of digital technology (such as 3D technology and computational design methods). 3D printing offers me the incredible advantage to produce almost any type of intricate geometry or ornament.”

Taking a note from the Cubists, Ervinck’s work attempts to discover the movement, change, and experience across time in order to capture more than a particular moment’s 3 dimensional shell. Ranging from the organic to the architectural, Ervinck’s pieces threaten to move away from you even as you contemplate them. Bernini’s David seems on the verge of springing to life, but there is a motion in Ervinck’s creations that cause your imagination to push them forward and then to be surprised that they haven’t actually moved. That tension isn’t created, however, by conveying a familiar form trapped in a moment of motion, but rather through the relationships between positive and negative space as articulated by the process of design itself.

The book, written in both English and Dutch, and published by MER. Paperkunsthalle is an experience in and of itself. The images are, of course, the work of Ervinck while the text was contributed by four experts with unique perspectives in the field.

Professor Neil Spiller Dean of the School of Architecture, Design & Construction at the University of Greenwich and the Founding Director of the Advanced Virtual and Technological Architecture Research Group (AVATAR).

Dr. Julia Kelly Researcher at the University of Hull with a history of publications on artists such as Giacometti and a recent book called Involuntary Sculpture: Process, Photography and the Ephemeral Object in which she wrote about surrealism and automatic sculpture.

Freddy Decreus Professor Emeritus at the University of Ghent and classical philologist who teaches courses in literary theory, the stage, as well as mythology and modern painting.

Christine Vuegen Pracitcing artist, writer and critic at the Flemish Institute for visual, audiovisual and media art.

Ervinck’s work is larger than any particular gallery or piece; it is a coherent and continually advancing exploration of 3D technology as an expressive medium for sculpture. Ervinck admits to an ongoing fascination with invention’s impact on art and the fact that he was “disappointed in contemporary sculpture and its lack of renewal” stating that he “turned towards architecture, applied sciences and new media, in order to elaborate a new language generated by computer software, and to compose forms and designs that were unthinkable in all those years before.”

There is no doubt that Ervinck will continue to push the boundaries both within art and of art’s relationship to a wide number of fields. As such, this book is a welcome addition to the catalog of sculptural artists as members of the digital age. The book can be purchased at Ervinck’s website, and will cost you €67.00.  Let us know what you think of this artist’s tremendous work in the Nick Ervinck ‘GNI_RI_2014’ forum thread at 3DPB.com.