“Fresh from the Studio”: Women & Their Work

Thu Jan 20, 2022
6:00pm CT

Fresh from the Studio

Women & Their Work: Bold about Art

Paula Cordoba, Erica Felicella & Hayley Morrison

 

Join me for a virtual studio visit on Fresh from the studio, a program by Women & Their Work.

Register at this link.

Artists Erica Felicella, Hayley Morrison, and I will share work in progress, newly finished artworks, and upcoming projects.

Fresh from the Studio invites W&TW artist members to share what they are working on now with you! In this virtual format, artists will share work in progress, newly finished artworks, and recent or upcoming projects. Each presentation will be about 10 minutes with time for your questions and comments afterwards. Fresh from the Studio is your chance to see what is new and hear from contemporary artists. This program is free and open to the public.


“Illumination 2021”, Cameron Art Museum

Cameron Art Museum, 
Wilmington, North Carolina
December 3 – January 9, 2022

Rebirth and Renewal

In the context the exhibition Illumination 2021, artists were encouraged to explore the theme of “rebirth and renewal”. I chose to create a large lantern resembling the shape of a pomegranate. “This fruit had a transcendental meaning in every ancient culture […]. Considered a symbol of death and resurrection, it has a central role in the Greek myth of Persephone.” The piece is titled Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible, after a quote by buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh.

«Art helps us to process collective trauma and find hope – and light – in darkness. Now, over a year into the pandemic, we see our world in a new light. We have found fresh imagination. There are scars, and, for some, there is significant loss. Yet, we look to the next day with an acquired resilience. This year, the seventh for this exhibition, artists are encouraged to explore the theme of rebirth and renewal.» 


Presenting at the Conference “Moving the Centre”, Glasgow University

4 -6 August, 2021

Moving the Centre

Moving the Centre Towards Radical Futures

 

I am honored to participate in the Cross-Disciplinary Postgraduate Research Conference on Post/Decolonial and Global Studies organized by a group of PhD researchers based at the University of Glasgow.

My presentation «Unruly taste: Decolonizing subjectivities in Visual Arts» will take place on August 6th,  Panel 3C (1.30 pm GTM).

Click here to see the full program.

  • [1.30pm-3.00pm] Panel 3C: Examining Museums and the Visual Arts
    • Decolonizing African Museums: Reimagining the Curation and Conservation of Sacred/Spiritual African Artefacts in Museum Collections (Mabafokeng Hoeane)
    • A Missionary on a Looting Mission: An Interrogation of the Reverend Govan William Robertson ‘Collections’ at the Ditsong: National Museum of Cultural History and Glasgow Museum (Motsane Gertrude Seabela)
    • Unruly Taste: Decolonizing Subjectivities in Visual Arts (Paula Córdoba)

“Big Show”, Lawndale Art Center

Jurado Cecilia Fajardo-Hill
JUNIO 19, 2021 – AGOSTO 14, 2021
John M. O’Quinn Gallery

The Big Show es una ambiciosa convocatoria abierta con jurado, en la que compiten artistas trabajando a un radio de 100 millas de Lawndale, reflejando nuestro compromiso con apoyar a artistas locales y regionales en las distintas etapas de su carrera.

Cecilia Fajardo-Hill es una historiadora de arte y curadora de arte moderno y contemporaneo británica/venezolana, actualmente viviendo en el sur de California. Fajardo-Hill posee un Doctorado en Historia del Arte de University of Essex, Inglaterra, y una Maestría en Historia del Arte del siglo XX de Courtauld Institute of Art, Londres, Inglaterra.

