Desierto Sur
The Human race has figured out how to bend most environments to their wills, but not the desert, the desert does not care about it. The desert is self-contained and self-sustained. If you are out in the desert for a long period of time, there is this purity of soul that you will experience, It feels like beings stripped down to the barest and pure version of yourself.
One of my earliest memories is travelling with my family from Lima, Peru down south on the South Pan-American road (on many occasions all the way to Santiago de Chile +or- 4000km). I recall most of the journey, an empty vast desert splashed from time to time with green valleys and the Pacific Ocean not far from my window.
One of my earliest memories is travelling with my family from Lima, Peru down south on the South Pan-American road (on many occasions all the way to Santiago de Chile +or- 4000km). I recall most of the journey, an empty vast desert splashed from time to time with green valleys and the Pacific Ocean not far from my window.
Through this project, I intend to explore the changes that have been altering our collective memory concerning the environment, I intend to open spaces and to portrait the absence and the evidence, I am interested in sharing a self-reflection in a profound way, I feel the desert in comparison with other environments it is powerful in nature and personality and reminds us how fragile we are as human beings. For this project, I have been photographing for 5 years the Southern desert, driving endless hours on the Pan-American road.
Stability & Constructivity
3m W - 1.80m H
Perspex
Steel
Glass
Paper
Wood
Perspex
Steel
Glass
Paper
Wood
Stability refers to a balanced and harmonious expression delivered by the relationship between elements contained within a defined space.
Constructivity refers to build by re-organizing already defined elements, redesigning their functionality and space which they belong to.
Constructivity refers to build by re-organizing already defined elements, redesigning their functionality and space which they belong to.
Materiality:
Explores the materials involved in the photograph, to further experiment with their properties and behaviours searching ways to free these elements from their symbolism and connotations, to also disassociate them from their meaning in traditional narrative or language. Therefore, I propose to work with the pure material substance, its colour and form, and the psychology behind our relationship to material and form. I aim to suggest that elements can’t stand on their own as the process of making the work will bring those different elements together -instead of being independent physical objects they form part of something else-.
Explores the materials involved in the photograph, to further experiment with their properties and behaviours searching ways to free these elements from their symbolism and connotations, to also disassociate them from their meaning in traditional narrative or language. Therefore, I propose to work with the pure material substance, its colour and form, and the psychology behind our relationship to material and form. I aim to suggest that elements can’t stand on their own as the process of making the work will bring those different elements together -instead of being independent physical objects they form part of something else-.
Fragmentation:
Plays with the limits of how to present the work and suggested the viewer different possibilities/perspectives on how to experience it. Therefore, I propose to fragment the photograph in order to allow the viewer to decide how he/she wants to experience the work and redefine the suggested space while the work is experienced. For that reason, the work isn’t finished, it changes its configuration with each step that the viewer takes -a new space is built each time the work is experienced-.
Plays with the limits of how to present the work and suggested the viewer different possibilities/perspectives on how to experience it. Therefore, I propose to fragment the photograph in order to allow the viewer to decide how he/she wants to experience the work and redefine the suggested space while the work is experienced. For that reason, the work isn’t finished, it changes its configuration with each step that the viewer takes -a new space is built each time the work is experienced-.
Framing:
Opens the frame and separates all the elements that compromise a framed photograph to then rearrange them in order to deliver an experience that challenges the standards of how we experience a photograph. Therefore, I propose to work with photography conventions in order to be able to play with the limits of how to present a photograph. Also dismantling the photograph instead of the photograph being contained by a frame the frame opens and becomes an element of the work, where the photograph could rest. I aim that the viewer looks beyond the frame and experiences the work not on a two-dimensional surface, but encourages the viewer to move around the work, suggesting many ways to experience it due to its capacity to transform by what surrounds it. I intent to question the possibilities of the photograph to become something else without losing its integrity -its independence is what I find attractive-
Opens the frame and separates all the elements that compromise a framed photograph to then rearrange them in order to deliver an experience that challenges the standards of how we experience a photograph. Therefore, I propose to work with photography conventions in order to be able to play with the limits of how to present a photograph. Also dismantling the photograph instead of the photograph being contained by a frame the frame opens and becomes an element of the work, where the photograph could rest. I aim that the viewer looks beyond the frame and experiences the work not on a two-dimensional surface, but encourages the viewer to move around the work, suggesting many ways to experience it due to its capacity to transform by what surrounds it. I intent to question the possibilities of the photograph to become something else without losing its integrity -its independence is what I find attractive-
South End
The Tittle South End comes from the name South End On The Sea, a seaside town located on the south coast of England, I visited the area not far after I arrived in the UK to start a new period in my life, until that moment I didn’t recognise that I was starting a life in an island, as my feeling was that the UK was an extension of the European continent and not a separate land. Additionally, I am originally from Peru, in South America, where we always use the term “moving/going down” when we mention moving South, a metaphorical concept uses to mention the End, consequently the name South End On The Sea aroused the idea of a physical and geographical End of the new land where I had just move, and besides, those historical ideas when those towns were named after. The series South End explores the profile of an island based on the unique way British people relate with their seaside.
Vastness
There is a Threshold that defines Inside and Outside, a place where human beings have established a significant frontier for now and after. Without being real, the threshold is considered an intimate space where the starting point is the current space, and the next one is after the unknown exterior. This threshold settles while contemplating a vast space, and that contemplation determines a pure state that takes us to a parallel world; vast spaces could position us inside a dream; therefore, being present in a great expanse is a constant personal moment repressed by everyday life.
Sur Chico
For decades waves of migration from Peru's countryside -Andes and Amazon- moved into Lima, searching for economic opportunities and education, turning Lima into the 2nd largest city in America. People settle on very different terrains, hillsides, river banks and vast sandy expanses, developing the so-called Young Towns -Pueblos Jovenes-. By slow accreditation or invasions at different periods, some Young Towns are still in the formation process; others have been developing for 40 years. The most populated boroughs in Lima started as Young Towns.
People first built precarious homes with simple materials to create entire neighbourhoods where there was previously an empty desert.
The migration proliferated during the 1980s as people flew off from internal conflicts developed by terrorist groups in Peru's countryside. Internal migration continues, and people organize in groups to take possession of empty lands building their homes in them.
People first built precarious homes with simple materials to create entire neighbourhoods where there was previously an empty desert.
The migration proliferated during the 1980s as people flew off from internal conflicts developed by terrorist groups in Peru's countryside. Internal migration continues, and people organize in groups to take possession of empty lands building their homes in them.
One of my earliest memories is travelling with my family from Lima down to 121 kilometres on the South Pan-American road. Almost every kilometre of the journey, I recall a vast empty desert splashed from time to time with green valleys and the Pacific Ocean not far from my window. The area is called Sur Chico -no accurate translation, but it means Small South- by local people. This project is on the exponential change of what used to be an empty desert. I explore changes altering our collective memory concerning the environment: the open desert, the green valleys, and our traditions and habits, reflecting on the urban condition generated by accelerated economic growth, focusing on Peru.
There has been exponential economic growth in Peru during the last decades, resulting in Rural-to-Urban migration, building homes and entire neighbourhoods where previously there was only desert.
There has been exponential economic growth in Peru during the last decades, resulting in Rural-to-Urban migration, building homes and entire neighbourhoods where previously there was only desert.