Text and images : Gilles Bonugli Kali
On last April's Fools Day, I posted on Facebook an image of a sculpture pretending that my work as a sculptor had been selected to be shown at Palais du Louvre in Paris.Here is the technique I used to create this image. The process is quite simple and used every day in the cinema industry, or in a simple 3d integration that needs the object to reflect it's surrounding environment. It required me to capture everything around the object in order to light it correctly, and to have these accurate reflections. Here is what I did step by step :
THE CONCEPT BEHIND THE CONCEPT
The initial idea of this "sculpture" was to force the viewer to see him/herself with many different appearences depending on where they are around the sculpture, due to its curved shapes and the highly reflective chrome material it is made of. The artistic concept is to have them try to think differently on how things in life can have different aspects depending from where and in which state of mind you approach them.
Honestly I was not expecting so many reactions to my post, especially not people actually thinking that my work could be shown at a world renowned art institution like the Louvre. This being said, seeing these reactions, another idea came to my mind that is directly linked to the concept of the sculpture. Your attitude often depends on how you position your mind when you think of something. Knowing now that this sculpture exists only in my mind, do you still have the same enthusiasm about it ?
Furthermore, does the "idea" of an art piece belong to you even if you don't actually create it in real life ? That brings more questions about the feelings that will arise when we put a VR helmet on our heads, and visit a museum located at the other side of the planet. Are our emotions going to be different knowing that an art piece actually exists or is merely virtual ? Is the concept more important than the art piece itself? This present case is a bit different because, as stated earlier, given that the sculpture is reflection based, as long as it does not actually exist, it will be impossible to play with it, unless in advanced Virtual Reality.
Although this sculpture currently only exists in my mind, it is an art piece that I would like to bring to life. I lack the necessary skills to physically create a sculpture of this magnitude myself, but would love to partner with any artists who can help make this concept a reality.
Gilles Bonugli Kali - GBK.PHOTOS
Credits:
gbk.photos