Fire Ladders - Escaleras de incendios
Curated by Janet Levy
February 4 - March 3, 2020
Adeline de Monseignat, Janet Levy, Paula Cortazar, Perla Krauze
Museo de Geologia, UNAM
Calle Jaime Torres Bodet
176 Santa María La Ribera
Mexico City, Mexico
Fire Ladders a group exhibition featuring four female artists working in Mexico, Adeline de Monseignat, Janet Levy, Paula Cortazar, Perla Krauze curated by Janet Levy and presented at the Museo de Geologia, UNAM. The artists all utilize stone as their choice of medium to express themselves, they share a deep connection to their materials and an acute feeling for the physical. Although the themes vary in the content of their work there is an intertwining of a relationship to nature, sensuality, energy and dualities.
The title of the exhibition Fire Ladders is inspired by the book Ladders of Fire by Anaïs Nin and a reference to female emotions and an interweaving of their stories. The ladder is rich in symbolism and metaphor including duality. Women we are soft and hard , We carry our emotions inside of ourselves, We endure and we create with our female energy. Stones are hard and soft, alive and they are malleable.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” -Anaïs Nin
Adeline de Monseignat (Monaco,1987) is a sculptor who lives and works between London and Mexico City. Her work translates an interest in psychology, mythology, urban legends, anthropology and other literary sources which refer to birth, fertility, anthropomorphism and the uncanny. Through the process of sculpting, the artist aims to provide physicality and functionality to such intangible concepts. Adeline works primarily with organic, mineral, sensual, strong yet vulnerable materials such as fur, glass, textiles, steel and marble that aim to echo the human body’s qualities, vulnerabilities and potentialities. http://www.adelinedemonseignat.com
Janet Levy (Hermosa Beach, California,1959) is a sculptor who lives and works between Los Angeles and Mexico City, her work focuses on the physical and conceptual exploration of stone: using primarily alabaster, onyx and marble, she creates abstract sculptural forms and installations; expressing an inherent desire to reveal what is concealed; She carves, binds, and hangs stone often combining with other materials such as rope, chain and metal. Drawing from inner tensions of opposing forces and emotional exchanges, She explores an enduring focus within her practice: to make the invisible visible. Referencing a physical force in nature to convey the emotions of underlying pressures, sexuality, tensions and desires. Levy is strongly influenced by music, dance and film and has recently in addition to sculpting included songwriting into her creative practices. https://www.janetlevy.co
Paula Cortazar (Monterrey, Mexico, 1991) Lives and works in Monterrey. Her work is mainly based on the search of drawings in nature. Through observation, She finds a graphic language that is constantly repeated; whether in a stone, on the wrinkled surface of a piece of paper, or hidden on some other kind of surface. Drawing is the tool that allows her to show and interpret the hidden graphic code in elements such as a tree or a river. This repetition of lines, for Cortazar, is the proof that every element that surrounds us forms part of a whole. In this way, drawing works as a personal translation of a much more complex language. The relationship between such opposite elements like paper or stone is revealed through drawing, suggesting the notion that materially we all belong to one same origin and we all carry the same energy. https://paulacortazar.com
Perla Krauze (Mexico City, 1953) is a Mexican sculptor, painter and plastic artist working with various materials and media. Her work deals with time, memory, nature and dualities. Issues as materiality in an object expressing the ephemeral and the permanent, the archaeological, collections and cabinets, constellations and relationships between objects and space and lately habitable sculptures and installations, working with discarded materials, fragments of stones, or lead and water. Interested in the contemplative, the silent, the overlooked and how to make it somehow visible. She works with various materials, stones, lead, resin, water, clay, aluminum. Stone became for her a fundamental strong material, with memory and endurability, still can be transformed and erode. https://www.perlakrauze.mx
