3d-ink | sculpture by ivo meier
main view: 100 magnetic spheres set into the surface, free to be turned by hand. 
3d-ink plays with a quiet red shine hidden among black and white.
one hundred small magnetic spheres sit across the surface — ten in blue/white, ten in red/black, the rest in black/white. each can be turned by hand, so the piece never settles into one fixed image.
it was one of my first attempts at bringing a 3d-printed surface and magnetism together into a single wall sculpture — testing how a static, printed form could still invite touch and stay unfinished.
the red spheres catch the light differently as they turn, a small shine breaking through the black and white field — the same red that still marks my work today.
work details
- year: 2018
- edition: 5
- dimensions: ca. 40×40×6 cm
- medium: 3d print, magnets
- catalog no.: im-c.9
- certificate: certificate of authenticity by the artist
- edition practice and further information (learn more)
part of the series early works
where the language began — protest, discourse, and the first digital forms. to the early works series
about this work
3d-ink is among the earliest pieces where 3d printing and physical interaction meet in my practice. 100 magnetic spheres — 10 blue/white, 10 red/black, the remainder black/white — sit within a printed surface of roughly 400 tiles, free to be turned and rearranged by anyone standing in front of it.
the piece carries no fixed image. every arrangement is temporary, undone by the next hand that touches it — an early, direct test of what it means for a sculpture to stay open rather than resolved.