This model was handcrafted from found antique mechanical parts, including a vintage Singer sewing attachment. Though Conte prefers to use existing parts rather than build each model from the ground up, he has to make sure each preconstructed piece stays true to his original vision.
"When I found this, I knew it was the body of a bug," Conte said. "All I had to do was build the legs."
Conte's skull casts depict clockworklike internal mechanics of the brain, a concept he picked up during a drawing course on human anatomy at Pratt Institute. He worked closely with his instructor to create casts and make molds from dissected cadavers for use in classroom lectures.
"I love early medical diagrams by da Vinci that show cross sections of skulls, so I began working on that idea, casting skulls in bronze," Conte said.
Each work of art can take Conte as long as two months to build, even if a central body part is derived from a vintage mechanical part, like the partial Swatch wristband incorporated into this design. Although his pieces often run upward of $2,000 each, Conte estimates that, given the amount of time he invests into building each piece, it works out to 15 cents an hour for a given sculpture.
"I've been doing this sort of work since college, but never at this level of intricacy, this level of craftsmanship," he said.
By Jenna Wortham, Photo: Amanda Dutton, Synesthesia Photo, courtesy of Christopher Conte
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario