STATEMENT

My work originates from the complexity of matter, its tensions and the balance between shape, texture and color. An important part of my belief is that everything that surrounds us stems from matter unorganized. Through matter, the spectator is exposed to a corporeal, graspable surface, allowing interactions on a closer, more tangible level with an alternate reality. 

This fascination with matter results in pieces that present themselves in constant flux, as a concrete structure, or as a mere possibility. This in turn leads to a myriad of loosely defined forms, symbols and meanings, allowing for change and mutation, creating a new form of language with its own syntax that is defined by the artistic intent, while still leaving ample room for personal interpretation.  

Combining painting, textures, photographic images and assemblage, I allow the spectator to explore themes of mythology, current events, intimacy, religion, gender identity, personal anxiety and political conflict. 

The materials employed are plasters, wood, ceramics, soil, rags, twigs, metals, found objects, as well as organic substances (such as bone, hair, animal and vegetal fibers). Colors come from acrylics, oils, enamels and natural pigments that are infused and applied into surfaces and objects. The resulting textures, cracks, tears, chromatic mixtures and combinations are able to react with one another and become a refined form of expression. Through this technique and process, I can express more freely the dynamic tension between content, underlying meaning, and reality. 

Against the backdrop of social change, brought about by the experience of a military regime in Chile during my youth, these pieces are intentionally disorientating. By allowing these disparate elements to interact, evolve and deteriorate, I am able to create an environment where the spectator may be found immersed in a world of lost people and objects. Places that evoke feelings of loss, grief, pain, memory, absence and mourning are often invoked. 

But in this universe not everything needs to be so somber. The scrappy materials and found objects alongside messily applied paint also bring about feelings of tenderness and pure bliss. In this universe, full of interconnecting corridors and chambers in the mind, one can also evoke hope and positive change. As if through their struggles, the main themes made from assembled objects created a new reality, populated by a series of improbable machines and creatures that emulate human functions such as breathing, thinking, sexuality as well as artificial intelligence capable of virtuous feelings.

This focus on haptic forms, has led me in recent years to produce more structured and figurative elements, which literally drop out from the canvas. I often start from the recovery of decommissioned components that have lost the original purpose for which they were made, or objects made from partly recycled and partly modified elements, and transform them into the protagonists of a new reality presented in the form of combines (assemblages), sculptures and installations. Mine is a continual search for conceptual similarities between painting and corporal structures, where matter and light influence, integrate and give a new dimension to the space.

I want to allow the spectator to go deeper and deeper into a new world as if through different eyes, where the characters are alive and in the moment, filled with passion, celebrating all aspects and emotions of everyday life, reacting to a reality we can’t see, but one powerfully present. I aim to communicate dreams more powerfully than words, allowing the spectator to relish moments large and small, recognize the surrounding beauty, and feel alive!