María Luisa Fernández, the demise of life as sculpture and the geometry of excess

Frenetic human activity that is reflected in overexploitation of resources and overpopulation of the planetare recurring obsessions in Fernández’s recent work, which expresses various issues through discussion and sculpture.

Maisterravalbuena revisits one of his most important series: Ideal artistswhich began in the 1990s when he could he converted statistical graphics—pie charts of participation, productivity, or relevance—into sculptures Geometry of Madeira painted with industrial colors.

Fernández was part of a group of artists who worked in Bilbao during the 1980s known as La Nueva Escultura Vasca. Between 1979 and 1985 he was a member of the CVA (Comité de Vigilancia Artística) collective, joined by Juan Luis Moraza. Tras su disolución, he continued his solitary musical work and created various excellent series as Stains (1984-85) or Legends (1985-86), which rejects sculpture between constructivist and minimalist, with an important formal reflection of primitivist influence.

Three years ago I used the grammar format to highlight relevant political topics. Fernández counts and categorizes the world according to artistic practice. caption, 8,337,283,136. Nervous naturerefers to the number of human beings living on the planet at the time of inauguration. Since the last exhibition a year and a half ago, increased dramatically to 268,475,921 people.

Fernández illustrates something else that makes us feel like an abyss. A sophisticated world that inhabits an international political situation of violent appropriation of energy resources such as oil and rare earths, with an impact on animal life. This idea of ​​impermanence is represented by ephemeral materials such as foam rubber, which turns yellow and yet must decompose and disappear.and for invoking endangered species such as his famous “lions”.

Recent series brought together in this exhibition –Nervous nature, Golden crown, Tragedy drawing or two The poetics of extinction (Leona 1 and Leona 2) – with antiguas como works Avarice (1989-2015) or Incontinence, reserve (1989). Fernández advises us about the collapse we have, the fruit of excess.

Here during installation Draft tragedy formally corresponds to The Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Ratiowhich is associated with models of demographic expansion. Here, mathematical harmony, apollinia, reveals itself as a force beyond control: order turns into overflow. Moving from the ecological to the ontological, Fernandez explores the geometries of perfection in beautiful and harmonious pastel colors.