Fajardo-Hill es co-curadora de la futura muestra itinerante XicanXperimental, Phoenix Museum, 2021 y será Fellowship Visiting Research Scholar (Académica Investigadora Invitada) en el Programa de Estudios Latinoamericanos (Program in Latin American Studies, PLAS) y Visiting Lecturer (Catedrática Invitada) en Princeton University, Princeton. Fajardo-Hill es editora de Remains – Tomorrow: Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction, en abstracción latinoamericana post 90´s, 2019, y co-editora de dos tomos de arte de Guatemala de los siglos XX y XXI, una iniciativa Arte GT 20/21, a realizarse en 2020.

https://lawndaleartcenter.org/exhibition/the-big-show-2021/


“Big Show”, Lawndale Art Center

Juried by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill
JUNE 19, 2021 – AUGUST 14, 2021
John M. O’Quinn Gallery

The Big Show is an ambitious open-call juried competition of artists practicing within a 100-mile radius of Lawndale that reflects our commitment to supporting local and regional artists at various stages in their career. 

Cecilia Fajardo-Hill is a British/Venezuelan art historian and curator in modern and contemporary art, currently based in Southern California. Fajardo-Hill has a PhD in Art History from the University of Essex, England, and an MA in 20th Century Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England.

Fajardo-Hill is the co-curator of the upcoming touring exhibition XicanXperimental, Phoenix Museum, 2021, and will be Fellowship Visiting Research Scholar in the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) and Visiting Lecturer, Princeton University, Princeton. Fajardo-Hill is the editor of Remains – Tomorrow: Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction, on post 90s abstraction in Latin America, 2019, and the co-editor of two tomes on 20th and 21th – century Guatemalan art, an Arte GT 20/21 initiative, upcoming 2020.

https://lawndaleartcenter.org/exhibition/the-big-show-2021/


“Visual textures: a conversation with Paula Cordoba”, Sculpture Magazine

Texturas Visuales: Una Conversación con Paula Córdoba

March 25, 2021 by María Carolina Baulo

Paula Córdoba, an Argentinian visual artist living in Houston, creates works of art in which she aims to reveal cultural phenomena silenced by Occidental hegemonic thinking. Her installations and objects establish a contrast between large format pieces that take over the space and small works that have aesthetic and physical features associated with a particular type of lace; an elegant, feminine lattice with a textile-like appearance is a leitmotif in all of her work. This contrast is present as much in the artworks’ formal presentation as in their materials, which are in dialogue with the concept that underlies her body of work. With a bachelor’s degree in Museum Studies, a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts, a Postgraduate certificate in Critical Writing and Arts Marketing, and a master’s degree in Artistic and Cultural Heritage in Colonial South America, Paula engages her impressive cultural background to ground her aesthetic choices, playing with a combination of visual textures that nostalgically look to the past while also seeking to disrupt contemporary points of view.

María Carolina Baulo: Once you wrote: “By appropriating classical European ornamental imagery from textiles, façades, and crafts, my work reflects on the traces of colonial discourse and its political implications in South America.” Taking the pieces Through the Veins of History, Past and Present Intertwine and Neither Beginning nor End as examples, I would like you to elaborate on how you visually represent this concept that seems to be at the center of your creative exploration.

Paula Córdoba: First, I would like to thank you, María Carolina, for the opportunity to speak with you about my work and for sharing our exchange with Sculpture’s readers. In the case of the works you mentioned, the European ornamental elements are formally inspired by a Spanish handmade lace commonly known as “Tenerife lace.” This textile was introduced to several settlements in colonial South America; initially, its technique was taught and reproduced, but later, over time, it was modified and acquired its own identity in the hands of local weavers. This transformation can be observed in the new use of color, rich and bold in its palette, as well as in the introduction of local iconography, namely animal and floral motifs from the region. The most iconic example of these is ñanduty, a type of lace particular to and emblematic of the area known today as Paraguay. Even though, in terms of its formal aspect, I chose to keep the traditional structure of the textile, which is characterized by the repetition of sun motifs, my introduction of colors is an homage to transculturation. In the process of making these works, which escalated in size (so far the largest in the series is Neither Beginning nor End, which measures 95 x 74 inches), I started to reappropriate these traditional motifs, reinterpreting them as “rhizomes.” The importance of this motif lies in my reading of it as a symbol of cultural resistance. According to Deleuze, the rhizome is a web of elements that are without hierarchies and that, connected and interdependent, honor the “space in-between.” Therefore, the sense of resistance that I assign to the motif derives from its multiplicity and simultaneity, representing a silent yet powerful force that, thanks to its net-like structure and lack of a single identifiable core, can defy and oppose a greater force, in this case hegemonic power. Outside of this particular series, my inspiration usually comes from the designs on different types of textiles and on the sculptural reliefs of architectonic facades with classical ornamentation: acanthus leaves, flower motifs, and volutes. Within these designs, elements that recall the architecture of Buenos Aires appear, referencing Eclecticism, an architectural style of the late XIX and early XIX centuries. The net-like structure alludes to the social fabric, representing culture as a series of interconnections and interdependencies. The void spaces aim to echo the histories silenced in the context of power struggles.

