Immersion, 2020

Rodrigo Hernández, Immersion, 2020, Cardboard, Papier-maché, oil and acrylic colors, 35.5 × 35.5 × 14.5 cm

These works by Rodrigo Hernández are cardboard and papier-mâché sculptures that often hold irregular, visually undeterminable structures, each face of the work taking off in its own direction. Beginning with the exhibition J’aime Eva at ChertLüdde, the works investigate collage as a technique and a device from the historical avant-garde to represent and transform our relationship to reality. Integrating with the surrounding space, the sculptures meld into a painted backdrop as though figures in a landscape. Since the exhibition at ChertLüdde, Hernàndez’s papier-mâché sculptures have developed following one of collage’s most fundamental principles: the transfer of material from one context to another and its arrangement in order to produce a new corporeality, whose coherence follows no other rules than those of a fabricated logic. By creating hypnotizing installations that are almost optical illusions which warp perspective and dimension, Hernández creates for his works a new world.

Working mostly with classical medias and techniques of art making, including drawing, sculpture and painting, Hernández is interested in the constitutive movement of art and image making, using a wide range of visual references, which range from classical Japanese printmaking, fashion, European modernism, Mesoamerican iconography and contemporary art, among others, to develop a very personal formal vocabulary. His projects vary from object-making within a devoted studio practice to site-specific and research oriented projects.