#february 2016

by David Sim - International Business Times, February 1, 2016

Bat Theatre by Travis Durden, featuring Matt Lambros. (Photo: Travis Durden)

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Batman v Superman, French artist Travis Durden has created a series of digital compositions depicting the caped crusader in a post-apocalyptic universe, surrounded by devastation and decay.

The Batman project is a collaboration with several photographers who document abandoned architectural spaces around the world. Using 3D software, Durden recreates elements from Batman's world, such as the Batmobile, and then places them seamlessly into these decaying environments. "I wanted the final images as real as possible," Durden says, "as if Batman really spent time in these abandoned places."

Bat Station by Travis Durden, featuring Ed Freeman (Photo: Travis Durden)

Bat Piano by Travis Durden, featuring Jason Koxvold (Photo: Travis Durden)

Bat Home by Travis Durden, featuring Alicia Rius (Photo: Travis Durden)

Bat Broken by Travis Durden, featuring Antti Viitala (Photo: Travis Durden)

The artist has a love of Hollywood movies, as can be seen from his pseudonym, which is based on characters from two of his favourite films (Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver and Tyler Durden from Fight Club). He says his works aim to illustrate how the natural life cycle of myths and idols involves their destruction.

He has previously used digital technology to sculpt the heads of Star Wars figures out of faux-marble and place them on the bodies of statues in Paris's Louvre museum. A 1572 Germain Pilon sculpture of the Risen Christ is topped with the Dark Lord's helmet to become Darth Resurrection, an 1804 Pierre Julien statue of Nicolas Poussin reading becomes a studious Storm Trooper, and C3PO becomes one of the nude lovers in Antonio Canova's sculpture Cupidon and Psyche.

Darth Resurrection. Based on Risen Christ by Germain Pilon (1535-1590) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Storm reader. Based on Nicolas Poussin, 1804, by Pierre Julien (1731-1804) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Love Droid. Based on Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, 1797, by Antonio Canova (1757 – 1822) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Gladiator Boba. Based on Dying Gladiator, 1779, by Pierre Julien (1731-1804) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Admiral de Ren. Based on the Tomb of Philippe Chabot (1480-1543) thought to be by Jean Cousin the Elder (Photo: Travis Durden)

General Niobides. Based on Hurt Niobid, 1822, by James Pradier (1790-1852) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Nymph, Bounty Hunter. Based on Nymph with a Scorpion, 1845, by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850) (Photo: Travis Durden)

Yodea[sic] Angel. Based on L'Amour (Cupid and the Butterfly) by Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810) (Photo: Travis Durden)

#238 Henry Cavill #Henry Cavill #2016 #Academy Awards #Kerry Washington #February 28, 2016 #Hollywood

Ryan Seacrest interviews Henry on the red carpet....