Client: Islamic Arts Festival in Sharjah

Overview

Although California-based artist Gabriel Schama has spent years pushing the boundaries of his chosen medium – intricately layered, laser-cut plywood sculpture – his collaboration with Limelight, a collective of Hungarian artists who are veterans in the field of 3D projection mapping, reveals a whole new realm of possibilities for both art forms.

More experienced with projecting their work across whole buildings, Limelight was invigorated by the challenge of scaling down to match the intricate detailing of Schama’s work. It takes a bit of painstaking calibration to get right, but once Limelight’s animated sequences of light and color are perfectly aligned with the contours of Schama’s sculptures the resulting effect is both mesmerizing and surreal.

Goals

The goal was to create something spectacular and unique, celebrating sculpture and light art in a unique way. Collaborating with Gabriel Schama, a pioneer in his medium, and led by the Limelight teams' decades of experience, the result is something truly one of a kind. The installation was a hit at the Islamic Arts Festival in Sharjah, a month-long museum exhibition featuring artists from all over the world.

Process

The process of bringing Gabriel's layered wood sculptures to life is a fun a challenging one. Since the sculptures are precisely laser-cut, the Limelight team is able to use the Illustrator files to create a 3D model of the physical work. Then the team is able to create 3D light art in Cinema 4D remotely so that this collaboration was able to happen across the world.