Auriea

ArtistStatement

I create sculptures using digital processes and handwork which are either shown as physical artefacts or populate virtual spaces I create. Drawing from my extensive experience in net art, video games, and mixed reality, I bring the same emphasis on personal narratives, character development, and innovation which have been hallmarks of my previous collaborative work.

In my new bodies of work, I begin with a character in mind. Often I will explore this character by making scans: of myself, of those close to me–they begin with living form. These scans go through a metamorphosis as they are combined with other scans or sculpted elements from my extensive library: scans from my own clay sculptures, digitally-crafted 3D sculptures made from drawings or from my imagination, copies of ancient figures encountered in museums, forms found from daily wandering through my home city of Rome or other towns where I travel. These works are fundamentally hybrid: composed of found and original works from different sources, eras, and cultures, each part contributing to the narrative. Through 3D scanning and modeling, I can combine elements that would otherwise be impossible. The character’s histories and forms are compressed within a single sculpture.

Many of the works draw from Hellenistic art, the ancient time period between 300BC and 31AD. I get a pleasant jolt from acknowledging a debt not only to the contemporary, fast changing world of computer technology but also to the distant past which changes only in the way we retell its stories. My work is Hellenistic not only through my affinity for those forms, but also the ethos of syncretism as a way of working. The amalgamated elements coming from disparate contexts are combined within 3D modeling software. As I mould the works, I also mould the characters, each with its own narrative. Each nexus of elements produces several sculptures; I reconfigure the pieces until the character’s story is complete. I work with whichever character resonates most with me, filtering well-known narratives through my own retelling. For example, one scan of my head is transformed into an AR cyclops bust (Thou Askest Me of My Glorious Name, 2019); another scan of a clay sculpture from a live model is the basis for a monsterous bronze-coated 3D print (Leviathan, 2018); then those models are further changed and combined with a 3D scan of the Torso of Polyphemus from Palazzo Altemps to produce a small resin 3D print (Sketch for a Cyclops, 2019), an AR sculpture (Cyclops, 2019), and finally a much larger hand-finished 3D print with clay, wax, and pigment (Cyclops, 2020).
While working on the computer, I work with precision, but once the elements become physical, the work becomes energetic and intuitive. Materially, I am inspired by textures such as the ritual patina of mud and blood encrusted Boli power figures, the traces of pigment left on translucent ancient Greek marble and Yoruba sculpture also, with its rich dark stain and contrasts of smooth and tooled surfaces, or the quick but deft figure sketch of the late 19th century French or Italian Baroque sculptor’s terra-cotta, traces of handwork left in the clay. But because I have been a digital artist my entire life, I also complement the physical work by bringing back the sculptures’ digital origin through the sculptural use of AR. I am bridging a gap between the digital and physical, the possible and impossible. The digital surface can be covered in simulated textures which I use to create a realistic illusion or uncanny dissonance. My work looks towards the future of mixed reality, incorporating new developments as they are released. The AR sculptures not only allow viewers to experience the work as more than an image on a screen, but to experience a different kind of time, a continuousness of now. My belief is that the digital is in many ways the true form of the sculptures that I make.

As an African American woman who has lived in Europe for many years, I find myself sometimes feeling isolated from my culture, but also awash in the traces left by the African diaspora. Looking to the future, I find humanity and creativity among the ashes of our late-capitalist corporate demented version of civilization. Looking back at history, I connect with and pay tribute to my ancestors. I sift through artifacts of Western culture in order to find myself and my lineage. I recognize that these objects themselves are hybrid products, and often more imaginative than truthful. Ultimately, nothing feels foreign to me. My sculptures make my influences evident and I fuse them with my own creations to reinvent, reinterpret, and retell new narratives.

Synthetic Corpo-Reality

Exhibitions

Synthetic Corpo-Reality is inspired by the extended artwork of Martina Menegon who explores issues of the contemporary self alongside its synthetic corpo-reality. This exhibition examines the work by international artists who have chosen the body as a vessel for the realization of their artistic goals. There is a new more encompassing definition of “sculpture art” in the digital age or post-digital age. Artists using computers to create images of the body do so in a variety of digital mediums including photography, video, multi channel animations, 3D printer scans, sketch-fab, GIFs, AI softwares, augmented reality, 360 experiences and virtual reality.

For this show I create La Vita Nova, an immersive environment and soundscape in Mozilla Hubs.

when i was 46 it was the year after a deep depression. the year before I had learned about choosing. when i turned 46 i learned what it was to have chosen. I would go to a park and recite epic poetry to now one. X.L.V.I. was the year I read Dante, in The Vita Nova, he writes about reconstructing his life around love. about meeting his Beatirice, and her death, and about creation. On my 46th birthday I forgave myself. I made two 3d scans to mark the occasion. Now why do i bring this back, now when I am 49? I feel I have completed the cycle that began then. when i look back at the timeline, i see a clear line that began right then, with my choosing a new life, a life that i am living right now. At 46, choosing to write incipit vita nova in ink at the top of a new sketchbook.The decision to make two scans of myself, celebrating alone on my birthday, holding a single white rose and a day later offering myself the entire bouquet. In this particular realtime rendering of these scans I place those 2 scans in a crossroads of ethereal hallways. Also present are two other scans made as a basis for a project about Mary Magdalene… these have nothing to do with the main narrative here or choosing or my turning 46. but, they do show danger, crossing and covering my choice like a death card in tarot. In these dark hallways you hear me reciting Dante from vita nova and the opening lines of inferno. i hope my italian accent isn’t too offensive. there are also a few lines from the sketchbook of that year. the closer you get to any of the statues the more they dissolve away. take from that what you will.

Curated by Julie Walsh for MEET Digital Arts Center, Milan
https://www.meetcenter.it/en/synthetic-corpo-reality-exhibition/
Group show with:
Zhou Xiaohu (Shanghai)
Miao Xiaochun (Beijing/Berlin)
Martina Menegon(Vienna/Italy)
Claudia Hart (New York/Chicago)
Tim Deussen (Berlin)
Sophie Kahn (New York/Australia)
Carla Gannis (New York)
Nancy Baker Cahill (Los Angeles)
Rebecca Allen(Los Angeles)
Tamiko Thiel (Munich/America)
Auriea Harvey (Rome)

The Archive To Come

The Archive to Come
Telematic Media Arts presents The Archive to Come
An exhibition of short, time-based works
On-line, In Social VR, and In the Gallery
‪October 22nd - December 17th, 2020‬
https://hubs.mozilla.com/dAGxCsm/archive-of-the-archive-to-come-vr-gallery
My short video clip “Islanders” was on view
https://www.tttelematiccc.com/history-conflict-and-social-justice
This work is of a 3D scan made in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. “Facial casts of Nias islanders JP Kleiweg de Zwaan 1910”, an installation of early 20th century life casts.
https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/NG-C-2012-3-11
I never stop wondering who these people were. What is so appealing about broken things? My 3D capture was done in less than ideal circumstances, leading to the broken nature of the model. I attempt to contemplate something lost to time. Impressions of forms taken, better whole than broken... and yet. The video capture is me playing with the sunlight I’ve set up in my 3d program, complete with clicks and drags....

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Example No.22

Exhibitions

A lecture/performance and exhibition for the Kasseler Dokfest 2018
Exhibition of 3D printworks: 13-18 Nov, Lecture: 15 Nov
Location: BALi Kinos Kulturbahnhof
DokfestProgramAuriea.pdf
Example No.22 Installation Images

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Minorinth

Simulations

''physical setup - 4x4 meter space surrounded by chairs''

''diagram taped on the floor, for devlog see: NoQuarter.''

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