Making "Black Heat"
“Black Heat” is the overall title of a series of military images made from aluminum as reliefs. The black silhouette of military vehicles consists of many individual pieces mounted together on different levels. They are all painted in the same black color, and therefore not that visible at first, but when you see them in person they really come to life.
I wanted these to be very clean, but also have a little something extra, and I achieved that with this effect of making the silhouettes in pieces. This was inspired by both cubism and the stealth design in many military vehicles.
Made in painted aluminum they have a very cool and glossy look. From afar it looks just like a silhouette, but when you take a closer look you see that it’s made from many pieces in layers.
Everything is planned on the computer before anything is made in real life. I create a vector file of every piece of aluminum that needs to be cut. I then have them cut on a waterjet and then the work of putting it all together really begins.
Every piece has to be placed, stud-welded, primed, sanded and painted before it can finally be placed where it belongs. This is a long process, and as with most things I make, there is no room for mistakes.
All this work does in the end pay off. The result is something I am very proud of. This is my mix of cubism and the visual aspect of stealth technology. I wanted the purity of a single craft in silhouette and the added dimension from the puzzle and relief effect.