MCB: How do you think your broad academic background influences your artistic practice?

PC: I consider my artistic production very much linked to my studies in other fields; these studies have given me conceptual tools that support and shape my visual discourse. I have always had a curiosity for understanding the drivers of cultural processes, the concept of “identity” as a social construction, and this construct’s relationship with the intangible and tangible heritage of a society. In particular, my initial questions tried to comprehend our positioning as Latin Americans and our conflicts with Europe and its colonial legacy with respect to our identities, politics, and epistemologies. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, an especially Eurocentric culture, these questions only multiplied. Even the city’s nickname “The Paris of South America” exemplifies the ubiquity of the narratives that express an identification with Europe’s legacy while perceiving the “Latin American” as something foreign, as a way of manifesting Otherness. During my academic studies, some lecturers acknowledged the need to question the supposed universality from which we conceive of Europe as the center of all knowledge; however, it is evident that Eurocentrism runs through not only art history, museology, and cultural studies but all disciplines and imposes pedagogic discourses and aesthetic values that pretend to construct a homogenous worldview.

My interest in these subjects led me to pursue a master’s degree in Artistic and Cultural Heritage in Colonial South America at UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires); this degree enabled me to not only explore the historical processes and manifestations of colonialism but also analyze the bases that legitimized the colonial regime. Thanks to these studies, I gained knowledge of authors like Walter Mignolo, Enrique Dussel, and Nelson-Maldonado Torres, among others, who propose “decolonization” as a “project” or “turn” that, even if it is always inconclusive, provides the conceptual tools for us to question our perspectives of the world and operate within our respective fields of knowledge. Occidental thinking is characterized by conceiving of the world as binary constructions, categorizations that survive in cultures today and are manifested by social issues such as racism and gender inequality. Considering the arts as an engine for transformation, I am interested in adopting a decolonial approach to overcome these realities. The crossovers between art and cultural studies make research an important part of my work as an artist. I am interested in continuing to explore these theories and believe my work to be within “decolonial aesthetics.” In my artistic production, I aim to integrate disciplines and to interlace my themes of interest with my experience as a South American woman, thereby expressing subtle worlds, the establishment of interrelations, the possibility of integration, and the surmounting of dichotomies.

MBC: What is the importance of materiality and visual texture in your work and how do you choose your materials?

PC: Materiality is a fundamental aspect of my work. A few years ago, I started experimenting with polyethylene, which I modeled with heat to create “shells.” In these works, I started to demonstrate the duality between negative and positive space. Through experimentation, I finally identified (I would say that I fell in love!) with a type of resin that is very unique with regard to its flexibility and softness. In addition, the possibility of coloring and working this resin as either a translucid or a matte material is another of its appealing traits. From its particular artificiality, I find that it appeals to the senses, especially the touch, at the same time that it allows me to achieve a particular flow, displaying characteristics traditionally associated with the organic. My selection of this inorganic material is based on its being a “cultural” product, the result of technological development, and a sign of our times. It makes me think of the “social” constructions, the production processes, that have gone through many changes between modernity and the present. The visual textures achieved with the soft resin often mirror the aesthetic of handmade lace, though the large scale of the resin art objects contrasts with the smallness of the textiles; to me, these textures suggest a sign of transitoriness that evokes different forms of making and living, thereby creating a bridge between the past and the present. Referring to the hyper-acceleration of life today, the flexible resin expresses itself through its fluidity and the speed with which I must work with it, given its short curing time.

