Justin Urbach, WAT STASH 001, 2023

2023

Medium

3D printed quartz sand and epoxy

Dimensions

61 × 15.5 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-156230

“WAT STASH 001” (2023) and “WAT STASH 002” (2023) are wall sculptures made from quartz sand using a 3D printing process and inspired by NASA landscape images of Mars. Human body data such as ATP (adenosine triphosphate) levels, heart rate, oxygen pulse, respiratory minute volume and breathing rate appear on the organic-looking surface of the sculptures. Here, the sand serves as a storage for data of the human body, which is integrated into the sculptures. In this work series enigmatic sandstorms on Mars, whose origins are not fully understood, stand metaphorically for the creation of virtual realities through technology. The basis for this are physical raw materials such as silicon, from which storage media are made and which is extracted from quartz sand. Through a complex refinement process, the quartz sand serves as the starting material for the production of silicon wafers and microchips that power our digital society and whose resource extraction Urbach addresses in “WAT STASH”.