NYC dream: A sculpture on breast cancer

Commentary on art: Ruins (Carcinomas) highlights breast cancer’s links to carcinogens in our everyday environment. Depicting fallen urban landscapes over-run with tumors, the pieces are based on breast cancer tumor forms, imaged and “digitally removed” through a special process devised by caraballo-farman, that combines Magnetic Resonance Imaging and rapid prototyping. The grey ‘support material’ used by 3D printers to build up a form is generally meant to be removed. But the artists used Eyebeam’s 3D printer in such a way as to maximize the architectural form of the printer’s support structures and then hacked at the structures to partially reveal the white tumor embedded.

Source(s): 1. Youtube 18 Oct. 2014

2. Studio360 18 Oct. 2014 < http://www.studio360.org/story/227070-object-breast-cancer/>

3. Website 18 Oct 2014

Personal response: 1. Dimensionality – Full round, 2. Method of execution – Both construction and substitution 3. Composition – Small mass, grey and white colored sculpture. Very distinct lines were used to depict the ruins, but diffused forms were used to depict the tumor 4. Principles – A rectangular structure is repeated many times to describe the ruins. There is clever use of negative space to slightly separate different architectural ruins. 5. Focal point – The upper detailed construct of ruins right above the white and cloudy tumorous mass. Viewer’s eye starts at the wide bottom, moves upward towards the cloudy tumor mass. At this point, the emotional dialogue between the viewer and the sculpture is the maximum. Then, as the sculptors intended a victory of the survivor over the tumor, the viewer’s eye travels further up to the details of the ruins leaving the emotional dialogue with the tumor behind them. This bottom up approach represents Leonor Caraballo’s personal experience of rising above the fight with breast cancer in her life.