Of all the arts, possibly the most interesting would take the form of sculpture. Throughout the ages there are many examples of classic stone sculptures, like Michelangelo’s marble statue David, that have captured the imagination of art critics the world over. In contemporary times, a sub-mainstream form of art has evolved: metal sculptures.
Companies like Pipecraft Innovations in the UK are showing increasingly high-tech methods of creating these metal fabrications, polishing them into the finest metal sculptures the world has ever seen! With it being sub-mainstream, there are a number of examples of ‘geek-chic’ metal sculptures, bringing to life the characters from ‘geeky’ sources of inspiration. Here are my 5 favourite, in no particular order:
Alien Xenomorph Motorcycle
From Alien Quadrilogy fame (not including Prometheus or the dire Aliens versus Predator films), comes this Xenomorph inspired fabrication. Wrapped around the body of a motorcycle, with incredible, painstaking detail, this piece of fan art shines (literally, thanks to the polishing that the metal sculpture has undergone) out. The exoskeleton is fully realised with amazing authenticity.
Take particular note of the jaws, fully functioning headlight and the fantastic windshield, which has been shaped to match the bone-like crest atop the Xenomorph’s head. The great part of this piece is that it’s fully functioning and capable of driving you around the UK!
Optimus Prime
The Michael Bay Transformers movies have appealed to generations of geeks, with their wonderfully animated CGI robot characters brought to life. One artist has gone one step further and created a metal sculpture of the Autobots leader, Optimus Prime. The fine attention to detail and quality of the fabrication is plain to see with many hundreds of hours spent fine polishing the metal to a high standard. This particular piece is the only one of the selection displaying a painted livery, fully faithful to the movies in it’s red and blue splendour. The only down-side to this piece, is that it doesn’t move but that won’t stop it making the top 5!
Wall-e
Pixar has re-energised the animation market with it’s adorable animations. Appealing to children for their cute stories, and adults for the huge number of in-jokes and cultural references, Pixar stands alone at the top of animation companies all over the world. Here we can see the family favourite trash compactor, Wall-e, ready for action. It appears that he has lost Eve again though!
Predator
Ever wondered what it would be like to come face to face with a full size Predator, from the hugely popular Predator and Aliens versus Predator franchises? Now you can, with this wonderful metal sculpture. The level of detail is fantastic, right down to the authentic style of weaponry and mandibles on the face! Hopefully we will never see an actual Predator running amok in the UK, or world for that matter!
Nike trainers
For something a little different to the usual movie tie-ins, feast your eyes on this sculpture of a Nike training shoe! This fabrication has been created from scrap metal, each piece meticulously scrubbed and polished to really boast an incredible amount of detailing. Note in particular the laces, crafted from intertwined metal cabling, carefully threaded through the main body of the shoe. I can’t be sure wearing these for any form of sporting activity would be comfortable though, so I’d advise sticking to the real thing in that case!
I doubt there will be many of us with the skill to create such wonderful specimens of metal sculpture, but with our trained eyes in all things ‘geek’, we can all appreciate the amount of work that has gone into bringing them all to life!
Although these amazing sculptures weren’t created by Pipecraft, they are inspiring and one of a kind!
