condition of loss
collective exhibition
wallness art gallery
lima, june 2018
curatorial text:
In Book 10 of “The Seminar – 7: The Ethics of Psychoanalysis,” Jacques Lacan comments that all art is characterized by being a “certain mode of organization around a void.” This void, this drive space perhaps preceding the concreteness of being, is veiled – but never completely hidden – in the work of Zapata, Piqueras, and Malamud. It is always in a latent state, as a backdrop.
“State of Loss” brings together three women, young, from Lima, who, after multiple explorations through different means and techniques, have found their own language in the construction of networks, mosaics, knots, patterns, and fragmentary structures that seem to rise, albeit weakly, just above that primordial void. Perhaps therein lies the seduction of their works, in smiling at the abyss so that it returns the same distorted and magnified smile in the echo.
The textures in “State of Loss,” despite the lightness of the constructs, reveal a much denser background – ontologically speaking – such as: that of temporal loss or definitive loss, the honest exploration of bonds, reconciliation, or healing.
The works do not hide their self-referentiality, but rather hint at it; therein lies precisely their strength. What might be seen as a childish imprint is quickly discarded due to the immense amount of work that goes into each of the pieces selected for this exhibition and the achieved final product. And, ultimately, as Friedrich Von Schlegel declared: “all art becomes science, and all science art.” In the tension and detuning of strings over the echo of silhouettes in Zapata’s work, in the embroidery over light or Piqueras’ dragonfly mosaics, or in the introspective work in the light of Malamud’s clinical cure regulative ideal, there is not only sweat, tears, and blood but countless hours of productive work, a losing and finding oneself, and a life devoted to it…