Client: Carole A. Feuerman
Location: Sunnyvale, CA, United States
Completion date: 2014
Project Team
Other
Carole A. Feuerman
Caruso Turley Scott Structural Engineers
Overview
Finding the solutions to challenges of design and safety of the sculpture to meet artists needs. Was a true collaboration between artists and foundry as we developed a new method of creating textures to replicate a violent and organic technique called painting with fire.
Goals
Every piece we do we try to make the work as close to the original as possible. However for this, there was no original, we were making it while also developing a new process to try to mimic a certain style that the artist had envisioned. This means we had to also master the technique so that we can accurately control and convey what the artists wanted. We also try to have the foresight of any problems that might arise. In this case, we had to adjust the angle of the piece so that the centre of gravity sat safely.
Process
The double diver was made from scanning and piecing together her single diver piece so that the figure sat on top of itself creating an “S” curve. We adjusted the original model to account for center of gravity. After redesigned this, we then enlarged and milled on our FROG mill CNC machine and sent to Carole to put in the details and make molds.
New, unique methodologies had to be invented to realize Carole's vision. Tom Bollinger had the idea to mimic the "painting with fire" method with wax instead of bronze, where it could be controlled enough to get our standard thickness consistent in all around. Bollinger also designed and engineered the structural for the Double Diver with the help of Caruso Turley Scott structural engineers. A key component was to use 17-4 Stainless Steel for the weakest parts of the piece (hand and feet connection, bronze to base connections). 17-4 stainless is 10x as strong as 304 or 316 but also much more expensive which is why we had to design the armature to be as efficient with our materials as possible.
Additional Information
For more info on the project visit our website and blog: https://bollingeratelier.com/2019/04/19/carole-feuerman-x-bollinger-atelier/