Felipe Meres

Global Illumination

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Global Illumination, 2018 
HD video, sound, 8″

Global Illumination departs from a selection of Pre-Columbian objects attributed by the Pumapungo Museum in Cuenca, Ecuador, to nine different cultures and which are considered to have anthropomorphic or zoomorphic qualities, and characteristics related to sexuality. The objects were 3D-scanned at the museum with a digital camera through a process of photogrammetry and from the resulting 3D-models an animation was rendered in 3D-modeling software. The film is titled after one of the chief CGI algorithms responsible for accurately simulating the behavior of light and for producing scenes that are photorealistic to a point where one can’t distinguish them from perceived reality.

As Euro-American museums such as the MET, the British Museum and the Smithsonian increasingly dedicate a great amount of resources to 3D-scan and digitize their collections, Global Illumination meditates on the effects of such efforts and on the possibilities of representations of ethnographic artifacts in the present. By deploying one of the most advanced 3D-renderingtechnologies in CGI as well as borrowing from the aesthetic conventions of museum anthropology and auction house ads, the film probes the realist epistemology and the colonial desire to objectively measure difference that has guided most efforts to represent ethnographic artifacts since the early days of anthropology. The transparency and accuracy of scientific methods are challenged in the film as the hyper-realistic representation of the objects becomes undone and conjure a science-fiction atmosphere—as the objects themselves are rendered opaque by the aesthetic conventions used to represent them.

Original score by Geneva Skeen

 

Global Illumination, 2018
Installation view

 

Global Illumination, 2018
Still

First Impression (Sea Lily), 2018
Gypsum, polystyrene, acrylic, silver powder
23 x 10.5 x 7 in

 

Detail

The Telomeric Cut

The Telomeric Cut, 2016
Electron micrographs, pigment prints on aluminum
27 x 36 in (each)

The Telomeric Cut departs from a series of electron micrographs in which Meres captures the process of cutting and regenerating hermaphroditic planarian flatworms. The outcome of a one-year experiment that entailed daily care and observation of planarians’ sexual and asexual regenerative patterns, the images abstract and magnify these immortal animals into otherworldly electron landscapes. Meres worked with electrical engineers at Columbia University to produce the images through a microscopic process that deploys electrons, instead of photons, as sources of information, thereby responding to flatworms’ inherent phobia of light.

The ensuing micrographs are rendered in 3D modelling software and materialized in pigment
prints on metallic substrates and silk. Framed in polished steel boxes, the metallic prints evoke the authority of scientific display while the silk prints are mounted on biomorphic steel structures that allude to role-playing equipment. Departing from recent findings connecting flatworms’ immortality to the behavior of telomeres (caps at the end of DNA strands that protect genetic material from damage and prevent chromosomes from fusing), Meres’s telomeric cutting experiments work through the dissonant hopes and fears that the quest for the control of regeneration evokes.

Tentatus, 2018
Pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
203.2 x 82.55 x 60.96 cm
Enchanted Bodies, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2018)

Installation view
Enchanted Bodies, GAMeC, Bergamo, Italy (2018)

Detail

Installation View
The Telomeric Cut
, Mendes Wood DM, São Paulo, Brazil (2017)

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Installation view

Tentata Genera, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 65 x 7.6 cm

Tentata Occulta, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 60 x 7.6 cm

Tentata Adventitium, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, açaí berry, silicone rubber, polished steel, laboratory hardware
122 × 65 x 7.6 cm

The Telomeric Cut – Tail Turns Into Mouth, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm

The Telomeric Cut – Ectopic Eyes, 2017,
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm

The Telomeric Cut – Anterior Wound, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
96 × 70,5 cm

The Telomeric Cut – Cyclopic, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
172 × 81 cm

The Telomeric Cut – Tail on Tail, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print, polished steel
96 × 70,5 cm

Weave Weavers Weave, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, woven aluminum, polished steel
119 × 61 × 114 cm

Weavers Weave We, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, woven aluminum, polished steel
191 × 51 × 99 cm

Weave We Weavers, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, polyurethane, woven aluminum, polished steel
191 × 51 cm

Detail

 

Weave We Weavers II, 2017
Electron micrograph, pigment print on silk, polyurethane, woven aluminum, polished steel
158 × 38 cm

Detail

Fsision

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Installation view
Fsision, Company Gallery, NY (2016)

Fsision, 2015
HD video, 24:18

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Fsision, 2015
HD video, 24:18

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Installation View

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EffusaElegans, 2016
Inkjet print on silk, protein powder, synthetic testosterone, silicone rubber, foam sheath, aluminum bar, hardware
51x 72 x 5 in
(129.54 x 182.88 x 12.7 cm)

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Tentaculata Arabica, 2016
Inkjet print on silk, protein powder, synthetic testosterone, silicone rubber, foam sheath, aluminum bar, hardware
54 x 74 x 5 in

06

Baubau Brasiliensis (rubber incision), 2015
Inkjet print on metallic paper, aluminum
66 x 44 in
(167.64 x 111.76 cm)

07

Schizophyllum commune, 2016
Inkjet print on metallic paper, aluminum
66 x 44 in
(167.64 x 111.76 cm)

08

Thermophilic, 2015
Inkjet print on metallic paper, aluminum
66 x 44 in
(167.64 x 111.76 cm)

09

Improvisa Transcaucasica (t0), 2016
Protein powder, synthetic testosterone, silicone rubber, powder coated steel, rare earth magnets
20.5 x 14 x 1 in
(52.07 x 35.56 x 2.54 cm)

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Improvisa Transcaucasica (t2), 2016
Protein powder, synthetic testosterone, silicone rubber, powder coated steel, rare earth magnets
14 x 8 x 1 in
(35.56 x 20.32 x 2.54 cm)

11

Improvisa Transcaucasica (t3), 2016
Protein powder, synthetic testosterone, silicone rubber, powder coated steel, rare earth magnets
19 x 13 x 3 in
(48.26 x 33.02 x 7.62 cm)

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Untitled, 2016
Diffraction gratings, rare earth magnets
26 x 5 in
(66.04 x 12.7 cm)

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Untitled, 2016
Diffraction gratings, rare earth magnets
26 x 5 in
(66.04 x 12.7 cm