Ruttkowski;68

Carolina Aguirre

Info: Carolina Aguirre (b. 1990 in Santiago, Chile) presents her second solo exhibition, Body Takes, with Ruttkowski;68 in Düsseldorf. In a new body of paintings, the tectonic land masses that previously structured Aguirre’s work disperse into open planes across which metamorphosing bodily forms traverse in unconstrained expressions of freedom. In these works, method and meaning are entwined. Richly painted surfaces that evoke the visceral qualities of earth, dried blood and smoke are imprinted by the artist’s body in instinctive yet focused movements. Traces of this ritual-like activity crystallise as more-than-human forms. Borders distort and dissolve to trouble distinctions between the human and the animal, presence and absence, the ghostly and the corporeal. Sitting powerfully in these ambiguities, the paintings convey an understanding of selfhood as diverse and in continuous flux. Marking the first time the artist has worked in bronze, two monolithic forms break apart into composite fragments – their textured grey exteriors revealing bronze bellies inside. With each part holding the contours of the unified whole, an energetic dialogue, or push-and-pull, is established. As with the paintings, this transition from the singular to the plural embraces the expansive possibilities of being.