MATRIX LANDSCAPES

While working as an assistant in a biology laboratory I began a new project in the realm of Bio-Art. As I inspected and analyzed fluid samples under a microscope, I became fascinated by the aesthetic capacities of the “invisible.”

For the first exercise of this series I chose three different water-based samples—ocean water, pond water, and my saliva—around which I structured the video Matrix Landscape, which materializes the relationships of the specimens found in the samples and how they relate to one another as a whole, showing how the samples’ microorganisms relate to others within their own environment, reflecting subtle politics of social interaction and intimacy.

Most recently I spent time working and researching in a Bio Art Residency as part of the School of Visual Arts Summer Residency Program in New York. During the residency I experimented in a laboratory using different scientific machinery and all kinds of chemicals, working in collaboration with scientists.

As the first exercises of this second stage of the project, I worked with DNA, painting with fluorescent bacteria, introducing the concept of “danger” in relation to the theory of the “S-Matrix”.

The S-Matrix talks about the shifting relationships particles have with one another, and how these relationships can be organized in a matrix. To draw the S-Matrix is impossible due to the infinite possibilities of particles coupling. It seems that the most scientists can do is develop partial mini-models of the S-Matrix, leading them to a “democratic” model of particle physics, where all particles are fundamental and non-fundamental at the same time. In the words of physicist Fritjof Capra, “Every particle of the world is not itself, but involves all the other particles and is, in fact, all the others.” In conclusion, what we call “particle” is an intermediate state in a network of reactions. This means that a particle is much better visualized as an event instead of as an object. It is this framework of understanding where the investigation begins.

For the resulting pieces I created extremely fragile events where chemicals were mixed to create a landscape. While under control the elements composing these landscapes developed outstanding and beautiful compositions in continuous evolution. Each of these unstoppable events have an end which is to let them transform themselves into their own decomposition, or to create a violent reaction by altering the controlled environment.

While observing these living sculptures I seek to question the idea of the invisible, bringing to the forefront the limits of perception in order to talk about what we cannot see—what we can perhaps intuit or imagine, but which will always be beyond empirical understanding. By materializing these dangerous relationships among “invisible” particles I also want to talk about human relationships and social interactions.

PHOTOS

Landscapes of Chemical Reactions
Series of Digital Photos
2015

M I C R O S C O P E   I

Microscopic Photography
2015
Series of 4 Digital Photos
90cm x 75cm

                       M I C R O S C O P E   I I

DRAWINGS

Mixed Media
2018
10.5 x 8.5 inch each

INSTALLATION

 Video projection with 4 channel sound, video installation in petri dishes, and photoetchings

PERFORMANCE

  PERFORMANCE IN BIO ART LAB, SVA GALLERY, NY
  2015

VIDEO

Excerpt from Matrix Landscapes video installation
2015
08’06”
Edition 1/8

[For full video please request password via email]

EXHIBITION

  CHACO ART FAIR, SANTIAGO, CHILE
  2018