The installation begins. A titanic work of art deserves a banner of equal size: 7 meters wide by 3 meters high. For some Miraflores neighbors, beauty of these dimensions must be reported to the police.
EXHIBIT
With this proposal, Mona Herbe seemingly invites us to a multisensory experience amidst images suggesting initiation fantasies in an installation that refers us to primary, symbolic -almost tribal- rituals of fertility and maturity.
The feminine condition emerges as nucleus of representation: identities in process, bodies attempting to strip themselves of their past, insinuating (or imposing on us) a world open to sensuality and sexuality.
This is a group process that becomes fused and confused in a personal search, trying to leave bindings and repressions behind, purifying its surrender through the power of water and the multiple meanings it conveys: to contain, to drip, to confine, to set free, to push out during labor, to drown in tears.
Mona reveals an identity in the beginning of a reconstruction process, still in a partial and incomplete manner; a fragmented body constructed by means of the repetition of an element that spins docilely, suspended between two forces: the possibility of change and the return to the past.
In short, this is an excellent portrayal of a universal rite of compelling validity for modern times.
Roberto Huarcaya
WHITE ROOM
The sculpture has a density of 1, ie, is suspended between two stools. Nor sinks nor floats. The tank that contains water is 2 tons.
The drop falling through the IV is read by a pair of laser sensors that make it a fact . This happens to a computer through a specific software converts it into sound. So , what you hear is the sound viewer drop in real time and in surround
DARK ROOM
The floor of the room (20ft 43⁄32in x 25ft 73⁄32in) was covered with a geomembrane. Thanks to this material is able to build a body of water 15 cm deep.
On the ceiling of this room an irrigation system was installed microaspersión with two nozzles placed at the entrance and at the end of the L forming the gateway. Every 15 sec . A light rain fell on the spectators thus enhancing the sensations produced by the surround sound of the room.
THE EXHIBIT IN NUMBERS
MATERIALS:
3000 liters of water | 800 kilos of tempered glass | 250 meters of audio cable | 250 kilos of geomembrane (80 m2) | 2000 photographic drops | 28 linear meters of photographic paper
TIME:
1 tube of silicone per minute | 32 hours of phone calls | 6 days of assembly | 2 hours of sleep per day in average | 1 drop of water every 3 seconds | 6 hours of running water to fill the tanks | 8 hours of sculpture modeling
DIMENSIONS:
1 glass tank of 243 cm x 150 cm x 30 cm | 1 glass tank of 180 cm x 90 cm x 90 cm | 2 glass tanks of 190 cm x 90 cm x 25 cm | 6 glass tanks of 52 cm x 30 cm x 10 cm
TALENT
1 electronic engineer | 1 civil engineer | 1 executive producer | 1 technical producer | 1 photojournalist 1 editorial designer | 1 documentary specialist | 1 web designer | 1 software programmer | 1 metal carpenter | 1 security agent | 1 driver | 1 copywriter | 2 sound engineers | 2 architects | 2 sculptors
3 models | 10 people to carry one of the glass tanks many friendly hands
EQUIPMENT
5 projectors | 8 DVD players | 1 49" plasma screen | 1 micro-aspersion irrigation system | 1 hydropneumatic pump | 11 speakers | 2 laptops | 1 laser sensor system for the droplets | 1 traffic light timer | 1 intravenous drip
emergencies
1 council charge pressed [for pornography / against the gallery / against the gallery for pornography?]
1 injured person in ladder breakage | 2 broken projectors | 2 firemen | 1 broken glass tank during opening night
PROCESS
The sculpture was a challenge of physical and emotional endurance . Eight hours of full nudity in front of two friends colleagues, who recorded the millimeter every bit of skin. Unable to move, impossible to wear, impossible to breathe.
CATALOGUE
WORK IN PROGRESS
Immersed in the work. Some of the tanks will hold more than a ton of water, so it’s better to test them in the flesh.
Supervising the first steps: structures, glass tanks and electric systems. The fun has just begun.
From the heights, framing one of the four projectors.
The hours pass, the stress level increases, the ladder breaks, the firemen arrive. An injured man is on the floor, and so is our mood.
A noisy but triumphant exit. Luckily, it was only a big fright (here, everything’s big). A forced recess for a trip to the hospital and back, while more friends and helping hands come and go. Our moods –and our legs- are once again up high. The show must go on.
Just when we thought nothing else could possibly happen, it did. Is the picture too big or the tank too small?
Last call for the sanity train. And now what?
Shoulders to the wheel! Six men are needed to carry one of the glass tanks; four men to place the first series of photographs. Art is a heavy task not only for the soul, but also for the back.
Trapped in a transparent –but very clean- jail. How do I climb out without making a mess?
One less weight on our shoulders: the droplets arrive, but now we have to stick them on. Doesn’t this ever end?
Meanwhile, the naked body shines in full.
A mass mobilization of helping hands managed to pour 85 seven-liter water bottles. The countdown begins.
The missing detail: submerging the sculpture in a 1.80 meter tall glass tank full of almost 1000 liters of water. The doll carries 200 grams of lead in her feet, 2000 photographic scales on the surface and the weight of countless hours waiting to touch the water. Will she know how to swim?
While the guests wait outside, in her glass tank the doll is pushed one last time until finally suspended in her personal aquatic universe.
While the guests wait outside, in her glass tank the doll is pushed one last time until finally suspended in her personal aquatic universe.
While the guests wait outside, in her glass tank the doll is pushed one last time until finally suspended in her personal aquatic universe.
