South African sculptor Jonty Hurwitz uses nanotechnology to create microscopic statues completely invisible to the naked eye.
Take Trust, for example.
Small enough to stand on a single strand of hair, this nano-sculpture of a woman actually went missing during the photo session. Hurwitz eventually created a “version 2,” but the original Trust has never been found, and probably never will be.
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
On a brighter note, Trust has been announced by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Smallest sculpture of the human form,” measuring around 80 microns by 100 microns in size (there are around 1000 microns in one millimeter).
According to The Independent, “the process began with 200 cameras taking pictures of a naked model. The pictures were then fed into the printer, which created the sculpture. Multi photon lithography — which uses a laser to write on the photosensitive material that the statue is made from — helped Hurwitz fill in the smaller details.”
Here are some of his other nano-sculptures:
Cupid and Psyche, Hurwitz’s self-portrait with his first love. The sculpture can easily sit on the head of an ant. It was inspired by Antonia Canova’s work, “Psyche revived by Cupid’s Kiss” (1787-1793).
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
The Fragile Giant, highlighting the fragility of the world’s elephant population. As of July 2015, it was the smallest man-made object ever to be filmed. In the picture, the elephant is walking along the landscape of a human fingerprint.
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
Apparently there are some people who think the statues were never there, and never existed beyond the computer screen. But Hurwitz conveys the heart of nano-scale’s appeal in these words:
“At that scale, the sculpture doesn't really exist, or our perception doesn't allow us to perceive its existence. In a way, it challenges the whole idea of contemporary art, by asking: 'Hang on, a piece of art you can't really see, is it really a piece of art?’"
South African sculptor Jonty Hurwitz uses nanotechnology to create microscopic statues completely invisible to the naked eye.
Take Trust, for example.
Small enough to stand on a single strand of hair, this nano-sculpture of a woman actually went missing during the photo session. Hurwitz eventually created a “version 2,” but the original Trust has never been found, and probably never will be.
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
On a brighter note, Trust has been announced by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Smallest sculpture of the human form,” measuring around 80 microns by 100 microns in size (there are around 1000 microns in one millimeter).
According to The Independent, “the process began with 200 cameras taking pictures of a naked model. The pictures were then fed into the printer, which created the sculpture. Multi photon lithography — which uses a laser to write on the photosensitive material that the statue is made from — helped Hurwitz fill in the smaller details.”
Here are some of his other nano-sculptures:
Cupid and Psyche, Hurwitz’s self-portrait with his first love. The sculpture can easily sit on the head of an ant. It was inspired by Antonia Canova’s work, “Psyche revived by Cupid’s Kiss” (1787-1793).
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
The Fragile Giant, highlighting the fragility of the world’s elephant population. As of July 2015, it was the smallest man-made object ever to be filmed. In the picture, the elephant is walking along the landscape of a human fingerprint.
Source: jontyhurwitz.com
Apparently there are some people who think the statues were never there, and never existed beyond the computer screen. But Hurwitz conveys the heart of nano-scale’s appeal in these words:
“At that scale, the sculpture doesn't really exist, or our perception doesn't allow us to perceive its existence. In a way, it challenges the whole idea of contemporary art, by asking: 'Hang on, a piece of art you can't really see, is it really a piece of art?’"