Hybrid Encounters by Chiara Corbelletto for SCAPE Public Art Season 2019

Chiara Corbelletto Hybrid Encounters 2019. Image courtesy of the artist and SCAPE Public Art. Photo by Chiara Corbelletto.

How does complexity emerge from simplicity? Natural forms as small as a molecule and as large as a galaxy share the same organising principles, which can replicate with infinite variation. A key step in the origin of life was the emergence of a molecule that could make copies of itself. Diversity evolves from singularity, small modifications create new adaptations and the drive of evolution increases complexity at every level, from matter to language to culture.

Echoing this process, Chiara Corbelletto’s sculptures are generated by repeating a single component again and again, building up new configurations every time. The sculptural nets hung in Cuningham House echoed the bio-architecture of the flora that grew around them. Suspended in the tropical environment, these were sculptures to be discovered. Corbelletto sought the intersection between art and mathematical thinking, and in doing so created beautiful abstractions that made us reconsider the patterns that surround us.