MACHAS

“El espacio que ocupan las cosas”

Every artist here at Machas has a very strong fine art background and Tooco’s latest solo show is a perfect example of how an artist can excel at working with a brief and communicate to a broader audience and can create abstract art showed in established galleries.

“El espacio que ocupan las cosas”, which translates to “the space that things occupy”, is a series of painted wood sculptures that was inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and now on display at the Beatrix Roads Gallery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“Many of Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings have the triptych format, some of those representing three different stages: that’s exactly what has inspired me” says Tooco from his studio, “of course it is my very personal interpretation of this concept.”

“Instead of canvas I used each wall of the gallery as an element of my triptych. In the first wall I represented the origin, the genesis of life before man appeared on Earth. This is the reason why I used white as the main color, as a symbol of purity, with protruding shapes underlined by subtle coloured borders that can only be seen from the sides. Most of the shapes are curved to recall an organic manifestation of life, emulating water, the fundamental component that has generated life.

“Right in the middle of the first wall the viewer will see a piece called ‘THE FIRST SECONDS’, which is kind of egg/uterus composition that gives life to the universe. This is a direct reference to the central element painted in the first panel of ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’.

“The second wall represents the appearance of man on Earth, with elements that resemble mechanic structures, engines. Electricity, mechanics, inventions: the human world.

“One piece in particular represents the human Beauty as the most perfect aspect of human beings. But at the same time, the title give us an idea of what is coming: “WAITING FOR THE CHAOS” — it like a pause before the end of life. 

“And finally, on the third wall, destruction appears, the chaos, the end of life — this wall is specular to the first one. There are two complete black relief artworks: with their sharp, geometrical lines they sit opposite to the first white curved pieces, representing death, the end of matter.  In the middle of both, an engraved wooden piece called ‘THE SINKING’, a reference to Caspar David Friedrich’s painting ‘Die Eismeer / The Wreck of Hope’.”

Discover more of Tooco’s work here.