(Text that was part of the curatorial research for the solo exhibition of Sonnia Yepez in La Tertulia museum, 2018)

Can an object contain, imply, assume, and be an action at the same time?

Probably not. From an objective point of view or under the grammatical logic, ontology, or perhaps physics one thing is one thing. And the importance of its contours, conceptual limits and the determination of their characteristics define it.

Think of the action of blowing.

The birthday candles are blown as well as the dandelions whose seeds await to be scattered by the wind (action merely carried out for the beauty perceived). The steam from hot meals is blown and so is the accumulated dust of an old table, of a forgotten video game cassette. In the same manner, soap is blown to create bubbles; an eye is blown to take out dirt; balloons are blown and so is burning glass ready to be molded.

Every blow shapes, to different extent, its surroundings.

This is how the wind, that moves the three leaves, seems to be blown from the clouds. The compass rose, or wind map in the earth globe, was represented by cherubs or old greybeard men blowing from all hemispheres (though this is not related to text, they were Tramontana, Grecale, Levante, Scirocco, Ostro, Libeccio, Ponente, Mistral) attempting to define the winds’ direction for navigation. That is to say, shaping the movement.

In this way, Bombas (2014-2018) is an object that has been molded twice by the wind. The first time, it took place in the artisan’s workshop who molded the glass by blowing it and simulating a balloon. Then, the need of blowing is generated in the viewer’s mind, because we see a glass, we are faced with the need to blow perhaps to prove something, perhaps because the object and its materiality collide with our experience.

The sculpture can be thought as an object that is an action at the same time, yet a poetic concession would have to be made when thinking about the object. So that, the scattered seeds shape the landscape and the unlit candles shape the light. The food’s temperature is shaped by cooling it as well as the table’s surface when removing the dust. In the same vein, the sight is shaped when dirt is removed from the eye.

The sculpture Bombas is the record of a blow that molds a glass (red-hot and burning while its possible) into a shape that we all recognize. A blow that makes the glass look like a balloon and at the same time makes us aware of that blow that is no longer there since the balloon seems to be deflated. In fact, that blow was, long gone from the craftsman’s mouth and, even further back in time, from the mouth of God with the blow that, according to the Bible, gave life to Adam.

Eternal and blow are the same.


Breyner Huertas
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