Espejos de Agua, 2001
Installation view: The Way Things Are… Works from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Collection, Centre of Contemporary Art “Znaki Czasu”, Torun, Poland, 2008
Photo: Wojtek Olech
Photo: Wojtek Olech
Photo: Courtesy of San Francisco Art Institute, 2008
Photo: Courtesy of San Francisco Art Institute, 2008
Collection
Wood, epoxy resin, water, flex lamps
Dimensions site specific
Espejos de Agua (Water Mirrors) continues Los Carpinteros’ inventions of hybridized interior furnishings infused with new meaning. At first glance, the six wooden drafting tables—each with five black desk lamps—appear quite ordinary. Upon closer inspection one realizes that the lights are reflecting not on a piece of glass, but on a shallow pool of water, subverting the usual function of the table as a place to make drawings. Each individual table alludes to the nature of the artistic process and becomes a visual pun about the difficulty and even impossibility of rendering, of “drawing” upon ideas and making them palpable. With the ubiquitous presence of water and the precarious, potentially unstable tables, one may also imagine the installation as a reference to Cuba—the constantly shifting conditions of the island and the artists who work there.
Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés: *1971 in Camagüey, Cuba | Living and working in La Habana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain
Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez: *1969 in Caibarien, Cuba | Living and working in La Habana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain
Dimensions site specific
Espejos de Agua (Water Mirrors) continues Los Carpinteros’ inventions of hybridized interior furnishings infused with new meaning. At first glance, the six wooden drafting tables—each with five black desk lamps—appear quite ordinary. Upon closer inspection one realizes that the lights are reflecting not on a piece of glass, but on a shallow pool of water, subverting the usual function of the table as a place to make drawings. Each individual table alludes to the nature of the artistic process and becomes a visual pun about the difficulty and even impossibility of rendering, of “drawing” upon ideas and making them palpable. With the ubiquitous presence of water and the precarious, potentially unstable tables, one may also imagine the installation as a reference to Cuba—the constantly shifting conditions of the island and the artists who work there.
Marco Antonio Castillo Valdés: *1971 in Camagüey, Cuba | Living and working in La Habana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain
Dagoberto Rodríguez Sánchez: *1969 in Caibarien, Cuba | Living and working in La Habana, Cuba and Madrid, Spain