MCB: Taking as an example some of your installations, such as Cultural Wounds and Infinite Circles, let us address the theme of space in relation to the viewer. I would like you to elaborate in detail, step-by-step, on your work process, using examples of your choice.

PC: In the works you mentioned, as in others, I am very interested in guiding the sight towards the perception of the space “in-between”—between the space created by the “threads” of the weave and the “other space” of the room, which suggests and incorporates immaterially through the staging of the installation and the use of lighting, including the shadows cast by the pieces. With respect to my creative process, I tend to start with research, exploring the concepts in which I am interested in a given series. Going back to the formal aspect, I often get inspiration from objects in museum repositories and from architecture; in these cases, I do an initial search that involves both antique textile collections and photography archives. Later, I look for a correlation between the two, which slowly translates into the visual discourse that I start developing while thinking through my reappropriation of the “design,” including the format, scale, and palette of my work, and my treatment of the material. Given the particularities of working with soft epoxy-resin—a common thread in my work—I experimented and developed my own technique that fulfills my creative and conceptual interests. In my work process, I cross the boundaries between disciplines: even though printmaking techniques are present in almost all of my works that get their texture from relief and bas-relief, some of them have a flow and a particular use of color that make them closer to painting; likewise, the use of the line and the relevance it acquires in other works recalls the language of drawing. However, since projection in space is an important part of my exploration, I prefer to define my works as textural sculptures or sculptural patterns. In terms of my manual process specifically, for each work I make a sort of one-time mold in which I also define the bas-relief textures in each area. Also, in terms of pouring the material, I usually work in several layers in which I play with the transparency of each color and the thickness’ level. The resin dictates the timing, requiring me, on occasion, to work long hours to ensure that the layers adhere to one another but also that each layer is sufficiently cured so that it does not blend with the previous one.

MCB: The series Oblivion introduces another key subject in your work: memory. And the interesting thing is that you also link it to lace as a symbolic motif. I am not referring necessarily to the textile lace but to the weave, the pattern, the design, and its symbolism. Tell us about these works.

PC: Indeed, memory is very important within my creative universe because it bridges the subjects that I am attracted to from a rational perspective—that is, those we spoke about at the beginning—with my personal life, namely the experiences that have made these concepts and fields of study relevant to me. With regard to my subjectivity as a “porteña” (as we call the inhabitants of Buenos Aires), memory and nostalgia play a major role in shaping our identity. Also, in terms of sound, this identity has been beautifully expressed through the fusion of musical genres that gave rise to tango. The city’s architecture cohabits with traces of the belle époque, which are especially iconic in the facades’ ornamentation. Calling the city “The Paris of South America,” as I mentioned earlier, has “condemned” us in a way to look back to a very idealized past. Without getting into details, these vestiges of the past reveal how and from where we constructed our identity as a society and, at the same time, suggest how postcolonialism manifests itself in Buenos Aires. Since I was little, my gaze has lingered on the ornamental details of old buildings. From then on, I have been attracted to the city’s faded glamour, which is much more noticeable in the southern neighborhoods, where the traditional houses are far—temporally and materially—from the magnificence that they had at the beginning of the 20th century. Finally, this is the reason why, in addition to the academic meaning of the term “in-between,” I find its strongly evocative and poetic qualities very appealing. They say that memory is a paradox that involves both remembering and forgetting; the duality of the weave expresses this idea. The open spaces long to be “filled” by the viewer’s sensations and experiences in a broad sense, honoring forgotten voices and mementos, scents, etc.

MCB: Considering that we are starting the year 2021, with all the changes that we have been through during the Covid-19 pandemic, how do you see your immediate future?

