Download the Catalog for Surface Proxy

Surface Proxy is a show of picture surrogates, inkjet prints on linen wrapped around CNC milled foam sculptures.

Valla begins with Medieval French architectural and sculptural fragments that have made their way into the collections of museums in New York and Providence, where the artist lives and works. The objects at the various institutions are chosen because they bear visible scars of their transformation from fixed architectural ornaments to stand-alone sculptural works.

In order to reproduce the fragments Valla uses a process known as photogrammetry: objects are photographed from multiple angles and a 3d model of the objects is produced by triangulating the multiple images.

The origins of photogrammetry are intrinsically linked with the medieval content. The technique was invented by a French mathematician in 1849 and perfected in the later half of the 19th century by Albrecht Meydenbauer, a Prussian architect tasked with surveying historical monuments on the verge of complete decay. A near fatal fall from a gothic cathedral convinces Meydenbauer to employ the ‘magic scaffold’ of photogrammetry – to measure and model from a distance. Contemporary photogrammetry software has made this once specialized scientific process widely accessible.

The 3d models produced by photogrammetry are images in a quite literal sense – extracted from optical technologies, they are formed on the computer screen by wrapping and folding flat pictures around hollow 3d volumes. The promise of 3d scanning and manufacturing is that we will be able to reproduce objects. The truth is that we get 3d images. Valla emphasises the increasing confusion between image and objects in these works.

photos by Vinciane Verguethen