Aliento, 2022

Sofía Salazar Rosales, Aliento, 2022; Oxidized iron, mouldable plastic, glue, wire; 70 × 14 × 16 cm

Aliento (2022) comes from a found image of a plastic banner once sold in the costume and decorations store Deko Behrendt, the previous tenant of the gallery space. Printed with the word “Aloha,” the sign exemplifies cultural objects and items such as Hawaiian leis, exoticized and sold in the framework of late capitalism. The work, a flower garland made of scrap metal, becomes an industrialized representation of the traditional garland and appears to be slowly rusting, as if it were decomposing under the weight of burdened production. Translated from the Spanish word for “breath,” “Aliento” is the labored exhale that lingers on the walls.