Ok so yesterday was a flurry of activity to finish up my work for the showcase last night.  The Asociacion de Vecinos o San Jose was kind enough to host my work for a final farewell before I leave Zaragoza tomorrow.  I spent the day in the studio tweaking things for their installation and then we moved it over to the venue.  This venue also hosted the La Harinera Conference that I spoke at earlier in my trip and seems to have a number of different people using the building for singing lessons, theater rehearsals and music performances.  As we hung my installation, we listened to the traditional music of the region that was being rehearsed in a near by room.

The turn out for the event was very nice and many people that I met along the way here showed up.  I was very touched and happy to see them.  I also met a few more people, which of course was great!

The two installations that I did while I am here are called “What I Don´t Want You to See” and “Former Home.”  I photographed them in the studio yesterday before we headed to the association.  I know you have seen me work on them along the way but I am sure Mom wants an artist statement!

“What I Don´t Want You to See” is about just that.  The image is mounted on window shutters which are a device for covering windows and keeping privacy.  It´s about the idea of keeping what is yours and sacred to yourself, only to allow who and when you want to divulge yourself as who you really are to who you chose.  There is a certain amount of trust involved with realizing and dilvulging an authentic self- both good and bad.  This piece is more about the things that are the hardest to show… hence the exaggerated armature that pushes the shutter closed.  The red threads that extend from the interior of the figure and through the armature are the snippets and clues about our own complexities.

“Former Home” is based on the idea of relics and structures that once were useful and standing but are now neglected and left behind.  I have seen many buildings and ruins here which are all a testament to past civilizations, ideas and theologies.  Some of these ruins are built upon- tangible evidence of evolution and the combination of ideas to form new progressive civilization.

The idea with the dresser drawers is that these at one time housed things for a person… it could have been clothing, letters, journals etc… but all of these things are a representation of one´s essence and their casting aside and tossed from their casing suggests things that aren´t needed or important.  Much like the relics here, they are not relevant anymore to everyday life but a representation of a past when they were.  The figure on the box is placed there as a metaphor for the things (emotional, psychological, even physical) we once needed but are not neccessary anymore.  They are built upon in the ”nestings” or housings indicating new purpose.