Stuart Dods remains a mystery. Though I’ve known him for nine years I don’t believe I have, or ever will crack the nut on who or why he is. And I like it that way, I admire him for it. He is a true unapologetic character and an unflinching eccentric. I don’t believe Stu could do or say something usual even if he tried. I’ve witnessed his art morph from naturalistic, to surreal, silly to downright psychedelic. A pioneer of not only the canvas, Stu is to me the creator of the only truly unique and boundary-pushing event space in the whole of Cape Town. If any of you have ever had the fortune of entering the enigmatic halls of The Ice Factory, you will know that it is to enter into a space of true self-expression, freedom and formlessness. Where unclogging oneself as a conduit to the creative act as an artist, audience and adventurer alike is the only law of the land. 

I first met Stu as a fellow walker of the bass guitar, he was then a founding member of the legendary Retro Dizzy. I saw Stu grow from that shy Hermanus boy I first met to the wild and sometimes bare-assed shenanigans of the rockstar he was soon to become. But fate or he himself had other plans for his destiny. At the zenith of his career as a sorcerer of sonic madness in SA’s next biggest rock outfit, Stu quietly made a lane change from audio to visual. Long had he been nurturing a love and flare for colour and form as he had steadily honed his craft as a fine artist of the canvas, arguably an even tougher art form to crack than music. Yet when the time was right the fruit ripened and Stu seemingly out of nowhere launched himself into yet another career as one of South Africa’s most promising artists.

Hot on the heels of Stu’s current exhibition tour of Europe with the mythical Beezy Bailey, a jaunt that will span the next 5 months, and another local exhibition featuring himself and local legends Bastiaan van Stenis and Trude Gunther that opens 5-26 of June at the WORLDART gallery on Church Street. I decided to unpack with him what it means to be an artist and why. I posed to him a barrage of inquisitive questions such as: what is an artist? What ultimately drives you? Do you feel you are the progenitor of your work, or a conduit to the creative act? And: can colours talk? True to form, Stu disregarded the format of question and answer and chose instead to reply with a single rumination of prose that took up most of my word count for this article. Hats off to you sir I say! May you remain an oddity for years to come.

Here in all its peculiarity is Stuart Dods condensed into the written word. 

I arrived in my early twenties to take over the studio space of Bastiaan Van Steins on the top floor of a building on the border of Bo-Kaap, in the heart of Cape Town. An industrial ice company by the name of Pure Ice occupied the building. Entering off a rougher part of church street you’d have stepped into a cold dark passage. You could see men shovelling ice cubes through a giant vault-like fridge door, working late into the night. Open wires dangling from the ceiling, water slowly leaking all over the floors through a graveyard of refrigerators piled up on the staircase. A constant white noise from the air vents filled the space for 24 hours to keep the ice from melting. That frequency put me into sleep paralysis. It was always amusing to see the faces of those who came to visit for the first time.

For everyone it was a great time of exploration and freedom. We could make lots of noise and not worry about the floor being messed on as we spray painted walls and ceilings. It was all a bit messy at the time with no real direction. Unsure what I was actually trying to achieve in my paintings, I knew I had to just keep working at it. There were constantly sporadic performance pieces going on. I remember static movement playing off an old boxy golden television in the middle of the studio with pubic hair glued to the screen and a red circle painted around it.  We’d also paint one another and then roll each other up in Persian rugs to be sent off to collectors. Things like this took place, and looking back I feel those moments were the great works of that era.

In time the space became known as The Ice Factory.

After a complication during an appendix operation. I had to return home to recover and give up the space…As far as I know, there has always been some sort of artistic wonder taking place up there. Eventually, it became Cape Film Supply, one of the great local businesses of our time. Cape Town was slowly eluding me, so I put on some new shoes and spent a lot of time in the mountain.

I eventually started painting again and found something very special, something that excited me. It was really the first time I understood that there was no end to what you could create and achieve. I made the decision to dedicate myself to becoming a full time artist and knew I needed some sort of training. Art school at that point wasn’t an option for me. Shortly after I was introduced to Beezy Bailey who then became my mentor and exposed me to an entire world of art I didn’t know existed.

I think that life can take us to an empty space with infinity-walls. Faced with nothing but your next decision, the possibilities become endless. I now find myself 8 years later back in The Ice Factory. This time around there has been a more elegant approach. This is the space where I currently live and work with Victoria and the late Buddy (RIP). It’s nice to think of a room that shows insight into the minds of those who live there. 

When the time is appropriate the doors can’t help but open. I hosted my first solo show “Pipe Dream” in 2022. With the help of great friends we organised Jazz night, Magic shows, Vinyl parties, Drawing nights, group shows, the great Blue Light Underground and “Sound & Vision” which I named after a Bowie Song. “S & V” is a performance where an artist interprets the sound of the musician in an act of mark making. In turn the musician represents the mark of the artist in a sound. It’s all great fun and these stories will live on forever in my heart with the sound track of Primal Scream, “Loaded” blasting on the speakers. Who’s to know what might become of it all?

I dream of that building turning into 3 floors of performance space. Each floor with a custodian and every now and then the entire building activated into a vibrant palace flowing with astonishment. 

There is a great atmosphere growing. Jazz is rocking in the streets at night. There are leaders in creativity stepping into the roles they must fulfil in order to inspire the next generation to be! There is definitely something building up and I can’t think of a better time and place to be involved. It’s so important that there are spaces where the eclectic idea can take place. Where we can come together and feel free to be ourselves within respect and love for each other. Great minds and ideas emerge from the discomfort.

Gold sure does make the pockets jiggle nicely, but alchemy doesn’t always need to end in gold.

And there you have it folks, Stu the enigma strikes again. I implore you to visit his temple of Art, sound and Alchemy on his thunderous return. And if in the meantime You would like to immerse yourself in one of his monolithic pieces drop in on his current exhibition at the WORLDART gallery on Church Street running this whole month.