PC: In the first part of the year, the virtual mode will allow me to stay connected with peers from other regions and participate in activities created and promoted in this context. Even though our immediate future is still uncertain, I have hopes that we will resume in-person activities in the last third of 2021 and am working with this in mind. For now, having only just started the year, I will participate in the digital conference “Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities” organized by Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Germany). This opportunity is possible for me because of the digital format the conference took this year, although this is actually the eighth forum in “Postcolonial Narrations” organized by the Postgraduate Center for the Study of Culture. There, I will present my work’s approach to decolonial subjects and will elaborate on how the arts can operate from the symbolic and imaginary in reality and call on viewers to consider these issues. I am interested in diving deeper into these lines of work and building a network with other artists and art theorists who share these interests in order to work on future exchanges, collaborations, and exhibition projects.

Texturas Visuales: Una Conversación con Paula Córdoba


“Withstand: Latinx Art in Times of Conflict”, Holocaust Museum Houston

April 30 – October 17, 2021

(Extract from Press Release)

“Holocaust Museum Houston (HMH) will open its first juried exhibition in its expanded building on April 30, 2021. Withstand: Latinx Art in Times of Conflict will explore themes of social justice and human rights through 100 artworks of Houston Latinx artists. The multi-media exhibition will be a platform that examines issues that impact the community, fosters dialogue on difficult questions, and ultimately empowers social change through art.

“When we put out the call to Latinx artists to join the conversation on art as a catalyst of change, we knew Houston’s vibrant art community would show up in force,” said HMH CEO Dr. Kelly J. Zúñiga. “We were overwhelmed with submissions and are delighted to feature the artwork of such talented artists.”

The art featured in the exhibition includes several themes of focus including border relations, gender roles, domestic violence, the immigrant experience and social and political turmoil. Withstand is curated by Gabriela Magana and Rosa Ana Orlando. Born and raised in Mexico, Magana is an artist and curator based in Houston. She holds a BA in Painting from the University of St. Thomas Houston, and is currently working on a MA in Arts Leadership from the University of Houston.  From Venezuela, Orlando is a museum specialist with extensive knowledge of art history. She has more than 15 years of experience in art collection management, as well as a strong background in exhibition planning and design.

Due to the 100-piece size of the multi-media exhibition, Withstand: Latinx Art in Times of Conflict will be on view from April 30 through October 17, 2021 in the Museum’s Mincberg Gallery and Spira Central Gallery, with sculptures located in the adjacent Lester and Sue Smith Human Rights Gallery. For more information on the exhibition visit hmh.org/Withstand. Entrance to this exhibition is included in general admission. Tickets must be purchased online at hmh.org/tickets.

United Airlines, the official airline of Holocaust Museum Houston, is the partner sponsor of the exhibition. Lead sponsors include the Ronald Grabois Family Fund, B.J. Herz in memory of Clint Willour, The Lewis and Joan Lowenstein Foundation and the Sterling Family Foundation.


Presenting at the Conference “Rethinking Postcolonial Europe: Moving Identities, Changing Subjectivities”, Justus Liebig University Giessen

8th postgraduate forum Postcolonial Narrations, International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, Digital Conference, February 10-12, 2021

Thinking ‘Europe’ as an idea, a geographical space, and a political force is inseparable from thinking about its history of imperialism, its postcolonial legacies, and its preoccupation with questions of in and outside, centre and periphery, the self and the other. Migration and the current so-called refugee crisis not only urge a changing perception of those power hierarchies that tend to divide the world between ‘the west’ and ‘the rest’ but also compel new discourses of national and cultural identity and belonging. The recent resurgence of populism and racism connected to the rise of right-wing parties in several European states serves as an uneasy reminder of the continuing influence of hegemonic ideas of European exceptionalism and cultural superiority. Global inequalities persist and the freedom of movement remains linked to where one comes from. At the same time, however, practices of resistance and emancipation in migrant/BPoC self-organisation reimagine Europe as an entangled space (Randeria 1999) that was and is home for different people. Received notions of nation and culture as well as identity and subjectivity have undergone a dramatic change, vividly reflected in the domains of art, literature, media, law, and politics. Investigating these current dynamics from a post-/decolonial perspective is thus crucial to understanding contemporary Europe as a contradictory space and a contested place. (https://www.uni-giessen.de)


