Fleeting Disguise

 
This data sculpture is a rendition in 3D pen of an early proposed structure for the spike protein of the coronavirus.  

Fleeting Disguise is a tracing by 3D pen of a proposed structure for the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein.

Though the coronavirus' spike is a trimer of three protein molecules (and actually has 3-fold rotational symmetry) the projection I traced lends it the bilateral symmetry of a mask, which might be appropriate since this structure is how the virus fools a human cell into letting it in.

Early in the pandemic this proposed structure for the spike protein was published in preprint.

The technique of tracing with a 3D pen (a miniature plastic extruder) is pretty challenging to control and leads to some wild alleatoric details which I kind of like.

Detail of Fleeting Disguise.

Fleeting Disguise is a wall-mounted sculpture; material: 3D printing plastic; dimensions: 14in x 15in h x 0.5in d. Fleeting Disguise was exhibited last summer at Washington Sculpture Group's show Sculpture Now 2020 at the McLean Project for the Arts.