Un Viaje Entre Las Sombras

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The duality of being, which is an inherent part of human existence, affords us a life full of conflicts. The mere fact that we exist subjects us to the daily struggle for survival, in which we must not only defend ourselves from external agents but from ourselves.

Through self-control we can conceal the internal facets of our own ego and show only the visible parts that adapt to the contexts in which we live. In turn, all the rough edges that make us what we are prop up a core structure that supports the protective tarpaulin that covers our heads.

This fear is present at all times. The fear of losing what makes us what we are. The fear of solitude and the fear of not being able to control all the impulses that come from deep within allow us to confront the continuous challenges of our day-to-day existence. In short, the fear of losing control of our own fears.

The journey on which we are embarked is the beginning of a approximation towards our own ego; it shows the naked soul that emerges when we close our eyes, when we feel severe pain….

The materials in these works are seen to be in continuous tension; they coexist, forced between contrasts of textures that remind us of dry pelts, worn out skins of times past. Just like us, as a container, the frame (which is often only sensed and on other occasions broken but always interwoven with the knife-like wire) combines different aspects of an attempt to control, which at the same time is in continuous danger of becoming itself the element that tears. It is then when the textures become tense, enveloping and agonising, held back only by the material and structural battle of which it depends in order to develop.

The wire not only retains differences in favour of the whole, the wire envelops, creates nests in which to hide ourselves and, at the same time, cages from which we will never be able to escape. The self-control that defines us and mutilates us, the fear that scares us and shapes us, the tension of the balance and the abyss that opens with every centimetre that is torn.

It is, therefore, an encounter with our own war, a form of introspection into material existence and the gesture of the creative process. We confront ourselves; we confront what is uncontrollable and self-imposed, move through the shadows that contrast with our most blinding lights. The shadows formed part of the light and the fear of our darkness is as much ours as the skin.

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Iker Fidalgo Alday

2011