Audrey Large
Hot Dipped: The Frog and the Sacrificial Skin is a material investigation into galvanic protection, where one metal sacrificially corrodes to save another. Designer Audrey Large’s project combines hand-sculpted steel sheets, subjected to industrial hot-dip galvanization in molten zinc, with sculpted in Virtual Reality and 3D printed steel connectors.
The project takes the form of a desk: a heavy steel plate balanced on two slender trestles made of hand-knotted steel wire. Each trestle is composed of three distinct parts, held together by a tiny, organically shaped 3D-printed connector in the centre. These tiny, untreated components lock the trestles together and support the weight of the desk, making the entire structure dependent on vulnerable parts that slowly succumb to corrosion, thus turning the technical process of protection into a narrative of vulnerability.
Echoing Luigi Galvani’s experiments with “animal electricity,” the work reimagines galvanization as both a chemical and philosophical gesture. The frog in Galvani’s experiment is an organic conductor, while the 3D printed parts in Hot Dipped act as the frogs in the desk structure. The project explores the shift from vitalist theories to mechanistic thought, framing industrial protection as a sacrificial, almost vital, act where value and vulnerability are perpetually negotiated.
Credits
Technical partnership: Bergbanat SRL, Nutechnologies SRL