THE OTHER STRANGER Drawing

THE OTHER STRANGER Object (Graphite on 200 gr. Hahnemühle paper, acrylic gilded with 24k Italian gold leaf, protective glass, white wooden frame) I'm really attached to this piece, not only because of how my family came to safekeep two skulls whose identities are unknown and unrelated to us in any shape or form, but because of its conceptual weight and importance that could sum up all my solo show: THE ARTISTA PROJECT. Think of this artwork as when a quote pops up at the beginning of a movie and it sets the mood. Well, "THE OTHER STRANGER" does just that since it is the quintessential Memento Mori piece of the exhibit. The relevance of this piece doesn’t only reside in the fact that the skull is THE universal symbol for death and a reminder of our own mortality, but also in the apparent contradiction of it as a portrait, since it is closely tied to the tradition of “immortalizing” the sitter, as a means to preserve specific characteristics (physical or otherwise) and the “when” and under what circumstances it was executed. In this particular case, it is basically a post-mortem portrait of whom was once alive (most likely in prehispanic times), yet not of the physiognomy, but of the remains. For me, it ends up embodying the epitaph: “Fui quod es, eris quod sum” (I once was what you are, you will be what I am)...and that is how the show opens!