Matty Roodt is an artist from Cape Town whose first solo exhibition Loop is currently showing at SMITH. i paid it a visit yesterday, and walked away wanting to buy sculpture for the first time in my life. the pieces are feminine and organic, but the story behind them is even more fascinating. okay, try to stay with me…
A loop is a method of adaptive development, designed to meet the precise conditions of the time. It is a recursive algorithm that repeats itself using the data from the previous iteration as the variables that determine the outcome of the next iteration in the series. The concept is found in everything from organic growth to evolution and weather patterns. It is how plants grow for optimal use of sunlight and other external parameters. It allows for individual entities like sand grains to self-organise. Weather is a complex system of forces that has been looping since always, loops on top and within loops!
got that? good. Roodt goes on to explain how she went from loops to these beautiful sculptures, which are made from aluminium, 3D printed plastic joints and found concrete.
I use the loop as a fourth dimension, time. By mimicking natural processes I set up algorithms to generate computer models of evolving geometries. One of the iterations in this evolution is then taken out of the simulation and that digital geometry is then translated into physical geometry. The resulting sculptures are an interpretation of a freeze-frame of the four dimensional event generated by the designed loop.
there are also some other fascinating pieces in the exhibition, besides the organic sculptures, that you simply have to see in person – including her intricate creased & folded paperwork.
(excuse my dirty sandals!)
here are a few of the folded paper pieces i mentioned: