24 April - 27 June, 2021
For its fourth exhibition, Espacio Temporal is pleased to present two installations: In Lieu of What Was (2019) by Alia Farid (Puerto Rico/Kuwait) and Mar de Estabilidad II (2021) by Marlon de Azambuja (Brazil/Spain). Though originating from different geographic and political contexts, the works of Farid and Azambuja both make use of existing urban elements in a way that renews an understanding of their forms.
Farid’s ongoing project, In Lieu of What Was (2019), is comprised of 5 fiberglass and resin water-vessel sculptures presented in a single file. The composition is an allusion to Sumerian art that recalls an impression left by a cylinder seal when looked at from the side. The sculptures, petrified and fragile in their appearance, are 1:1 scale casts of drinking fountains that can be seen dotted across the Arabian Gulf where Farid has been developing work since 2014 that examines the history of water in the region—its scarcity and abundance—as well as its role in economic development and destruction of communities and ecosystems.
Adjacent to Farid’s installation sits the work of Azambuja— Un mar de estabilidad (2014) is a floor-installation made of triangular paver blocks and abstract forms painted on glass that hover over the blocks in a kind of mirage. The painted forms borrow their silhouettes from commonly found objects and are freehandedly rendered on thin sheets of glass that only become apparent when approaching the installation. The experience of walking on the work feels at once urban and otherworldly. Each creaky step over the ‘paved floor’ reminds us of the precariousness of the constructed world, and generates a sense of self awareness as we walk with uncertainty in the middle of these perfectly imperfect, grey and black geometries.
Both installations appeal to a crisis, each in its own way, of a failing idea of progress and modernism, and the consequences we have to face today. They dialogue, from their own stoicism, with an archaeology of our unsustainable present and future.
