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Photograph - Forest Devils' Moon Night
  • Forest Devils' Moon Night
    Snelson, Kenneth, born 1927
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Forest Devils' Moon Night

  • Object:

    Photograph

  • Place of origin:

    United States (made)

  • Date:

    1991 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Snelson, Kenneth, born 1927 (artist)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    C-type print

  • Credit Line:

    Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Patric Prince

  • Museum number:

    E.1046-2008

  • Gallery location:

    Prints & Drawings Study Room, level C, case MM, shelf 7

Snelson uses the computer to create imaginary three-dimensional scenes. This print shows an otherworldly landscape, with four large sculptures. The sculptures are copies of a real work, entitled 'Forest Devil', which is sited in Mellon Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Snelson describes the process of constructing the sculptures on the computer as being analogous to that of creating a real, three-dimensional sculpture. Snelson textured-mapped the landscape and created the effect of shadows using ray-tracing.

Physical description

C-type colour print of a computer-generated image, depicting one of the artist's distinctive sculptures within a landscape. The sculpture consists of hollow rigid pipes and flexible cables wich together create a push and pull equilibrium and thus the necessary tension to become a firm structure.

Place of Origin

United States (made)

Date

1991 (made)

Artist/maker

Snelson, Kenneth, born 1927 (artist)

Materials and Techniques

C-type print

Marks and inscriptions

Artist's name and contact details
In pen on reverse of image, upper left corner.

Dimensions

Width: 89 cm, Length: 111.4 cm

Object history note

AAD/2009/19/15/2 contains a stereo viewer with two 35mm slides of 'Forest Devils' Moon Night'

Descriptive line

C-type colour photographic print, 'Forest Devils' Moon Night', by Kenneth Snelson, 1991

Production Note

Attribution note: In a letter from the artist to Patric Prince (dated 23/04/1992) Snelson writes "The picture was made with the use of Silicon Graphics 4D-25 computer and Wavefront Technologies software. I hope that whoever studies this work in future days will consider how relatively primitive were the systems we artists were working with back in the '90s"

Materials

Photographic paper

Techniques

Computer animation; Computer graphics

Subjects depicted

Sculpture; Landscape

Categories

Photographs; Computer Art

Collection

Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection

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