Lincoln gallery archive to undergo 3D scans for Contemporary Art Society commission

Oliver Laric has been awarded the £60,000 commission for 2012

An Austrian artist who uses cutting-edge technology to create video and animated artworks by “restructuring” traditional media has been awarded a prestigious £60,000 commission to turn classical and archaeological objects into digital and hologram forms using 3D scanners.

Oliver Laric, 31, won first prize in the Contemporary Art Society’s annual award for his “Versions” proposal. The commission-centric award which creates partnerships between emerging artists and regional galleries, will enable the Berlin-based artist to undertake his 3D scanning project for display at The Collection and Usher Gallery, Lincoln as part of its permanent collection.

Laric will scan all of the works in The Collection and Usher Gallery from classical sculpture to archaeological finds “with the aim of eliminating historical and material hierarchies and to reduce all works to objects and forms”.

The scans will be made available to the public to view, download and use for free from the museum's website and other platforms, free from copyright restriction and available for social media and academic research alike.

Laric will use the scans to create a sculptural collage for the museum, for which the digital data will be combined, 3D printed and cast in acrylic plaster. 

“The Collection is a museum for the 21st century, and the cutting edge technology involved in this commission certainly demonstrates this. By using the latest advances in 3D scanning and printing technology, we'll be able to re-­create Oliver's work anywhere in the world, which is an incredibly exciting prospect,” Jonathan Platt, head of libraries and heritage at Lincolnshire County Council said.

“I can’t wait to see the finished physical and virtual Versions of Oliver's work in the museum and on the internet.”

Laric beat fellow emerging artists Juliette Blightman and Alice Channer to take the prize. It was presented to him on Monday night at the David Roberts Art Foundation in London.

He is the fourth artist to win the prize. Previous winner Luke Fowler is currently shortlisted for the Turner Prize and other former recipients include Kateřina Šedá and Christina Mackie.

“In these straitened financial times, when museums are having to reduce staff and programmes, opportunities to develop collections and to work with influential artists to commission major new works for their collections are understandably few and far between. Perhaps this is why we continue to have such exceptionally strong proposals for the Annual Award,” said Paul Hobson, director of the CAS.