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“Grapes” by Ai Weiwei

The Original Artwork as Inspiration

The original artwork was made from various kind of vintage wooden furniture, using the most traditional crafting technique called “joint-structure”, which is the exact same method being used to produce these furnitures in China. This particular crafting technique has a history of more than a thousand years. 
(These reference video and photography were taken on September, 2014 at Brooklyn Museum of Art.)

Concept Art for the New Artwork

Based on the idea of replication, the concept is to create a new version consist of large amount of chairs. While preserving the essence of the original work, the viewer can experience a different level of the new artwork. 
Intersection and penetration of the fundamental element, in this artwork, chair, has to overcome many artisan challenges if the artwork is to be done in the real world using physical materials. However the process was made available to a CG artist through using procedural modeling, which results in an adventurous attempt to enlarge, multiply and redefining the original work.
The concept is to introduce an exaggerated continuation of the original spiral structure, and present this structure in movement. 
To maintain the continuing look, the artwork will be shown in the original form and then evolve into my own version.
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Building the New Artwork

  • Polygon Modeling in Maya
  • UV and Texture Painting in Mudbox
  • Viewport Lighting and Hardware texture for preview purpose
Modeling is based on the actual size and dimension of the original work, while maintain its detail and variety. 
Texture painting was based on the photography references. 

Animate the New Artwork in Motion

  • Houdini was used to create the procedural animation, with the model attached to a “copy” node then copied along a spiral path.
  • The progress of copying these models are then key-framed into the animation.
  • The following videos explains multiple versions of transformation applied to the CG artwork.