Matija Čop
Alterations 1
2021
Relief print, Edition 1/5
16.5 x 15.9 in; 42 x 40.5 cm (framed)
Courtesy of the artist
Matija Čop (b. 1987, Cerna, Croatia) lives and works in London. After completing undergraduate degrees in Croatian philology and fashion design in Zagreb, Čop received his MA from the Royal College of Art, London and worked in haute couture for several years. Čop developed a method of constructing seamless garments out of interlocked, laser-cut pieces of ethylene vinyl acetate foam which required generative design and modelling software.
In Alterations 1 and Alterations 2, Čop enacts a process similar to that of his high-tech fabric construction. For each metal-cut relief print in this series, Čop fragments a 3D scan of his own face and digitally deconstructs a fragment into a two-dimensional pattern. Čop’s system coldly and absurdly runs the notion of self-portraiture as well as affirms its creative potency by its idiosyncratic process.
As in his other work, Čop here is interested in the process of translation and building a “visual language from selected unit elements which are iteratively combined, reconfigured and dissolved in accordance with self-contrived, project-specific logics. The resultant works invite reflection on tensions between order/disorder, manufacture/craft, and unit/system.” (Čop’s website)
Provenance
Studio of the artist
See also