Sculpture Designed by Atang Tshikare 3D Printed in Only 20 Days

3D printing never ceases to amaze us with its various applications. Many of them allow us to let our imagination run wild and make our thoughts and ideas come true. One area where this is clearly reflected is in art & design, where we can create impossible designs with a 3D printer. In latest news, Artist Atang Tshikare, born in Bloemfontein, one of the three capitals of South Africa, has managed to create a spectacular design thanks to additive manufacturing in record time. In less than 17 days, he created a 3D printed, 3m long sculpture for the Time Out Market in South Africa.

Cape Town-based Atang Tshikare has made a name for himself in the art world. Some examples of his most famous collaborations are with Adidas, Puma, L’Oréal or Dior, with his work exhibited two years ago at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Over the years he has been trained in multiple artistic disciplines, from graffiti to painting. But it has been now, twenty years after starting his career in the art world, when he has made use of 3D printing for the first time to design his sculpture called ‘Hui! Gaeb’, which means: where the clouds meet.

For his latest work, the 3D printed sculpture, he has been inspired by the nature of Cape Town and has captured it in the form of means of transport. One detail that reflects this perception of the sculpture is the fact that most of the vehicles in the sculpture are boats, this is because the city is surrounded by the sea. The commission Atang Tshikare received to create the sculpture, in addition to requiring laborious and complicated work, required speed. The deadline for delivery of his work was 17 days, which forced Atang to work quickly, and it was 3D printing and its capabilities that allowed the artist to finish it on time.

In collaboration with Form Farm and Crayon Artel, Atang Tshikare and his design studio Zabalazaa Design got to work. Initially, they had one working FDM printer and two resin printers. Analyzing their 17-day deadline, they realized that with only those printers, finishing on time was going to be an impossible task. Neo Waterson, co-founder of Form Farm, explains, “With almost the full order amount, and then some, we expanded our capacity to 20 Creality desktop 3D printers within a few days.”

Once the 16 new Creality Ender-3 V2 3D printers and 20 kilos of filament were acquired, they set to work to manufacture the more than 1,000 pieces needed for the sculpture. All of them were glued and assembled by hand by the team, allowing them to finish on time. In addition, a curious fact is that there is very little filling in the pieces of the sculpture, specifically 1%. This is due to the fact that the sculpture is designed to be hung at a height of 4m, and if not, with more padding, i.e. more weight, it is possible that the support would not be able to support it.

Whether he will try and recreate this incredible feat remains to be seen. However, it is undeniable that creating such a magnificent piece in such a short period of time is only feasible thanks to technologies like additive manufacturing. In any case, we look forward to seeing what the next incredible masterpiece to come out of the art world thanks to 3D printing will be.

Atang Tshikare, and the others collaborating on this project, working to 3D print the sculpture

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*All Photo Credits: Atang Tshikare