Bicho - Creatures

Artist: Cynthia Capriata

Exhibition Title: Bicho - Creatures

Exhibition Date: 13-5-2009

Ghaf Art Gallery is pleased to present Bicho- Creatures, Cynthia Capriata’s latest work based on a unique interpretation of the body and its surrounding influences. The title of the exhibition takes its name from crochet soft sculptures the artist has been making intermittently for the past 20 years. Bicho refers in Spanish to an unidentified creature and in the context of the work to a subversive presence, a negative influence, a limitation or a weakness.In her work, Cynthia Capriata is concerned with the visual reshaping of inner and outer worlds by exploring the relation of the self and the environment. This exhibition combines both perspectives. Organic fragments from within or ethereal circles in motion as outer forces build a dialogue between internal/external, private/public, individual/ collective, visible/invisible spaces through the framework of the body, thus developing a distinct visual language that addresses female, cultural and sexual identities.The inner creative reality of this series deals with textures and constructed surfaces made by knitting or crochet. It is a reflective view from the inside out that tackles the changing relationship we can have with the same body; or the changing body that influences our sense of self in relation to the outer world. One can think of these works as abstract self-portraits that conceal multiple sensations such as anger, pain, pleasure, vulnerability, strength, and survival. The layers of complexity expressed through the materiality of the medium represent an evolving physical self, not just shifting psychological or emotional position.By contrast, the process of transformation of the outer perspective focuses on keeping a transparency of form and color. Repeated circles create patterns in motion that allow opportunity for the in-betweenness of space and experience. The aesthetic proposal for the exhibition is based on the magnetic attraction or contradiction between these two perspectives. Bicho Creatures in its Abu Dhabi version binds together a growing and boundless concept of self seen as the continual becoming of something new and outer forces outside the range of the tangible.