Janus, Miguel Chevalier, 2013 Sculpture Executed via 3D Printing in Silica Sand and Resin 1 x 1 x 1 m Courtesy Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo
Janus is a sculpture executed via 3D printing in silica sand and resin. Represented by two faces looking in opposite directions, Janus is an ambivalent god who gazes both ahead and behind, toward the past and toward the future. God of doors, which he opens and closes, Janus is also the god of departures and returns, and he embodies the dual dimension of the city as both protective asylum and a site opened upon the world. Considered as the protector of ports, he has had the invention of navigation attributed to him, as he is said to have touched land in Italy after having crossed the Mediterranean aboard a small craft.
Inspired by ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, this pixelized or “voxelized” (3D pixel) dual head expresses the omnipresence of digital culture in our society and digital technology’s self-assertion as a valid art in its own right, in continuity with the history of art since Antiquity.
A genuine revolution in the world of sculpture, 3D printing now allows one to give material form to the virtual universes of Miguel Chevalier—as is the case here with Janus, which is excerpted from the virtual-reality work Terra Incognita.
The execution of this unusual order was done with the large-format VX4000 printer at the voxeljet service center. The powerful industrial printer with the build volume of up to 8 m³ printed the whole sculpture with the dimensions 1000 x 1000 x 820 mm in one piece. To keep the weight of the piece to a reasonable 120 kg, the artwork was created with a wall thickness of approximately 25 mm and was hollow inside. After printing, the head was filled with epoxy resin. The printing time for the complete sculpture amounted to 40 hours.
