Vincent Van Dongen

Statement

I obtained a PhD in computer sciences from Belgium in 1991. My thesis was on systolic and periodic arrays. I moved to Montreal to become a researcher between 1991 and 1997. In parallel, I've always been active in visual art, taking art classes at night while doing my PhD. Around 2020, I became interested in modular art and in particular aperiodic tiling and the so-called Ein-Stein problem. My studies in that field include the search for new tilings and their physical implementation into sculptures.

Artworks

Lifted version of the aperiodic monotile discovered by Smith and al. This 3D tile adds to the plane a non-periodic texture, i.e. one that never repeats. This box contains an assembly of 10 tiles. The arrangement can be changed. It is fun to play with as it is not that easy to insert 10 tiles in this space. I personally tried to insert in the box a tiling of 10 tiles that is a subset of an infinite tiling and couldn’t find one. This abstract piece that makes me think of climate change.