Christian Camacho: The Caterpillar Set [El conjunto oruga]
October 29 - December 17, 2021
Opening reception: October 29, 2021, 5:00 - 7:00 PM
The Caterpillar Set gathers together a group of recent works whose signs occur within a shared imagination for sculpture, painting and light, as well as personal spaces and scales. Composed of materials of easy access and recurrent use in the representation of models and small-scale structures, each piece could function as a kind of brief station for sensations and scrutinies of different velocities, and for different types of expectations about the combination and recombination of a personal repertoire of treatments.
Elemental aspects within the realm of forms are what ultimately mobilize the intentions behind showing a world of integrated parts: compositions, relationships, figures, and backgrounds that are also in turn the objects and gestures of a life lived among close families of fragments—ingredients. Numerous forms that are constantly waiting to be able to construct the familiar from the unknown by reassembling the splinters that these small phenomena emit when they collide with one another.
Within this network of intentions we also see different lights flowing through openings: the appearance of constellations, colors, transparency, and other links among materials and their activity. We also find a transfer between the organic and the inorganic; the traces of tiny beings guided by appetite and nutrition, in coexistence with artificial supports, traditions of painting, and electronic beams.
This place-circuit invites us to look twice at the relationships among those things we use for calibrating our imagination, our gaze, and the immediate manipulation of the materials that surround our working days and nights. It is in this pursuit of sufficient amounts of energy that each piece presents its results, sharing them with the conscious understanding—both joyful and uncertain—that such calculations may never be exhausted.
I hope you enjoy the show.
Christian Camacho, translation by Byron Davies
The Caterpillar Set [El conjunto oruga] recoge un grupo de obras recientes cuyos signos ocurren entre una imaginación compartida para la escultura, la pintura, la luz, y los espacios y las escalas personales. Compuestas de materiales de fácil acceso y de uso recurrente en la representación de modelos y estructuras de la pequeña escala, cada pieza podría funcionar como una suerte de breve estación para sensaciones y escrutinios de distintas velocidades y para distintos tipos de expectativas sobre la combinación y recombinación de un repertorio personal de tratamientos.
Aspectos elementales dentro del reino de las formas son lo que ultimadamente moviliza las intenciones de mostrar a un mundo de partes integradas: composiciones, relaciones, figuras y fondos que a su vez son también los objetos y los gestos de una vida vivida entre cercanas familias de fragmentos: ingredientes. Numerosas formas que están todo el tiempo a la espera de poder construir lo familiar desde lo desconocido mediante el reensamblaje de las astillas que estos pequeños fenómenos emiten al chocar entre sí.
Entre esta red de intenciones vemos también a distintas luces correr por aperturas: la aparición de constelaciones, el color, la transparencia y otros vínculos entre los materiales y su actividad. Encontramos también una transferencia entre lo orgánico y lo inorgánico; la huella de seres diminutos guiados por el apetito y la nutrición, en coexistencia con soportes artificiales, tradiciones de la pintura y haces electrónicos.
Este circuito de lugares invita a mirar dos veces las relaciones entre las cosas que usamos para calibrar nuestra imaginación, nuestra mirada y la manipulación inmediata de los materiales que rodean nuestros días y noches de trabajo. Es en esta persecución de las cantidades suficientes de energía que cada pieza expone sus resultados y los comparte a consciencia de entender, jubilosa e inciertamente, que tales cálculos quizás nunca puedan agotarse.
Espero disfruten la muestra.
Christian Camacho
About the artist:
Christian Camacho (Estado de Mexico, 1985). Painting MA, Royal College of Art, London, UK. Visual Arts BA from ENPEG [National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking] ‘La Esmeralda’ of the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico City, Mexico. His work has been shown in Mexico, Europe, the United States of America, and in South America in collaboration with institutions such as Museo Experimental El Eco, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil as well as at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, The Phoenix Art Museum and Museo Jumex in Mexico City. He has also been awarded grants from FONCA (National Endowment for the Arts, Mexico), and Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, where he designed and implemented education and public programs between 2014 and 2018. As part of his practice, Christian Camacho has also developed several formative initiatives –courses, seminars, workshops and readings– in collaboration with institutions and spaces such as Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex, Instituto Alumnos, the International Symposium of Contemporary Art Theory PAC-SITAC in Mexico City, ESPAC, Colectivo Neter, Obrera Centro and Biquini Wax EPS among others. He is currently Professor at the Art Department of the University of Monterrey, in Monterrey, Mexico.