Included in MATRIX II, currently showing at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town is an interactive sculpture by Mischa Fritsch. The sculpture comprises a long pole with a hardened steel pin protruding out the end of it. Underneath the pin is fixed a highly polished brass plate. Viewers are invited to look through a theodolite – a land surveillance apparatus – attached to the pole, and in moving around to adjust the view, the pin is moved across the plate, thereby leaving a mark. Every week, the plate will be removed from the sculpture and proofed so that the progression of marks can be seen over time. Titled Theodograph, after the surveillance device, the sculpture complicates the act of looking by literally lending physicality to a line of sight. The sculpture is topped by the white cross-plates of a land-marking beacon, emphasising the artist’s long-term preoccupation with the impact of human intervention in the landscape.
Proofing the first week’s damage:
