Making of Exhibits 10, 11 & 13

Once again I forgot to shoot more Making Ofs. Since I work on objects simultaneously I am just too caught up in the process. The "E" made of veins gave me the hardest time ever! The veins broke, they bent, they did not attach - they were unforgiving. The final version was the third try. I never had to throw away 2 failures before. Check out the completed project on: http://www.behance.net/andreasscheiger

Hot Off the Press

"Die Presse", one of Austria´s leading newspapers, features 3 of my works in their "Schaufenster Edition 2011". Each year "Die Presse" portrays a small selection of upcoming Austrian artists. On 14th of April the edition was presented to the audience at Lisabird´s Art Collective. What a party! In addition "Die Presse" offers limited edition art prints signed and numbered by the artists. Get your wonderful print here >

The evolution starts here

For the sake of completeness: The first step of creating a letter for my series "Evolution of Type" is the most joyful one. The exposure of the skeleton. Mmmh...

Shooting the Letters

In October 2010 we gathered in Susanne Stemmer´s studio in order to take pictures of my letters. The plan was to simulate dissection in a surgery room. Weeks before I organized surgical instruments and garment but the hardest part was grabbing a time slot in Susanne´s busy work life.

There is nothing like a Hasselblad. And there is no one better then famous fashion photographer Susanne Stemmer. You already could see on the rigging that these are going to be kick ass pictures.



Catherine volunteered as model. Since we we did not know how much body and face will be shown on the pictures I had her and Felix dressed up completely in surgery apparel. I think that usually models don´t like that kind of garment but Catherine went along happily.

I did not see this coming: Latex gloves come in different sizes and I must have grabbed the XL - too big for Catherine. We had to tape and tacker.

Last facial touch ups and letters wiped clean.

It took considerate efforts to put all components in the right place. But here they are: four heroes in action.




The whole situation resembled a real surgery. I actually had to wipe foreheads.


Surgical intervention over. Can somebody please clean up the mess?

The studio team:
Felix Leutner, Catherine Hera Arming - Chief Physicians
Susanne Stemmer - Photographer
Andreas Scheiger - Idea & Patient Provider
Love you, folks!

Evolution of Type, Exhibits 1-9

The final result of a joyful project. All pictures were taken by Susanne Stemmer at her studio and retouched by Nicoletta Sobotta at her "Retoucherie". For more pictures see my Behance portfolio.

Evolution of Type, Exhibits 6-9 & 12

The finished next set of letters. This time I used corals and shells in addition to chicken bones. For a full description and more pictures see my Behance portfolio.

Making of "Exhibit 6-9 & 12"

Materials: Powder-coated MDF, polymer clay, chicken bones, corals and shells, thread, wire, hot glue. Colored with acrylics, spray paint and clear varnish. I am so caught up in the process that I forget to shoot making-ofs. That´s why not all of my letters are documented here.

Evolution of Type, Fig. 18

I plan to put this concept into a sculpture. I am still checking the details and testing materials and I already know it´s going to be a toughy.

God of Steel

The publishers of the French magazine "irreverent" asked me to provide them with my illustration of "Questionman" for their 8th issue´s cover on the topic of God. The illustration had to be grayscale so I turned back to my original ink drawing and scanned it again.
> irreverent magazine

Making of "Exhibit 1-5"

Materials: Powder-coated MDF, polymer clay, chicken bones, thread, wire, hot glue. Colored with acrylics, spray paint and clear varnish. What you can´t see here are gallons of sweat drops.

Evolution of Type, Exhibit 1-5

I recently came across the book "The Alphabet and Elements of Lettering" (1918) by famous type designer Frederic W. Goudy:

"Of all the achievements of the human mind, the birth of the alphabet is the most momentous. Letters, like men, have now an ancestry (...) indeed, it has been said that the invention of writing is more important than all the victories ever won or constitutions devised by man (...) A letter should possess an esthetic quality that is organic, an essential of the form itself and not the result of mere additions to its fundamental form nor to meaningless variations of it."

So I altered some letters to suggest living organisms. For the full rationale and more pictures see my Behance portfolio.

Jane

This is my newest summerjob: "Jane". My earlier papercuts "Byrne & Boyle" were done with colored corrugated cardboard purchased in an art supply store. But for Jane I used industrial packaging cardboard with a rougher surface and bigger grating. It is harder to cut than art paper but gives a more handmade look and I could do a bigger size (70x100cm/28x40in). I was tempted to spraypaint the whole image in gold or light blue but decided to leave it with the original cardboard look. See bigger images in my behance gallery.