Patricia Villalobos Echeverria, Push <> Pull

We invite you to the exhibition opening, which will take place on October 18 at 2:30 PM in the space 'Przed Aulą" space. 

The video and prints in this exhibition are based on photographs the artist took during the popular uprising in Nicaragua in the spring of 2018. They explore the push and pull between embodiment and disassociation in the wake of political unrest and violence. Oscillating between reality and abstraction, these works delve into our contemporary sense of alienation, incessant media exposure, precariousness, and constant surveillance.

Installation:

The installation of the prints PUSHPULL>01-PUSHPULL>07 are printed on washi paper. The translucent nature of the substrate and materiality of the paper, speak to the malleability of the content and the fragility of memory. Some of the prints have a pictorial space that is segmented into two distinct color areas; this points to a further temporal or positional shift. While alluding to the scroll, the wooden supports reference banners and protest signs while underlining their malleable nature.

Video:

The video PUSH < > PULL incorporates the selection of 365 photographs from the ones I took during the 2018 protests in Nicaragua. Instead of using video footage, the photographs were edited in chronological order and digitally animated. The result is a video where each photograph distorts and stretches as it transforms into the next. This is a generative process where the effect is akin to the malleability of memory and alludes to the subjectivity of recollection and sense of fragmentation, the extensive digital manipulation creates unintended results—visual errors, moire patterns, and digital artifacts that are all part of the concept of this work.

Patricia Villalobos Echeverría has a hybrid practice of prints, photos, video, installations and participatory projects that pivot around issues of migration, navigation, displacement and transformation. 

She was born in Memphis, Tennessee to Salvadoran parents and grew up in Managua, Nicaragua. She received a Ph.D. from the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław, an MFA from West Virginia University and a BFA from Louisiana State University.

Her projects have been exhibited in North, Central and South America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia. She is the recipient of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Artist Grant, the Oregon Arts Council Fellowship, PA Council for the Arts Fellowship, Creative Heights Residency Fellowship from the Heinz Endowment and has been an artist in residence at Ox-Bow, Artist Image Resource, The Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and the MacDowell Arts Colony.

https://patriciavillalobos.com/