Project type: Art-making

Dec

2016

Martyr’s Memorial

A proposal for a public space in the city of Abu Dhabi, conceptualised as a journey through a representation of Jannah, a paradise garden.

Traditional patterns found in textiles and stonework were remapped digitally and projected from multiple angles into a 3D form, creating new, unexpected patterns through intersection and veiling. Reflections in stainless steel, water, and polished stone created mirrored images of these patterns and amplified the geometric expression of order.

Submitted: 2016

© Marco Cianfanelli

Nov

2016

Threshold

“At the moment on the 3rd December 1967, that Louis Washkansky’s heart was removed, Professor Christiaan Barnard stared, for the first time, into an empty living human chest cavity. In later accounts of the event he recalls that “at that moment the full impact of what I was doing hit me”. That open chest cavity, came to represent potential, hope, faith and perseverance. It was this notion that inspired Marco Cianfanelli’s suspended sculpture Threshold.”

Completed: 2016

Location: Chris Barnard Memorial Hospital, Cape Town

Photography © Wianelle Briers

© Marco Cianfanelli

Oct

2016

Transpiration

“Taking inspiration from the parallels between the complex organic structures of the tree and the neural network, Transpiration I explores the cognitive process, from sensory perception, through process and, finally, to expression. The title itself points to the process by which water is transported through the tree, from root, through the trunk and is ultimately transpired through the leaves. But, at the root of the word is the term: “transpire”, which alludes to the ways in which things come to be known.”

Completed: 2016

Location: Rosebank Towers, Johannesburg

May

2016

Cerebral Aspect

“This series of explorative objects examines the origin of our species framed by the human brain as transmutable object. The faceted forms of the objects are geometric distillations of the brain’s organic complexity, and allude to the stone forms of Paleolithic implements. The vast leaps in human evolution are not only marked by physiological changes in the brain, but also by mechanical and technological advances. Here one is asked to consider the brain in all of its intricacy, as the seat of personality, as a tool of progress, and as a signifier of temporality.”

Completed: 2016