Joshua Harker’s 3D Skulls

Over the course of human history skulls and bones have elicited many thoughts and ideas and can be viewed through many lenses. Skull imagery is prevalent in most, if not all, known societies and captures the imagination. As Joshua Harker states,

“It’s a powerful metaphor, which will never be diminished. It will always remain.”

In art, skull imagery, whether human or animal, is a common occurrence.  It is often used metaphorically, but it is also intriguing as a literal expression of form and function.  The way that Joshua Harker has used skull imagery is entirely his own.  In Joshua Harker’s work, the 3D printing of the filigree skull reinforces the knowledge of its fragile and beautiful nature.  As a combination of metaphorical and literal, Joshua Harker’s work awakens in our minds death and renewal.  The skull is both a mystery and a marvel.

The intricacies of Joshua Harker’s work are a product of his lifetime of experience as an artist.  He has little recall for a time that he was not inspired to create. Joshua started to exercise his creative talents at a young age, in an environment that was very open and encouraging.

As time grew, Joshua developed his talents into a career. He has had several successful Kickstarter campaigns, and in the past owned a design company for ten years. Joshua also was a commercial sculptor and an animator. He describes himself as a “sculptor, inventor, imagination architect, digital adventurer, and troublemaker”.

He has created several larger works, including an installation entitled Taurus Geodesica which ran for two weeks in Birmingham, England, viewed by 2.2 million Bullring Festival visitors. He has shown at two Burning Mans.

Joshua’s art is unique in its use of technology to implement his vision.  He is “considered a pioneer & visionary in 3D printed art & sculpture.” He has spoken at technology events regarding his expertise in 3D printing. His use of geodesic design can be viewed in works such as Taurus Geodesica and Crania Geodesica. His new studio art space in a 2400 square foot barn includes one floor for shop work and one floor for design work. Technology has made it possible for us to view his work in its current iteration.  This allows greater dialogue, raising questions as it how it was conceived and created, as well as how routine images in life can be viewed with new eyes.

The six images here show various states and versions of the Crania Anatomica Filigre and Crania Geodesica showing Joshua’s progression as an artist.

Here he describes each work:

These designs loosely demonstrate merging of different techniques, processes, designs, and integration of various technologies.

Original Crania Anatomica Filigre 3D digital design. This design was later projected back onto various physical geodesic versions of the model.

 

The original Crania Anatomica Filigre 3D printed sculpture.  The basic geometry for this was used to create the simplified geodesic design.

 

The 2D design and assembled 3D planar/geodesic Crania Geodesica

 

This is the Crania Geodesica vertices design and physical geodesic wireframe construction.

 

12 foot fiberglass construction of the original Crania Geodescia planar/geodesic design (approximately 16 feet with plinth) as presented at Burning Man 2017.

 

Original Crania Anatomica Filigre 3D digital design projection mapped onto the large scale physical Crania Geodesica model for the Shogyo Mujo presentation at Burning Man 2017.

He would like to encourage anyone interested in learning more to view his website and like his Facebook page. Joshua also has a Patreon account, where new features will be launched soon. He is excited to share those with his patrons on Patreon so now is the time to sign up for as little as one dollar and pledge support.

Website: www.joshharker.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/joshuaharkerartist/

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/joshuaharker