The Scutoid Series

Pedro Morales The SCUTOID Series

The SCUTOID Series Pedro Morales

Captive by Scutoids Pedro Morales

To me, they are just a beautiful geometric shape.

At the end of July 2018, researchers from the University of Seville announced the discovery of a new geometric form in nature: The Scutoid.

It is the shape of the epithelial cells that protect the body, say the Spanish researchers. It was thought of before as a prism.

To me it only seemed a beautiful geometric shape that, unknown, has lived among us, oblivious to its presence. I have decided to explore it from the moment of its discovery. Hence, this first vision of the wonderful geometry of the scutoid, the exploration of its impossible planes, its unforeseen curved sides, and the turning flow of its form, of the movement that they bring to the space with their interwoven presence, showing us what we are made of. Nothing more intimate.

I have been captivated by the scutoids and the spatial challenge they present. There is a fascination in working with what we did not know just a month ago and that has been there forever, waiting to be found someday. I register this moment when the future has turned into now in the blink of an eye. The Scutoid Series is geometric freedom, unexplored volume. Since time began to be recorded there have been lines, circles, squares, polygons. The Scutoid lived meanwhile holding our skin, anonymous. Prostrated before the beauty of this mysterious natural geometric shape recently unveiled, I cannot stop imagining them in shapes and sizes, alone, accompanied, weaving each other in color and material. This is a proposal to exhibit a work in progress. The first Scutoids coming out of my studio and with the sole recourse of my rudimentary printers. This is the Scutoid Series.

August 21, 2018

The Scutoid Series

Scutoid, 3d-print on corn base plastic, 2018-2019

(44 x 12 x 12) cm

(48 x 8 x 12) cm

(48 x 10 x 6) cm

(220x 55 x 55) cm

(44 x 11 x 8) cm

(48x 10 x 6) cm

(54 x 10 x 6) cm

(40 x 40 x 12) cm

(22 x 20 x 10) cm

(185 x 50 x 50) cm

(48 x 10 x 10) cm

(48 x 10 x 6) cm

(53 x 10 x 44) cm

(25 x 25 x 4) cm

36 x 10 x 6) cm

(42 x 30 x 15) cm

(46 x 20 x 15) cm

I wish to thank with respect and admiration: Luis Maria Escudero Javier Buceta Clara Grimea Alberto Marquez Laura Taalman For the influential contribution of their discovery, the Scutoid, as an inspiring source for the creation of this artwork.

I define it as an exquisite geometric form, made visible because of their research.

Pedro Morales.

The Scutoid Series Exhibit This installation is about exploring, learning and finding the inherent beauty of fractal geometry. Exploration motivates me, I am attracted to reveal the unknown. The essence of my work is to constantly explore, and to find.

I see the scutoid as a novel and unexplored geometrical form that allows me to play with its new geometry, to show the beauty it offers, so recent, so unknown, yet so forever present. The Scutoids shape the mesh that is our life. Resilience takes me beyond certain barriers and beyond what is apparent. I’d like to think that my Geometric work humanizes digital technology, transforms it into a warm form of human expression.

Mine is also an investigation and a question on the perceptions about a modern life material, vilified today, nonetheless omnipresent in people’s every day, to the point of becoming part of what defines us. This age will be known to Palynologists as the era of plastic. We breathe microplastics today. What is art’s role in such a manifesto?

I print my Scutoids on corn-based PLA Plastic. They are unique sculptures that challenge our views on this material. Modern life would not have arrived to today’s level of comfort without plastic. And we consume it voraciously, transiting through it as fast as we can, as if to ignore it. We are more plastic than we care to acknowledge, no matter how quickly we make it disappear from our sight.

The Scutoid Series is then an intimate look at what holds the human life together, sometimes without us knowing.

With it I bring these two realities to view.

b. 1958, Maracaibo VE. Lives and works between Houston USA and Versailles France.

Pedro Morales is a pioneer of digital art in Venezuela. He represented his country at the 50th Venice Biennale with an iconic work, “CITYROOMS.NET�, censored by his government. His investigations in the visual arts maintain an intimate approach, using everyday domestic events as a background for his digital work. He has explored his vision of the picture within the picture with fractal geometry and stereography. 3D vision has been extensively researched

by Morales for more than 25 years. The two-dimensional codes popular on mobile phones have been dismembered by Morales, experimenting with new materials and decipherable techniques using a cell phone. The 3D art pieces come from printers assembled by the artist. Part of the interactivity with his work is mobile connectivity, each code carries a personal message or URL He is currently working on the Scutoid Series, a newly discovered geometric shape found in human cells. http://www.pedromorales.com/pdf/cv.pdf @pedroamoralesm info@pedromorales.com

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