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The vary of idiosyncratic supplies that comprise Estefania Puerta’s sculptures emphasize surprising connections between linguistic expression, biomorphic varieties, and antiquity. Within the diptych Luz/Helena (all works 2023), aluminum leaf covers two raised spirals that mirror one another. Symmetry is omnipresent in nature (the shapes right here resemble snails or seashells), however it’s also commemorated by many Indigenous cultures, corresponding to the traditional Andeans. Puerta additionally incorporates a delicate nod to her birthplace—the mountains of Colombia—with volcanic rocks from El Nevado del Ruiz, which, together with mugwort, are nestled right into a pair of insets and visual by means of stained glass. These pure parts carry non secular and medicinal properties, respectively. Embedded right here in reliquary-like containers, they’re rendered valuable, enigmatic.
Bodily references, significantly to feminine anatomy, present up in a number of works. In Soltera (Single Girl), two foam teardrop shapes resemble ovaries, whereas quail eggs, plant matter, and locks of the artist’s hair are displayed in small capsules. Each clutching the item’s edges and winding all through the composition are slender silver fingers with lengthy black nails. Are they beckoning the viewer nearer, or issuing a warning to maintain one’s distance?
Like a thorn piercing by means of a troublesome pores and skin that doesn’t know whether it is open or damaged wavers between trying like a welcoming embrace and a mutant Venus flytrap. Small pictures of the artist’s lips mid-speech are affixed to roughhewn slate- and periwinkle-colored appendages that attain out from the central armature. The photographs of Puerta’s frozen mouth convey each urgency and futility, which can converse to the artist’s challenges of being heard as a US immigrant and a lady however are finally ambiguous and multivocal. Bodily compact but conceptually expansive, this work, like the remainder of the exhibition, is without delay enthralling and uncanny.
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