In an investigation of various methods of artistic representation, a small painting by Pablo Picasso, held and exhibited by Harvard University's Fogg Museum, was transformed into a terrain and then reinterpreted every week for eight weeks into a new visual form. Beginning by rotating, scaling, and reframing the work, the painting was mapped in plan, made in three-dimensional relief, contoured and drawn in section, reformed as a topographic model, and then molded in chocolate. This series of representational experiments were document and then exhibited as a final drawing and digital work.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf2.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/33398420-cbb5-495d-ab6d-a0bccda01431_rw_1920.png?h=6e41f4251f641517293116adb980df7c)
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973); Glass of Absinthe and Cigarette, 1914; oil on panel mounted on cardboard; 16 x 11.6 cm; Harvard Art Museums / Fogg Museum, Anonymous Gift
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf1.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/c122fa30-faa2-432e-949b-a1a8c58c6f66_rw_1920.jpg?h=616810ff0e56834d55c94b235ce504a2)
Detail of Glass of Absinthe and Cigarette
Painting reinterpreted as a hillside landscape and abstracted as a topography model using paper rods
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/8c4ac0b6-b92e-4929-8220-0342c44ec1b2_rw_3840.png?h=492560390bc49f1474f19434c2aacb08)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf4.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/f0e9b719-b922-43bb-ae9c-b541941029a8_rw_1920.png?h=54320f096bb822f0c7eef887c02038c9)
Topography model was contoured using colored thread and this new visual information was brought into CAD to create plan and section drawings
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf2.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/3ad205f8-2474-4315-87e5-1a1ec736fa28_rw_1920.png?h=8d80785dffa88e07b80388b67f36845c)
Using the contours drawn from the paper model, a new topography model was created out of a green-tinted acrylic with an adjusted z-scale. The material allowed for additional interpretations of the imagined terrain by playing with the model's relationship to light.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf2.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/da4e3b3e-f69f-4d6c-99b3-3b1c947cb42b_rw_3840.png?h=07c3f2b1e44f2d1b0bfa8f7102222c2a)
A mock-up of the acrylic model was created from chipboard to allow a piece of heated, food-safe acrylic to be shaped to its general form.
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf3.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/40ed609b-1e2b-400c-92d0-6f7a1ffe27e8_rw_1920.gif?h=5fcc41c6d0ef7ddf0d1b573cf2bacb74)
![](https://pro2-bar-s3-cdn-cf.myportfolio.com/8acef764-b6eb-41ad-b8e5-01671aaba862/83271468-1ddc-492e-aa25-8d8f84215ddc_rw_3840.jpg?h=156c5027a1e6c4ce44ebcf0a97e35ec6)
The final documentation of all stages of the interpretation, from the first visit to the Fogg Museum to a topographic dessert