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Teresa Solar
Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark), 2021

Installation view: Abundant Futures. Works from the TBA21 Collection, Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía C3A, Córdoba, Spain, 2022
Photo: Roberto Ruiz

Abundant Futures

Teresa Solar Abboud

Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel
of my ark) “Radius”, 2021
Resin, metal, automotive paint
150 x 600 x 130 cm
Commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial 2021
Courtesy Travesía Cuatro Gallery, Madrid, and the artist

Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel
of my ark) “Cubitus”, 2021
Resin, metal, automotive paint
150 x 650 x 150 cm
Commissioned by the Liverpool Biennial 2021
Courtesy Travesía Cuatro Gallery, Madrid, and the artist

Osteoclast (I do not know how I came to be on board this ship, this navel of my ark) is an installation composed of two kayaks, “Radius” and “Cubitus,” modeled after the shape of a human bone. The two sculptural pieces are part of a larger public art commission presented in Liverpool. They recall a disarticulated skeleton, relating the supportive structure that allows the human body to move with one of the most traditional means of navigation. In drawing this parallel, Solar sees the human body as a porous and constantly mutating entity, as evoked by the work’s title that refers to a specialized cell, the osteoclast, that absorbs and removes bone, a critical function in the maintenance and repair of the vertebral skeleton. The seats for the potential navigators are carved out of the sculptures, following a design that mimics the holes of a bone flute, which in turn invoke the air blown into an instrument and the wind that moves boats across the ocean. Osteoclast incites the immersion in another matter, a metaphorical act of displacement and transcendence from land-based thinking, suggesting an embrace of fluidity, tidal temporalities, slow ways of moving, and staying afloat.

In Conversation: Chus Martínez & Teresa Solar, a talk part of TBA21–Academy's 'The Current II' Convening 'Phenomenal Ocean', 2019, on ocean-archive.org

Spheric Ocean, TBA21–Academy The Current II Expedition #1 To Find The Vegan Lion, led by Chus Martínez, New Zealand, 9-24 March 2018, logbook