CLAUDIA COMTE
FROM WHERE WE RISE
FUNDACIÓN CASA WABI, PUERTO ESCONDIDO, OAXACA, MEXICO
4 FEBRUARY – DECEMBER 2023
Fundación Casa Wabi presents FROM WHERE WE RISE, the first solo exhibition of Claudia Comte in Latin America, produced expressly for the space in Puerto Escondido.
From an ecological approach, Comte's work seeks the reduction and simplification of the basic forms found in nature. Inspired by local landscapes and artisanal processes, the exhibition combines the materials of the coast of Oaxaca with the meticulous forms and methods of Comte's study in Switzerland. A large mural intervention, produced with red soil from San Pedro Mixtepec, creates a land art ecosystem, where a set of biomorphic sculptures assimilates various types of corals, cacti, and leaves, all made at Alvaro Siza's Clay Pavillion at the foundation and with the raw material from Agua Zarca.
Making use of digital models and design, SPIRAL SNAKE is a three-wall intervention inspired by artists such as Sol Lewitt and Bridget Riley, among others. It should be noted that this has been built with red soil as ink, representing the first time the artist has employed this technique. The designs that make up the work are the product of a constant aesthetic and scientific investigation of the patterns found in nature as approximations to the development of synthetic graphic languages.
Comte's aesthetic research seeks to understand the behavior of materials in the face of the forces of nature. The selection of forms from nature in LITTLE LEAVES and LITTLE CORALS responds symbolically to the surroundings and to the different global ecosystems that are in environmental danger: corals, one of the richest resources in oxygen, are at the same time one of the most sensitive species to global warming in the oceans; cacti - species protected by state laws in Oaxaca - allude in turn to the resilience of plant species in extreme climates; finally, the leaves are perhaps a more personal reference for the artist, whose studio is located in the Swiss mountains and whose primordial work is characterized by using local woods for sculptural production.
With a visual vocabulary that shifts from figuration to abstraction, "From Where We Rise" makes use of multiple historical and popular references that seek to incite the preservation of the environment, while demonstrating the resilience of organic beings in the anthropocentric era.