Jay Kochel

Working through a process of technical reinterpretation, air-filled sculptural skins replicating solid forms are transformed into flattened mesh models via a process of 3 dimensional scanning and digital pen plotting. The results are a breathtaking series of complex, ethereal studies in line and space.

The mechanical drawing is a plotter (modified vinyl cutter), using a white pigment marker to draw the mesh of 3D scanned objects. These objects were mylar balloons that Jay made during a residency at the Kyoto Arts Centre exploring ideas of impermanence and air as a material for creating form.  The objects were around 1-2 metres and printed slightly less than actual size. The 3D scanner he has is portable and attaches to an iPad. The 3D data is then edited and manipulated into a 2D mesh, or net, that provides a drawing path for the plotter.

'For Jay Kochel, air and nothingness are, paradoxically, the pillars of his practice. Working across several complex stages with impressive technical prowess, the Canberra artist creates machine drawings that quarry the haptics of immateriality, and the pliability of perception. Kochel’s series ‘Meanwhile’ continues a process he began many years ago in Japan while on a residency at the Kyoto Arts Centre. A small handheld 3D scanner creates digital models of inflated sculptural forms, handmade from brown paper, gold mylar or any membrane taped together to make a rudimentary balloon. The digital scans are rendered into flat meshes that are then worked on to produce drawings with a plotter and scribe to engrave aluminium. These ethereal engravings on brushed aluminium and enamel engage with the trope of air as a separator, and a void to fill. Kochel terms the works 'air studies', or 'reading air', alluding to the Japanese phrase 'to read air' – similar to reading between the lines of a social situation. Temporality and spatiality cease to exist in the ghostly engraved marks, which profile invisible forces like strange celestial nets. Embryonic forms twist and turn in space, incarnating before our eyes. There is the sense, here, of possibility, plasticity, and promise.'
Excerpt from catalogue essay by Elli Walsh 2023