Formalismos Andinos, Andinismos Formales, 2019
Solo Exhibition
Revolver Galería, Lima, Perú
In the Incan order, the world was composed of three planes, Hanan Pacha (the upper world) Kay Pacha (The world the current world) and Uku Pacha (The world of the dead). In Quechua, Pacha also signifies time and space.
The artifact of the Ushnu and the organization of the elaborated spaces together create a platform, with the object of producing a uniformed conscientious collective. These series of works are part of a series of investigations towards a “sculptural place,” in a physical sense, where approximations can be made to merge conflictive historical aspects or the autonomous and mystical with that of social purpose. The titles combine the quechua word Ushnu, that describes the most sacred of Inca platforms; places strategically on the Ceque system, the word Construct; a hard to define hypothetical within scientific theory, which is something that we know exists, but whose definition is controversial or difficult, and the word Revestimiento; to cover, to clothe, to simulate. The grouping of the sculptures create a contemplative environment that relates to the body, our relationship to time and space within the context of memory, and spatial and political definitions merged within the Constructivist movement (specifically the works of Vladimir Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich) with the works of Peruvian historical artists Eduardo Eielson and Emilio Rodríguez-Larraín. These Sculptures -in their relationship to architecture, metallurgy, ceramics and weaving- are products of social systems. They are integrated into social uses within the mental and material culture where they should be understood like a means of communication involved in the social practice and that can be used to transform and store social information revolving around ideology, cosmology, etc.
The works make use of a series of elements and devices such as brass, adobe mud bricks, metallic grout and copper electroplated objects, creating, at times, objects that appear to be museum display pieces from a culture that is no longer: contemporary remnants found on old archeological sites in lima. The pieces seem to play with the notion of tool or weapon, making an allegorical reference to our beginnings - beginnings that are the future as well as the memory. In Peru, for instance, it is common to “metalize” the memory of a time by submitting an object, (usually baby shoes or other precious mementos)-to an electro plaque of copper, thus creating specificity where the object loses its functionality, formally, but gains its trophy recognition. Other elements used such as photo-transfers and found objects present the viewer with a template for a discussion in reference to energy and memory - a shrine of sorts that philosophically and structurally look at Malevich and Tatlin to allude to a constructed art with a social purpose. Economics, the environment, education and the dialectics of demarcation and decoration are clearly referenced.