‘Vespers’ – a Series of Stratasys 3D Printed Death Masks Designed by Neri Oxman and Her Team – Highlights at Prestigious National Gallery of Victoria

Curated by Ewan McEoin, the ‘NGV Triennial’ exhibition at The
National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia is now open until
15 April 2018

Museum acquires Series 1 and 3 of Vespers, while Series 2 also on
display at exhibition

MINNEAPOLIS & REHOVOT, Israel–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Stratasys
(NASDAQ: SSYS), a global leader in applied additive technology
solutions, today announced that Vespers, a series of breakthrough
3D printed death masks designed and 3D printed in collaboration with
Neri Oxman, has been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in
Melbourne, Australia. The museum, which is the oldest and most visited
gallery in Australia, hosts the inaugural ‘NGV Triennial 2017’
exhibition until 15 April 2018 – where the death masks will premiere.

The NGV Triennial is a celebration of contemporary art and design
practices, featuring the work of more than 100 artists and designers
from 32 countries, including works from Yayoi Kusama, Xu Zhen, Guo Pei,
Ron Mueck and Iris van Herpen, to name a few. The artists and designers
were selected for their diversity and dynamism of practice, including
those embracing cutting-edge technologies, from 3D printing to robotics.
Highlighting some of the pressing issues being explored by artists and
designers today, visitors will have an opportunity to contemplate the
social, cultural, scientific and physiological questions of our
contemporary world.

“For a Triennial that sets out to explore the interface between art,
design, architecture, science, ecology and technology – Neri Oxman’s
work could not be more fitting,” comments Ewan McEoin, Senior Curator of
Contemporary Design and Architecture at the National Gallery of
Victoria. “These 15 complex and intriguing objects offer a compelling
conversation about past, present and future, delving into our
psychological and cultural relationship to death and adornment, while
speculating on the capacity of additive manufacturing to create, at a
cellular level, new materials, medicines, and technologies that draw
from nature and in-depth design research. Neri’s collaboration with
Stratasys has enabled objects of beauty and profound intelligence.”

Debuted at London’s Design Museum in November 2016 to great acclaim, Vespers
comprises 15 masks in three sub-series, portraying the past, present and
future. The collection explores the themes of ancient traditions
and future technologies and speculates about the preservation of life,
both cultural and biological. Oxman, along with her team, led the
creation of Vespers, which forms part of Stratasys’ ‘The New
Ancient’ 3D printed art and design collection.

Oxman’s Vespers epitomize the theme of Stratasys’ The New
Ancient Collection, which unifies historical crafts and designs of
past civilizations with cutting edge technologies, to reimagine design
in the modern world. The collection balances the dichotomy between the
tribal crafted indigenous qualities with the bio technological
advancement.

One of the primary sub-series of the Vespers collection, entitled
‘Past’, looks at historic origins, exploring life through the lens of
death. Inspired by ancient masks, this sub-series utilizes five material
combinations to emulate colors commonly found in cultural artefacts
across regions and eras, with impressive accuracy. With the
implementation of Stratasys’ unique J750 full-color and transparent
multi-material 3D printing technology, Oxman’s team has created 3D
printed objects that, for the first time in history, accurately
reproduce the variety and nuance of ancient crafts.

“Vespers’ designs are entirely data-driven, digitally-generated, 3D
printed, and – at times – biologically augmented,” Oxman explains. “By
pushing the boundaries of cusp technologies – such as high-resolution
material modelling, Stratasys’ full color multi-material 3D printing,
and synthetic biology – they express the death mask’s deeper meanings
and possible future use, thus bringing it back to life.”

The merging of molecular biology, ecological engineering, design
computation and 3D printing led to the blurring of boundaries – between
human and machine, between natural and designed environments – to the
point where such distinctions can no longer be made. Oxman explains:
“Vespers is the most sophisticated expression of our design approach so
far, demonstrating that we can seamlessly vary the physical properties
of materials in extremely high resolution that matches, and ultimately
transcends, the scales of nature.”

Naomi Kaempfer, Creative Director of Art, Design and Fashion at
Stratasys concludes: “We don’t often get the opportunity to contemplate
the topic of life and death from within the discipline and perspective
of industrial design. The New Ancient collection from Stratasys
finds itself amid a technological era and consumeristic society,
emerging from the competitive trenches of research and development
moving towards the reigns of cutting-edge innovation. A subtle poetic
and sustainable hunger has risen to slow us down for just a moment, to
gaze deeply into the particles that compose the antique wisdom and
emotion of our human heritage, enabling us to cherish and bridge this
universal truth.”

To see Vespers, visit the NGV Triennial exhibition in the NGV
International building at The National Gallery of Victoria in
Melbourne, Australia, running from 15 December 2017 to 15 April 2018.

About Stratasys
Stratasys (NASDAQ: SSYS) is a global leader
in applied additive technology solutions for industries including
Aerospace, Automotive, Healthcare, Consumer Products and Education. For
nearly 30 years, a deep and ongoing focus on customers’ business
requirements has fueled purposeful innovations—1,200 granted and pending
additive technology patents to date—that create new value across product
lifecycle processes, from design prototypes to manufacturing tools and
final production parts. The Stratasys 3D printing ecosystem of solutions
and expertise—advanced materials; software with voxel level control;
precise, repeatable and reliable FDM and PolyJet 3D printers;
application-based expert services; on-demand parts and industry-defining
partnerships—works to ensure seamless integration into each customer’s
evolving workflow. Fulfilling the real-world potential of additive,
Stratasys delivers breakthrough industry-specific applications that
accelerate business processes, optimize value chains and drive business
performance improvements for thousands of future-ready leaders around
the world.

Corporate Headquarters: Minneapolis, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel.

Online at: www.stratasys.com,
http://blog.stratasys.com and
LinkedIn.

Stratasys is a registered trademark and J750, PolyJet and the
Stratasys signet are trademarks or registered trademarks of Stratasys
Ltd. and or its subsidiaries or affiliates. All other trademarks belong
to their respective owners.

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