Lo que se ve y lo que no
Por Beatriz Morales Palma y Elizabeth Flores Lagunes
Estudiantes de Artes Plásticas UDLAP
7 de Febrero de 2008
Estudiantes de Artes Plásticas UDLAP
7 de Febrero de 2008
“To live is to leave traces”.
Walter Benjamin
Lo que se ve y lo que no is the
first in a series of exhibitions dedicated to drawing as a primary means of
expression by senior students in their 8th semestre of a licenciatura de artes
plasticas, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla. The drawings are works
completed within the context of técnicas de representación en dibujo. Our
collective objective was to re-examine and ask the question what constitutes
drawing and in the process, discover a drawing practice relevant to each
student. The results reveal the infinite potential of the discipline. Often
intimate and extremely personal, the drawings show a direct connection to our lived lives; in drawing, one is present.
Mediated by the hand, the heart and the head, we witness a necessity to record
everything - from scars on the body and the body itself, to intimate articles
of clothing and kitchen utensils. For some, drawing is a subversive act - a kind of ‘drawing in’ of an imagined (and
more desirable) reality. For others, the relationship with the material - with
paper and pencil is more important. From stitched thread, fragments of colored
paper and mecanorma, to footprint, handprint and breast print, the tools of
drawing are as varied as the support. Drawing is perhaps a way to mediate
between what is inside with what is outside.
The drawing works of Beatriz Morales Palma and Elizabeth Flores Lagunes represent an intense investigation and a kind of ‘bookending’ to the concept, lo que se ve y lo que no se ve. Discarding the nude model, basic to an understanding of academic figure drawing, Morales Palma drapes the figure, protecting and obscuring the form to concentrate on the abstract shapes revealed by light and shadow. Hovering between figure and something else, these floating, ghostlike forms reveal a more urgent concern for the metamorphosis from visible, external and physical reality to hidden internal and spiritual reality and the sublime. In our quest for truth, what we may be looking at may not be what is there and vice-versa.
To cut is to draw a line. White on white, Flores Lagune’s delicate and painstakingly paper, cut-out ‘tangas’, present a taxonomic classification of an intimate clothing apparel. Placing the personal within the public, the drawing becomes of a ‘spacial’ concern as Flores Lagunes takes her practice from paper to wall. The exquisite, minimal line drawings on balsom wood tiles, seduce the viewer to engage with the more personal content of the tiles. As voyeurs, we ‘scan’ the wall in search of greater satisfaction and a knowing of what we are looking at. Drawing can seek to satisfy our cravings and at the same time may be a way of overcoming fear.
Marna Bunnell
February 2008
.
The drawing works of Beatriz Morales Palma and Elizabeth Flores Lagunes represent an intense investigation and a kind of ‘bookending’ to the concept, lo que se ve y lo que no se ve. Discarding the nude model, basic to an understanding of academic figure drawing, Morales Palma drapes the figure, protecting and obscuring the form to concentrate on the abstract shapes revealed by light and shadow. Hovering between figure and something else, these floating, ghostlike forms reveal a more urgent concern for the metamorphosis from visible, external and physical reality to hidden internal and spiritual reality and the sublime. In our quest for truth, what we may be looking at may not be what is there and vice-versa.
To cut is to draw a line. White on white, Flores Lagune’s delicate and painstakingly paper, cut-out ‘tangas’, present a taxonomic classification of an intimate clothing apparel. Placing the personal within the public, the drawing becomes of a ‘spacial’ concern as Flores Lagunes takes her practice from paper to wall. The exquisite, minimal line drawings on balsom wood tiles, seduce the viewer to engage with the more personal content of the tiles. As voyeurs, we ‘scan’ the wall in search of greater satisfaction and a knowing of what we are looking at. Drawing can seek to satisfy our cravings and at the same time may be a way of overcoming fear.
Marna Bunnell
February 2008
.