Artist: Thomas Glassford
Siphonophora
Until July 24, 2016
Museo Universitario del Chopo
Mexico City, Mexico
Siphonophora is a site-specific work that echoes earlier chapters in his career—above all his work on the articulation of neo-botanical structures—as well as a glossary constructed in the present. In direct allusion to the siphonophores, colonies of planktonic marine organisms with a peculiar morphology that places them between animals and plants, Glassford constructs a sculptural organism that recalls the building’s former incarnation as a natural history museum. The work combines reference points ranging from the human microbiome—the collection of microbes that colonize the body and that together comprise one hundred times more genes than in our own genome—to the classic children’s story Jack and the Beanstalk, by way of the artist’s own experiences on a farm, weaving together his extensive knowledge and love for plants, which form an important part of his everyday life.
In both the siphonophores and the microbiome, there is a social parallel with the community, the family nucleus, a neighborhood, or city. This dependency and correlation allows unity and divergence. The encounter with this complex installation fluctuates in the perception between a fossil, plant elements, or an animal organism. Depending on the viewpoint, its monumental character situates us walking on the ocean floor, entering a cave, observing from the sea surface, or seeing a climbing plant from cloud level. This ambiguity highlights the construction of parallel worlds in which viewers recognize themselves in the astonishment of a single, unrepeatable yet collective reflection.
April 18, 2016 Bernardo Corces https://abstractioninaction.com/artists/bernardo-corces/
Somewhere or maybe everywhere … without script, perhaps like many others, restricted by a minimum budget or better yet, not thinking about budgets.
I choose to work from what I find, from that others have left. The image starts as a riddle formulated between the places I live, things and materials collected.
Someone observes from beyond. Maybe is a neighbor who sees me under the bridge collecting cans, or the gaze of that who finds those objects in an exhibition gallery, evoking what flows under the bridge. Both cases are for me acts of survival.
I try to synchronize myself with places, to hear what the material proposes and follow the way marked by the circumstances. The image is always provisional. It works, but barely, just enough.
I insist on a premise. I am aware that something magical could be happening.
En algún lugar o tal vez en todas partes… sin guiones, quizás como tantos otros, condicionado por un presupuesto mínimo o mejor aún, sin pensar en presupuestos.
Elijo trabajar desde lo encontrado, con lo que otros han dejado. La imagen se inicia como un acertijo que formulo entre los lugares que habito, las cosas y materiales recolectados.
Más allá, alguien observa. Tal vez un vecino que me ve bajo el puente recogiendo unas latas, o es la mirada de quien encuentra en una sala de exposición esos objetos evocando lo que corre bajo el puente. Ambos casos son para mí un acto de supervivencia.
Procuro afinarme con los espacios, escuchar lo que el material propone y seguir el rumbo que marcan las circunstancias. La imagen es siempre provisional. Funciona pero apenas, sólo lo justo.
Insisto en una premisa. Estoy atento de que algo mágico pueda estar ocurriendo.
Selected Biographical Information
Education / Training
- 2007-2014: BFA, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Facultad de Artes, Argentina.
- 2005-2006: La Guarda, with Ana María Benedetti.
- 2003: Provincia de Salta, Argentina, with Delmiro Barraza.
Solo Exhibitions
- 2013: “PASACALLE”, Rusia Galería, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2012: “Herramientas para la construcción de un cielo nocturno”, La Puerta espacio de arte, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2010: “Cerrar los ojos para ver”, Rusia Galería, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2009:”Me tenés arto vieja hermosa”, El Árbol de Galeano, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2008: “Un Puente”, Museo Arias Rengel, Salta capital, Argentina.
Group Exhibitions
- 2013: “Esta será nuestra casa”, Galerías Recientes, Eggo, Argentina
- 2013: “un día como cualquiera”, Casa del Bicentenario, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2011-2009: “Taller abierto”, Taller “C”, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2011: “Y andar liviano”, Salta y San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2010: “Líneas en acción”, Plaza de almas, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
- 2010: “Líneas”, Plaza de almas, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina.
Collections
- Sayago & Pardon, USA.
- Colección Carlos Casal, Tucumán, Argentina.