Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernández Dueñas Duo:Penitence
Exhibition
The use of paper is central to the works of Ariamna Contino, as she demonstrates her laser-like paper-cutting technique through the completed piece. It seems through the colossal spread of paper trees that interlace to make up Penitence, Contino makes her awareness of a cost that is well beyond the socio-political urgency of artistic expression rather clear.
Contino calculated the amount of 7 years old Eucalyptus that she needed to take to make these two works. As a result, the summation is equivalent to 265 trees. While the works are exhibited, she also bought 265 potted plants to give to people who will plant them, which is the reason why she named the works “Penitence.” Contino creates what she deems a “closed circuit” both literally and figuratively. In the first sense, the seedbeds were determined in correspondence to the paper used to create her paper landscape. On a more metaphorical level, the potted plants are distributed to people creates a balanced and self-sufficient cycle.
In creating a hypothetical dialogue between the artist and Mother Nature, Contino seems to bridge the highly conceptual politics of the creative process with the ethical considerations of our exceedingly literal environment. She seems to give a voice to the once silent earth, questioning the morality of draining its reservoir of resources in the artist’s quest to enlighten society and enrich its culture. Creating a space that is simultaneously provocative and meditative, Contino invites viewers to ruminate the burden carried by the individual ego, the significance of expanding beyond one’s own mind and body as the definition of existence, and the embrace of the collective environment as an equally discernable factor of a person’s identity.
Artist
Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernández Dueñas