Artifact of the Grip (Maquette)

Artifact of the Grip (Maquette)

Series: THE EPISTEMIC GRIP

Material: Plastic, wood, cardboard, metal, tape, glue

Dimensions: 72 x 18 x 20 cm

Year: 2026

Lim.: Original (1)

Abstract

This intimate mixed-media assemblage represents the absolute genesis and raw physical prototype of the entire series, THE EPISTEMIC GRIP. Operating as a direct studio sketch, the sculpture couples a 3D-printed hand with anatomical forearm bones, bound together by profane, industrial adhesive tape. In a radical shift of context, the biological-digital forearm forcefully impacts a found object—the packaging of a classic Bialetti espresso maker. The work establishes a subversive, highly ironic dialogue between mass industrial production, domestic consumer culture, and the evolutionary anatomy of human labor (Anatomy of Labor).

Deep Dive: Conceptual Insight

Serving as the ontological anchor of the series, OBJECT-00 captures the nuclear core of the artistic research process before its subsequent material and spatial scale-up. The physical presence of this artifact marks the exact collapse between digital virtuality and profane, industrial reality. By binding the mathematically perfect PLA hand to bones with crude workshop tape, the work dismantles the sacred aura of the autonomous art object, exposing the raw physical improvisation of the studio. The violent convergence of this biological-digital anatomy with a Bialetti box—an icon of Italian industrial design—acts as a calculated semiotic rupture. It maps the profound friction between the alienating forces of assembly-line commodity and the visceral wear of the human creator, demanding the urgent return of the biological body into an increasingly hyper-digitalized world.

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