Barry X Ball’s three-dimensional stone portrait heads move past the constraints of mechanical cutting, pushing detail beyond reason. Working with multi-colored stone such as lapis and marble, Ball creates beautiful deformations by stretching and contorting the heads. Ball selects each of the subjects for his portrait heads, all of which are noncommissioned, and some of which are prominent figures in the art world.
Starting with a plaster life cast, Ball manipulates the sculpture heads, adding and subtracting from the original likeness in an extremely labor and time intensive process involving three-dimensional digital laser scanning. Although many of Ball’s portrait heads are disturbing in their distortions, they nevertheless conjure thoughts of Roman or Egyptian heads in their use of precious materials with exquisitely finished surfaces.
