VR Lion

The VR Lion

This sculpture is a remix of a public work located just outside of the Fairmount Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. The public work (uncredited sculptor) was digitally captured using photogrammetry and reworked in virtual reality sculpting software with the addition of a headset. It is a juxaposition of the traditional and contemporary, referencing the long tradition of lions as sculptural objects with modern digital tools. This sculpture was created using 3D scanning and 3D printing.

Thoreau Bakker

Thoreau is a Canadian artist and academic. He is currently pursuing a practised-based PHD at TMU. Thoreau studied studio art as an undergrad at Guelph in 2015, and was drawn to the aesthetics of contemporary sculpture and learning about digital fabrication. He was interested in materiality and the formal qualities of sculpture and wished to emulate the work of pop artists like Niki de Saint Phalle and Takashi Murakami.

Thoreau loves to experiment with all kinds of different types of tools and materials. These include digital sculpting, clay sculpting, 3D scanning, 3D printing, CNC, mesh editing, mold making, fiberglass and resins. He hopes to work with aluminum and bronze in the future. Thoreau has shown his sculptures in the Elora Sculpture Project and has returned again this year to Haliburton.

Artist Contact Information

·       Website: www.thoreaubakker.com

·       Email: tbakker@torontomu.ca

·       Phone: 519-830-2199

·       Instagram: @thoreaubakker