Peripheral Arteries Interview, 2017

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An interview by Josh Ryder (curator) and Melissa C. Hilborn (curator)
(Selected fragments)

Hello Paula and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries: we would like to start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You graduated from the Chelsea College of Arts and Design (University of the Arts London) with a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Arts and you also hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Museum Studies. How did these experiences along with your internship at Marc Quinn Studio influence the way you currently conceive your works? And in particular, how did the years you spent in the United Kingdom inform your cultural substratum? […]

My background in Museum Studies deeply influences my current artistic practice and the subjects I focus on, but I also think that particularities of my country of origin awakened these interests in the first place: Argentina is a country with a vast amount of European influence, my own heritage is an entangled mix of Spanish, Italian and French forefathers. Interestingly, I also learned that in both sides of my family we also have native ancestors, something that seemed very unlikely. These facts have always raised questions about my own identity and on how to stand politically, ideologically, and even emotionally regarding the originary cultures of America in relation to the process of «colonization». […] They have also made me question several aspects of the European-centered vision of the world on which I was raised. By the time I moved to England, this ambiguity in which I felt involved, opened up to a whole new level of complexity in a cosmopolitan city as London. I became aware of other ongoing processes of interculturation and post-colonial relationships. […]

This period was enriched by the experience of working as an intern at Marc Quinn’s studio. I was attracted by how the artist investigated his own identity through an array of materials and media […] works like Quinn’s «Garden» made me reflect on nature as a social concept. […] works like Quinn’s «Garden» made me reflect on nature as a social concept. […]

Recently, I went through another process of relocation as I moved to California. I am still processing this whole new perspective of the world and starting to incorporate the experience into my practice.

Summing up, the paths I have taken and my personal research shaped my interest in the material and intangible cultural heritage […] and how they interact with globalization as a contemporary phenomenon. Themes as interculturation and syncretism, otherness, and local and foreign perceptions are recurrent themes. […]

What are the properties you are searching for in the materials that you include in your works?

In the same way I tackle themes determined by metamorphosis, ambiguity, and change, I believe this is reflected in my aesthetics, where the decision of mixing media plays an important role.

I think it reflects my vision of the contemporary world and shows how I perceive it. I fought against this ‘lack of labeling’ but I have come to understand the need to embrace this means of expression as a constitutive aspect of my work and myself. I would call it media syncretism. […]

Would you tell us something about the importance of symbols in your practice and their relationship to memory? […]

[Symbols, in my work] are merged amongst them and play in conjunction with other rhetorical devices. I tend to use them appealing to their enunciative value.

Memory, in my work, articulates past and present as a bridge. It is important to reflect also on collective memory, which plays an important role in my work […] It is neither a fiction nor a mere metaphor but refers to a web of symbols formed through communicative interaction, reaching as far as that sphere of interaction does. […]

Do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decision-making process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?

I do not think about the reception of my work when I making it. Actually, it is difficult for me to have that kind of empathy with the public, although I enjoy getting to know different ideas and perceptions my work evokes once it is displayed. I might think the direct involvement is related to some degree of intensity, whether you like the pieces or not, they take over the space.

