Encuentros

Until the 20th century, art was conceived primarily through the notion of time.

However, the artistic avant-gardes of the early 1900s—and especially the theoretical discussions that gained momentum in the 1990s, played a crucial role in shifting our attention from time to space. Painting rebelled against the frame, sculpture leapt off its pedestal, and forms ceased to be mere representations of reality. Fundamental questions emerged: What is space, and who inhabits it? How do individuals live in and shape it? How are artistic objects situated within space, and how do we, as spectators, relate to those works? Our perception and appreciation of art came to be mediated by spatiality. And few artists work with space, play with form, and transform matter with as much skill, beauty, and subtlety as Ignacia Murtagh.

Encuentros is a series of thirteen large-scale sculptures, hand-carved in lapis lazuli and wood, laid out at ground level. One might try to decipher whether these pieces emerge from design, from art, or from a creative gaze that traverses both disciplines. But perhaps it is more compelling to begin from the space itself and ask about that stone sitting in the garden. Is it a blue object inhabiting a park? Is it an artwork that disrupts the flow of movement? Or is it just an unassuming rock? Is it a seat, a sculpture, or an invitation to climb? Is it a material exploration, a tribute to the Chilean land, a reclaiming of lapis lazuli—or simply a polished piece of wood? Is it delicate or forceful? Does the surface rule, or the edge? Is it curved or straight, does its geometry flow, or does the ovoid shape intensify at the meeting points of its edges? Is its form deliberate or beyond any formal definition? Does it speak of nature, of the artist’s emotions, of the behavior of a specific material, or is it a whimsical digression that, through a touch of mastery, came to be this way? Is it art, design, beauty or discomfort?

Perhaps all of this, and more.

Text written by Maria Pies O. Exhibition presented at Tanica Gardens by Collectio. www.collectio-collectio.com