Encaje
Solo Show, Galeria Artespacio, Santiago, Chile.
August - September 2013 The paintings that make up this project were the result of research conducted through a series where the intention was to obtain the maximum possibilities in terms of combinatorics, arrangement, and displacement of a right-angled triangle on the support; restricted by a specific measurement within an ordered grid.
I was interested in working with geometry because it has a language that is both simple and complex at the same time. There is a directly mathematical relationship with our entire environment. I was intrigued by how through simple shapes, a wide variety of volumetric spaces can be generated, in addition to an endless variation of shapes and results.
The Intricacies of Interplay
Eugenio Dittborn1. These paintings ostensibly involve two materials:
That which most would term paper. And another which resembles anything but paper.
Both these materials methodically wend their way through this exhibition.
They run both the length and width of its surface.
This is the first of many dyanmics of pictorial interplay and bespeaks the whimsical abandon of these paintings.
2. The second dynamic is steeped in the interplay of the first: the judicious and precise choice of materials.
Their extended knowledge, as well as the purification, economy and suitability of materials vis-à-vis the paradoxes inherent to their deployment.
3. The third interplay is the result of the previous two: the lightness of these works.
They lack a sense of having been laboured over and, as such, lack clear signs of workmanship.They dance before the eye or perhaps the eye skips along them. We will return to this dynamic later, in order to consider it from the perspective of the fourth dynamic of interplay.
4. There is an interplay between triangles, which seem to devour one another. They vanish, leaving in their place diagonal, horizontal and vertical lines, as well as symmetrical knots, elusive geometric hieroglyphics, blind streets, deserts, puzzles and ornaments. The eye skips and stumbles. It loses its way and falls. As it regains its footing it feels as it is continuing down its path, when in all actuality it is now walking backwards; and lost. It becomes entwined. It then unravels itself and is surprised to note that none of this has really happened. None of this has happened?
5. The fifth dynamic reveals itself much later.
Much later, all roads.
Much later, it reveals that all paths are reversible:
the eye then discovers that the surface is cleverly constructed of mutant triangulations; triangulation colonies, as it were.
Backgrounds leap to the foreground, as readily as foregrounds dissolve into backgrounds.
Figures in the foreground inhabit the background. Backgrounds are anything but.
And everything figures in.
6. And now the double entendre. In Spanish the verb encajar refers to the physical act of fitting an object into an area, as well as the more figurative notion of “fitting in”.
7. The eighth dynamic involves the Real Academia Española’s definition of a grid, which is defined as “the set of squares resulting from bisecting two series of straight lines”.
8. And the grid is the field on which these paintings are played out. The interplay in these pieces involves a game of hide-and-seek.
The unending multiplicity of triangles, and in all their manifestations, is completely linked to the grid. Freely, cleverly and artfully intertwined.
And this, then, is the ninth dynamic.
9. Is this a painting woven into the grid of a loom?
Or is is a shattered kaleidoscope which, once refitted, shifts into nine new manifestations of the original.
10. The paintings of Amalia Valdés tread lightly along the edge of the abyss: a self-imposed grid.
Amalia hides her workmanship from our eyes. These works owe their maturity and weightless grace to this sleight of hand.
11. And what these paintings have to say, through the use of said materials and dynamics, is that they were created to be viewed by:
The
Eye
that
Dreams.
SACRED GEOMETRY
Yael RosenblutThe term geometry is derived from a Greek word meaning “to measure land”. This ancient discipline is present in all of nature and, consequently, the intimate structure of all existence; from molecules to galaxies. It therefore predates and underlies every form of human creation.
Geometric forms trace a continuum throughout history and are forever linked to the immutable laws of the universe. From the beginning, geometry has also been a facet of everything created by human hands. As such, it is no coincidence that, for centuries, geometry and its forms were identified as some of the most important precepts of Magic.
The harmony inherent to geometry, which is present throughout the work of Amalia Valdés, was perceived in ancient times as one of the manifestations of a Divine Architecture. This theory stated that certain metaphysical patterns could be found in every manifestation of the physical universe.
This is a good place recall that throughout history mankind’s inner reality, which transcends external forms, underlies its understanding of these sacred geometric structures.
It is, accordingly, just as valid to construct a painting according to the principles of sacred geometry as it was in the past in the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Islamic, Gothic or Renaissance worlds. As we move beyond the fresh, contemporary visuality of Valdés’ work, it is easy to trace a direct lineage to knowledge that has its roots in a specific human need: the search for the proportion and harmony of sacred geometry, which provides us the basis to relate metaphysically to our discovery of the intimate structures of matter.
The precepts of this ancient geometry run beneath the vibrant colors of Valdés, even as they did in places as distant in time and space as the pyramids and temples of ancient Egypt, Mayan temples, the tabernacles of Jehovah, Babylonian ziggurats, Islamic mosques and Christian cathedrals. An invisible undercurrent that connects the work of this Chilean artist with the immutable principles of these sacred structures that sought to replicate forms found in the cosmos.
One of the principles of sacred geometry is found in the Hermetic maxim "as above, so below" and also "that which found is in the smallest of worlds, the microcosm, is a direct reflection of that which exists in the larger world, or macrocosm". The Principle of Correspondence lies at the basis of all arcane sciences, wherein the forms of the manifested universe are reflected in the body and constitution of mankind.
And we recall that every shape is inherently invested with symbolic and psychological significance, such that every geometric outline (and, consequently, everything executed by human hand) necessarily involves these symbols. Geometrics, thus, propel us along a mysterious pathway of the ideas and concepts embodied in the significance of Gesture. Notably, and without exception, they also bring to mind the abyss from which all things came into being. An abyss from whence every structure in the natural universe sprang forth: the organic as well as the inorganic. From this perspective, we can readily deem the work of Amalia Valdés a direct descendant of one of the oldest magical manifestations of art; although in her case said ancient rituals are as up-to-date as they are true to their ancient, magical and sacred sources.