Maquette is based on one of Shirreff’s images from her well-known photographic series entitled A.P. (as in “artist’s proof”). The A.P. series began with Shirreff’s construction of mid-century, modernist forms at an intimate scale, made from quotidian studio materials such as foam core or cardboard. These small sculptures were then photographed and digitally spliced to conjoin two halves of different objects, in essence creating photographic documentation of a sculpture that does not exist physically. Once photographed, these small-scale objects resemble monumental sculpture or architecture.

In the process of making the A.P. series over a number of years, a library of forms grew in Shirreff’s studio – the origins of Maquette lie in the artist’s interest in “render[ing] those digitally composited forms in real space.” Bronze gave Shirreff the ability to “create a trace of a material that would still be present in the final object but that, for practical reasons, couldn't exist in the final form.” There are striking details preserved via the casting process – viewers may trace areas where the original foam core had ripped when scored to create a curve, as well as remnants of the glue used to put two pieces together. In a conversation with SFMOMA curator Erin O’Toole, Shirreff explained that “Maquette has the art historical weightiness of bronze,” yet carries the ephemeral physicality of the original material.