PELLECER
SOLAR WIND
2021
AS HOFMANNSTHAL SAID:
“THE DEPTH MUST BE HIDDEN.
WHERE? ON THE SURFACE.”
AND WITTGENSTEIN WENT
FURTHER THAN HOFMANNSTHAL
WHEN HE SAID: “WHAT IS HIDDEN
IS NOTINTERESTING TO US.”
ITALO CALVINO
Solar Wind by Gabriel Rodríguez brings together a series of works that force us to explore the body as a part of that "fabric of the world", of that surface where things are an extension of the body and are a part of its complete meaning, of something
concrete where we become along, the other, [things] are the inside of the outside and the outside of the inside; [to explore] that the duplicity of feeling is possible and that
without it we would never understand the barely present and imminent visibility that constitutes the problem of the imaginary. Because between the real, the imaginary,
and the symbolic, there is an approximation to that world that we see and is seen, and
from which a reality that is socially and historically regulated is consolidated, and
where the imaginary, as a space of the symbolic, is the resource to which hegemony
appeals to configure the ways in which the body regulates itself.
However, Rodríguez proposes a new story that configures, on the one hand,
the bodily experience itself manifested as a way of living and being with the world,
establishing an analogy with other surfaces presented as a natural and material
extension of their mutual inhabitation, of his tasks; of his almost alchemical
speculations that investigate more complex processes that examine the mestizo
identity. Skin, linen, and paper are transformed by charcoal, indigo, chlorine, and by
the sun to find out about our condition of surface.
Fagment of Text by Cecilia Delgado Masse
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SKIN HORIZON
2021
a.
WHERE DOES THE WORLD BEGIN?
HOW MANY LAYERS DOES A BORDER HAVE?
WHERE DOES IT START AND WHERE
DOES THE SKIN FINISH? CAN IT BE MY SKIN
THE HORIZON? IN THE SENSE OF BEING
A FICTITIOUS LINE THAT, WHEN
APPROACHED IT'S ERASED. CAN I BE HORIZON IDENTITY?
a.
b.
“The Solar Wind Composition Experiment was carried out on Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15 and 16. It consisted of a sheet of aluminum foil (a.), 1.4 meters by 0.3 meters, which is deployed on a pole facing the sun. On Apollo 16, too a platinum sheet was used. This sheet was exposed to sun for periods ranging from 77 minutes on Apollo 11 to 45 hours on Apollo 16, allowing particles of solar wind become embedded in the sheet.” (NASA)
I exposed my skin to the sun for two hours, covering the top half for contrast measurement chromatic between what my skin changed and what remained with its usual color. (b.)
From cultural construction identity, skin color has been loaded with different types of prejudice that lead to forms of discrimination.
Which part of my skin has a determination? What tone determines my mestizaje? I subjected my skin, as in the Solar Wind experiment of the Apollo space program, to a chromatic exercise, to problematize, blur and visualize in a certain way the way in which my identity construction (fiction) gives me a series of privileges within Guatemalan society. having been raised and constituted as a ladino-mestizo. I am interested in drawing this skin color on chromatic scales to begin this process of thinking about myself, and above all feeling, from a denied part of identity. I am interested in erasing that aspiration to whiteness from my identity (or skin).
THE MEMORY OF
JIQUILITE
(INDIGO)
2021
In different parts of the world, the same color is accessed from different processes. Indigo is not a color, it is an energy, say the people who work with it. Different experiments arose for this process in conversations with Olga Reiche, who has been working with Indigo for several decades. Cover and Back Cover of the Book of Indigo, are two pieces that arose from a conversation with Olga, in which she said that the pigment in the fermentation process, together with the bacteria, liked being hot, so she kept the pot on the fire.
The dye was applied to the cloth along with boiling water, so that the color would spread when immersed in hot water, so that she would feel comfortable taking a bath. The spots that emerged were caused to highlight the creativity of the Indigo and the creativity of the plant. I am interested in functioning as an agent in co-authorship with the plant and with the energy of the Indigo.
BLUE HERBARIUM
2021
For the Blue Herbarium, The Códice De la Cruz Badiano, also called the first Códice Mestizo, was used as a starting point. In it a friar transcribed a Mexica doctor’s knowledge of medicinal herbs into Latin. What was
not taken into account was that the recipes didn't work in the same exact way for all bodies. In his transcription, he writes down what plants can cure fear, for example. The Latin translator did not consider
that, since it was a practice of psychosomatic medicine, to cure fear meant to cure a specific person.
Blue Herbarium is made up of three groups of drawings of plants. In the first one, the ones that are featured have in common the quality of treating ailments of the stomach, intestines and the overall digestive system. Another group has plants that cure lung ailments, usually associated with low moods or sadness. The last cabinet is dedicated to plants that have in common healing powers for the skin, for headaches. Each small herbarium is made up of pencil drawings covered with a layer of Indigo that acts as a protective agent.
EUGENIC
EXERCISES
2021
Linen is a very delicate fabric, and when subjected to a chlorine bath, it suffers from depigmentation. The fabric (skin) is lightened and the beige color appears, which seems applied on the gray background. Actually, gray is the background color. But both are backdrops. This notion of prejudice is lost because both surfaces belong to the same canvas.
The application of chlorine works as a eugenic exercise. The sport practiced by these emerging bodies is the so-called White Sport Tennis. In sports we could argue that certain things are normalized. golf, tennis, and winter sports are associated with light skin. Within these paintings is a portrait of Borges, which alludes to his blindness and his political stance. There are some canvases that only expose two colors in order to illustrate the same thing as the photo of sunburned skin.
DRAGGING THE NIGHT
2021
Each one of the drawings in this project is looking to purge and, at the same time, materialize an uncertainty. They are made of two types of charcoal and seek to associate charcoal with the night, as a space for meditation and consultation. Hundreds of crayons were used for each drawing, in search of a direction in
the process, in the very act of the crayon disappearing into the black plane that appears and covers the white background, more so than in order to represent something concrete. An act of disappearance as well as an of appearance. A metamorphosis of the material. The drawing, who consults the night, becomes her companion, the agent that drags her towards a piece of paper and perpetuates her darkness. Amongst the reflections that came to me during the process, I thought about how the white color of the medium would disappear and
the night would rub off on me if I touched the paper with my hands.
CARE OF THE RAIN
2021
In a five-minute session I seek to cover the hair germination process in my back. Rain nourishes life
so that it continues its reproduction cycle. This
video seeksrecord a cycle and at the same time a time.
