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Viravolta, 2008-2010




                  The Viravolta work features a pair of wild bull horns* with white and black hare skins, on an extremely polished elliptical metal surface, covered with a type of varnish used in the naval industry. The arrangement is topped by a crystal acrylic dome. The horns and skins have their image reflected in the polished surface.

                 Just like in Presa, in Viravolta there is the purity of the raw material. The horns and skins are stored under the dome, like in a display case. In light of this work, the following question occurs to me: what would this kind of reconversion of organic objects, which suggest lost vitality, into a kind of still life? This issue, which came to the fore in Exposição, reappears in works such as Viravolta.

                The surface of the structure should resemble that of a hot, curved, elliptical mirror, and should paradoxically give an impression of immateriality. I considered that the use of golden and strident brass, in this case, would end up “stealing the show”, establishing a hierarchical relationship between the parts of the work. Seeking out a hotter material, I reached the tone of copper, a soft, indolent matter, which should be subjected to a series of acid baths and polishes so that it could reach the “hot mirror” I referred to. The material, after being polished, should also be subjected to another bath of the varnish used in the nautical industry to prevent it from oxidizing. This way I arrive at the “color” required by the work and the polished surface that reflects not only the spectators’ bodies, but the architecture and other works present in the exhibition room. Viravolta is a kind of “unproductive luxury” (to borrow a Bataillian idea).

Thiago Honório, 2010.



* Found at the San Telmo antiques and bric-a-brac fair, in Buenos Aires.