Studio EIS report

Last night the reception at Studio EIS was incredible! The studio is huge and full of life sized figure sculptures. It's a little creepy being surrounded by all of them because they seem so alive. Right now they are in the middle of a very large military commission, so there are about 30 life sized soldiers in uniform and in very scary fighting poses. Standing among them felt like being in the middle of a battle.
GCA scupture teachers Jiwoong Cheh and Chris Waddell both work at Studio EIS as part of a team of artists. Each project is usually a collaboration of at least three different artists. For example, one project started with a real human skull found at Jamestown. A forensic specialist took the skull and re-created the human head according to the specific bone structure of the skull. Then Cheh took that head and used it as reference to create a more life-like portrait with emotional expression in the face. Other artists worked on the body, hands, and painting/detailing of the figure. The pose of the figure was chosen according to the age and health of the skull and other information available from the Jamestown archeological research. The teenage boy was portrayed stooped below a heavy load on his shoulders, working hard but looking up with a face that expressed the determination and hope of his youth.

I am not able to post any photos of the studio's commisioned pieces for legal reasons, so I can only share these few shots of Jiwoong Cheh's personal work.


Life sized portrait of Barack Obama

A collection of plaster casts from Cheh's sculpture projects

this one is about 6 inches tall


Here is one project we saw that I can post photos of. This commission was recently completed for Abraham Lincoln's summer cottage. It is a life sized bronze piece, you can read about it and view a slide show at these links.

After the reception we went out, where we were all very civilized, and not late for class the next morning. go team!

Travis, Rebecca, Nancy & Jacob

Brook, Me, Justine, Angela