When we last checked in with Fabian Oefner, the Swiss artist was making a $2 million Lamborghini explode. Now he’s working on a much smaller scale with his new series CutUp. Exploring the world of technical objects, Oefner is carefully slicing apart vintage still and video cameras. Each element is then arranged to show off the beauty of its mechanics and encased in clear resin to immortalize its industrial design for eternity.
Oefner’s creative process requires an interesting mix of high-end and low-end technology. It begins by using vacuum and pressure chambers to cure resin around the object at precise temperatures. Next, the artist takes a band saw to slice through the object using brute force. The individual pieces are then reassembled into a new shape and dipped once again in resin to create the highly-polished sculptures.
By breaking down the objects into smaller pieces, Oefner is able to give them new shape and dimension—thereby redefining their function. At the moment, CutUp consists of six sculptures. Oefner plans to continually expand the series over time and has purposely selected video and still cameras as his first subjects.
“This is an allusion to his earlier photographic work, where the image made with the camera is the ‘art’ and the camera itself is merely a tool,” his studio writes. “For this series, the tool is transformed into a piece of art. It is at the same time a deconstruction of the technology of image capturing, revealing the beauty underneath the surface of these objects.”
CutUp is a series of sculptures created through the dissection of technological objects like analog cameras.
The final arrangement of pieces is then housed in translucent resin, creating a unique sculpture.