WHAT'S UP?

WHAT'S UP?

Copying, mimesis, repetition are the essence of our culture. Although the West seeks the utopia of the “unique and original” piece, China clings to changeability and the process of drift, doing so through shanzai: adapting the copied until it becomes something else. Barreiro deconstructs this ontological framework, inverting it: the copy, the mass-produced piece, which can be repeated infinitely, becomes a work of art. He takes traffic signs — arrows, triangles, mandatory rings, warning diagonals — and grafts them onto plaques and volumes worked in white paste. Cobalt oxide — the historic colour of Portugal, of its tiles and Vista Alegre porcelain — appears in gradients that emerge from the relief: spikes, striations and meshes that capture the pigment.

Excerpt. María Marco.