Time and Rivers don’t flow back

Time and rivers don’t flow back is the title of Patricia Claro’s second solo exhibition at Animal Gallery. This collection is the fruit of a study about water and it’s characteristics where rigorous observation of reality has given the artist more insight about the natural laws that determine the particular properties of this element.

In conjunction with the aforesaid, the artist conducts a study on the concept of time, in which she explores the internal mechanism that allows water to flow permanently. The video is a complement to the pictorial representation and a synthesis of this study. It demonstrates a variation of light intensity throughout the day, revealing a series of changes that water experiences in its natural setting. The sequence of images uninterruptedly delivered by the river evokes the idea of infinity, as water continues to reflect and mirror, going beyond the limits of the framing and temporality of the chosen captions. This temporality (which represents a non-existing instant at present time), contrasts with the idea of the eternal flow of water and is the substratum of the author’s reflexion with respect to time. The artist’s strategy starts from filming from a fixed angle that is manipulated through flipping, direction change and synchronized clips, among others. The objective is to recreate the presence of the river in the most vivid possible way. The video is a mise en scene of the river as the origin of the paintings.

The idea of time present in the videos as well as in the pictorial sequence connects with the theory of Heraclitus where movement is considered as the characteristic phenomenon of all that exists. The famous saying “no one bathes twice in the same river, extracted from the work of this pre-Socratic philosopher, alludes to the changing condition of all reality, starting from anything defined in a particular space and time, and mutating in accordance to the changing process of both factors. Heraclitus uses the image of a river to represent the temporary nature of reality, the river being the best proof to the passing of time and the singleness of every lived instant. This paradigm supports the title of the exhibition. The evanescence of the mirrored images in the water with its unique and unrepeatable character grants a sort of sacredness to the piece of river chosen by the artist, for one is facing a scene that only occurs in that time-space and exists only once. Finally it is the river that determines and dictates the images appearing in the paintings.

The collection is a sequence of images of the same portion of water. The images are only fractions of a minute away from each other, thus giving continuance to the presentation. The span of the sequence encloses only 8 seconds, enough time for a wave to expand and disappear. A variation in the intensity of light is added to this representation of movement in water, simulating sunlight throughout the day, and revealing the transparency of water and its ability to mirror all that surrounds it.

This work is made possible due to the interrelation between nature and technique as part of Claro’s internal creative process. The predictable- represented by the digital caption- converges with the unpredictable and random- the water in its natural setting-, forming a triad: nature-technique-painting. The use of contemporary technology points out to the presence of a versatile studio, where thoroughness and deliberation of manual work intertwines with efficacy and arbitrariness of the technique, building a system that defines her particular style. [Read More]

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