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Entrevista Peripheral Arteries, 2017

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Entrevista por Josh Ryder, (curador) y Melissa C. Hilborn, (curadora)
(Selección de fragmentos, traducción propia)

Hola Paula y bienvenida a Peripheral ARTeries: nos gustaría comenzar esta entrevista con un par de preguntas acerca de tu perfil multifacético. Tenés una formación sólida: te graduaste de Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London) con un Diploma de Posgrado en Artes Visuales y de una Licenciatura en Museología. ¿De qué forma estas experiencias, junto con tu pasantía en el estudio de Marc Quinn, influenciaron en la forma en que actualmente concebís tus trabajos? Y en particular, ¿de qué forma los años que viviste en el Reino Unido formaron tu concepción de la cultura? […]

Mis estudios en Museología influencian profundamente mi practica artística actual y los temas en los que me enfoco, pero también creo que ciertas particularidades acerca de mi país de origen despertaron estos intereses en primer lugar: Argentina es un país con una gran influencia europea, mi propia herencia es una confluencia de ancestros españoles, italianos y franceses. Curiosamente, también supe que en ambos lados de mi familia tenemos antepasados nativos, algo que parecía poco probable. Estos hechos siempre despertaron preguntas acerca de mi propia identidad y sobre cómo posicionarme política, ideológica e incluso emocionalmente respecto a las culturas originarias en América en relación al proceso de “colonización”. […] También me hicieron cuestionarme varios aspectos de la mirada del mundo euro-centrada en la que crecí. […] En el momento en el que me mudé a Inglaterra, la ambigüedad en la que me sentía involucrada tomó un nuevo nivel de complejidad, en una ciudad cosmopolita como Londres. Allí me hice consciente de otros procesos interculturación y relaciones postcoloniales. […]

Este periodo también se enriqueció con la experiencia de trabajar como pasante en el estudio de Marc Quinn. Me sentí atraída por la forma en que el artista investigaba su identidad a través de diferentes materiales y medios […] trabajos como “Garden” (Jardín) me hicieron reflexionar sobre la naturaleza como un concepto social. […]

Recientemente, atravesé otra relocalización, ya que me mudé a California. Todavía estoy procesando esta nueva perspectiva del mundo y empezando a incorporar esta experiencia a mi práctica.

Resumiendo, los caminos que he tomado y mi investigación personal modelaron mi interés en el patrimonio cultural tangible e intangible […] y en cómo interactúa con la globalización como fenómeno contemporáneo. Temas como interculturación y sincretismo, Otredad y percepciones sobre lo local y lo foráneo son temas recurrentes. […]

¿Cuáles son las cualidades que estás buscando en los materiales que incluís en tus trabajos?

De la misma forma que abarco temas determinados por metamorfosis, ambigüedad y cambio, creo que esto se ve reflejado en mi estética, donde la decision de mezclar medios juega un rol importante.

Pienso que refleja mi visión del mundo contemporáneo y exhibe cómo lo percibo. Luché contra la “falta de etiquetas” pero llegué a comprender que necesito aceptar este medio de expresión como un aspecto constitutivo de mi trabajo y de mí misma. […]

¿Nos dirías algo de la importancia de los símbolos en tu práctica y su relación con la memoria? […]

[Los símbolos, en mi trabajo,] están fundidos entre sí y juegan en conjunción con otros dispositivos retóricos. Tiendo a usarlos apelando a su valor enunciativo.

La memoria, en mi trabajo, articula pasado y presente como un puente. Es importante también reflexionar en la memoria colectiva, que juega un rol importante en mi obra, concibiéndola como una fuente de conocimiento e información compartida por miembros de un grupo social. No es una ficción ni una mera metáfora, sino que se refiere a una red de símbolos formados a través de interacción comunicativa, alcanzando esferas tan lejanas como la misma interacción.

¿Considerás que el tema de la recepción de la audiencia es un componente crucial en su proceso de toma de decisiones, en términos del tipo de lenguaje usas en un contexto determinado?

No pienso en la recepción de mi obra cuando la estoy haciendo. De hecho, es difícil para mí tener ese tipo de empatía con el público, a pesar de que disfruto conocer las diferentes ideas o percepciones que mi trabajo evoca una vez que es exhibido. Podría  pensar que el involucramiento directo esta relacionado en cierto grado con su intensidad, pueden gustarte o no las obras, pero éstas “invaden” el espacio.

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interview-paula-cordoba-art
interview-paula-cordoba-art

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