Mantas I - V (2017)
Set-up 2018 at Daegu Photo Biennale, KOR
(installation views: Hyun Chul Na)
Mantas I - IV (2017). C-Prints, 70 x 100 cm, mounted on Alu Dibond.
The images show handcrafted peruvian mantas which used to follow a tradition of specific colouring and rapport of patterns, before they were replaced more and more by industrial products for tourist market. Considering the close relationship in the genesis of the terms ‘text, texture and textile‘ stemming from Latin (textus, textura and textile) which all refer to a certain structure, web, assemblage or framework, the handwoven textiles can also be considered as transcriptions of culture. Thus, they represent the individual handwriting of the author as well as the collective identity of her or his cultural context - but what can they tell us while we’re contemplating them from the insurmountable distance of time and cultural gap?
This Mantas are ‚freezed‘ in a rigorous frontal way by means of the photographic image refering to scientific and museal reproduction. This ‘objective‘ staging is undermined by interventions of the material echoing manual production and original use and hence argue the limitations of scientific representation.
Mantas I (2107)
Mantas II (2107)
Mantas III (2107)
Mantas IV (2107)