'EPIC' - The Exhibition.....

In essence, EPIC is 4000 individual portraits standing together in one display. 4000 people scanned, 3D printed with each hand finished and then painted in fine detail. Dressed as they would normally be, wearing the clothes they choose for scanning. Each figure will be highly colourful, recognisable right away from the way he or she or they stand, all the way to the expressions on their faces. 

"Standing together in one display"

"I made these figures originally, scanning friends and assistants just to illustrate the scale of some of my public sculpture and architecture. I had no idea that the results would be so full of life. They had so much pathos and are individually so recognisable. The scanning picked up how people stood, what kind of attitude they had. I found looking at just one of these small figures quite emotional. Standing in front of 4000 of them, confronted with that many, I can only imagine being overwhelmed by love, peace, joy, happiness".

Alongside on the gallery walls, will be the names of the 4000 and alongside that a film of the installation with a monologue from David Mach sharing his ideas and philosophies about the installation, about the people who make that up and about art and life and how one cannot exist without the other.

'EPIC' will tour the UK and Ireland in major venues around our islands and on and on until everyone has seen it.

EPIC is not a 5 minute job. It will take 4 years to make and in those 4 years many things will happen. The images of the miniatures we make, the numbers of them will build up, they will grow. Different people, different organisations will want to film them, photograph them and record them, more galleries will want to exhibit the installation, there will be calls to travel the exhibition abroad, more people, different people will want to be involved, the famous, the celebrity will want to be involved and so it will grow and grow. There will be a lot of benefits from all of these things. For the 4000 participants, the benefits are very clear.

To be part of the 4000, ESOP will ask each participant to make a contribution of £400. ESOP sees this as having 3 benefits for every participant:

Each participant will receive their own miniature finished and painted in the same way as a 2nd exhibition version destined for the gallery tour. They can take their own version home in a display case and can include in their own collections. It will be numbered physically on the miniature they receive and a certificate of authenticity with a matching numbered supplied with it. Numbers will correspond to the timing of their contribution, the whole set of 4000 numbered 1/4000 all the way to 4000/4000.

Each participant will have their portrait miniature exhibited, their face seen and their story told. It’s entirely possible that an enormous 'club‘ of people will be joined together by this installation, by the exhibitions, by the making of the individual works and that will encourage celebrating. EPIC will become an event in peoples lives and in the life of the country.

Each participant’s contribution will raise significant funds for The ESOP School, the student scholarship programme and bursary funds and will enable the continuing mission to provide the most excellent art education possible but on a bigger scale.