Yiyun Kang’s Casting installation, in which she projects lighting effects with pinpoint accuracy onto the complex 3-dimensional surfaces of Roman and medieval sculptures, is a slightly eerie and a very special experience.
The technique, known called projection-mapping, requires painstaking measurements of the target surface to be taken, to ensure that the projection is not distorted by the complex geometry. Needless to say, it’s all computer-controlled, and here’s what the artist’s MacBook was looking like during the projection onto the Roman column:
There will in due course be an official video, including interviews with the artist, to document her project in the Cast Court of the V&A. Until that time, here’s a very bad video using my mobile phone, taken during the project’s viewing on 12 February. Unfortunately the phone has given everything a green tinge which, as I don’t have any video editing software, I can’t get rid of.
There is another opportunity to see the installation on 18 March. Make sure you go.
Full details of the project are posted here, and you can also learn the techniques of projection mapping from the artist herself at a V&A workshop. Details in the link. You can find the V+A’s official video of Kang’s residency here.