Oxalis de Thalès

Oxalis de Thalès is a sculpture made by 3D printer from Fractal Flowers series. Since 2008, Miguel Chevalier has been exploring the new possibilities of 3D printers. His work examines in a poetic and metaphorical way, the question of the link existing between nature and artifice, coexisting and enriching each other today. Relying on a process initiated at the end of the nineties, based on the observation of the plant kingdom and its imaginary transposition within a digital universe, Miguel has created various different generations of virtual gardens, such as “Fractal Flowers” (2008>2016) – gigantic flowers whose geometry of shapes is taken to extremes. The process of growth of the colored plants is governed by software and is permanently renewed. Oxalis de Thalès is one seed that was grown in the “Fractal Flowers” gardens. Using this virtual artwork, Miguel Chevalier can stop flowers at any time during their growth in order to obtain a 3D file which allows him to “print” small sculptures in resin, by powder sintering with 3D printers. 3D printing allows Miguel Chevalier to materialize these generative virtual-reality artworks. It’s a revolutionary process that is drastically altering the world of sculpture by allowing one to create very complex unique works. You go from the virtual to the real almost directly and instantaneously. A new virtual aesthetic, which mixes pixels with materials and abolishes the boarders between real and virtual, is just being born. The artist here is a sculptor of the virtual.