Latencia del Pliegue

I. Latency

A series of processes unfold to give shape to something that is available before us, although not in a visible way. There is an inherent enigma in every object: like a locked chest that holds a treasure, each thing contains a secret that is never fully revealed. On every surface, in every fold, an unseen dimension remains latent, escaping our gaze.

This hidden and seemingly inactive form waits for the potential to come to light, to be activated. And this enigma carries its own temporal dimension: we do not know how it began nor when it will end. It is imbued with what is yet to come.

II. Folds

The work of Antonio Fernández Alvira is the result of a long-term formal investigation into sculpture. He makes objects to shelter the mystery of his own thinking. His body functions as a maker; it is what gives form to his objects, turning his pieces into a kind of bodily record in which torsion and folding make possible the wrapping of the secret he seeks to preserve, of that which only appears to us in a latent way.

Latency of Fold is an exhibition that presents three groups of sculptures resulting from the chaining of three ways of working with different materials: first, ceramics; second, a combination of ceramics and fabric; and finally, a process involving fabric pieces coated in beeswax. This transition of procedures corresponds to a series of gestures that also unfold continuously.

Between the artist and the space there is nothing but skin. The ceramic pieces in the first group seem to have once inhabited that boundary space between his body and the world. Placed on a table in the exhibition, these white lacquered sculptures recall fragments of moulds that may, at some point, have been extracted from the artist’s body to preserve its form.

In the second group, clay and fabric intertwine, emphasising the tactile dimension of sculpture. The imprint of the artist’s fingers on the surface of the clay generates a trace that seeks to achieve a texture that can be confused with the weave of the textile. The artist’s work insists on tensioning what is placed before the gaze, playing with the visible in order to protect, perhaps, what lies within.

The malleability of textile allows Fernández Alvira to twist its form, create folds and superimpose infinite layers. The third and final group consists of a series of sculptures placed on the floor and walls of the gallery, where colour becomes central. These are garments that, made unrecognisable by the forms given to them, have been coated in beeswax. The use of this organic material mutes the pieces, darkens them, and also hardens them. This process continues the search for formal strategies that protect what does not wish to be shown, exploring the potential of vulnerability and also escaping rigid structures that threaten our fragility.

Blanca del Río Cultural manager and curator