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Is it possible to forge relationships between the body and the mechanical? This is one of the central questions in the work of Violeta Paez Armando (1994). Inspired by mythology and science fiction, their sculptures, installations, and performances mix emotions like love and desire with a fascination for horror and monsters. Paez Armando guides us through a fictional world where the concept of strange serves as a model to reflect on personal experiences. The artist occasionally draws from ancient myths that contain details still shaping our contemporary outlook. By approaching these myths from a queer perspective, they are able to uncover gestures, attitudes, and imagined or real-life queer histories that would otherwise have remained hidden.
To Paez Armando the queer body is in a constant state of flux. She associates it with concepts like transformation, fluidity, and pliability, which they give shape to using materials like resin and wax. Combining these with contrasting materials like metal, further emphasizes a physical presence. This also applies to the installation Gut Feeling (2024) at Prospects, for which she found inspiration in various horror and science fiction films, such as the body horror film Titane (2021), as well as the props used in films like these. Gut Feeling is accompanied by a corresponding sound work (with sound design by Gediminas Žygus). In the contrast between the hard and the soft, the fleshy and the industrial, the artist sees a connection to contemporary society.
Text: Esther Darley
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)