Instructions for inhabiting the drawing

I
Cromoterapia, sculptor Nani Cárdenas’ project developed immediately before this one, arrived to a particular understanding of the spatial drawing from the point of view of fabric. Shapeable and slender telecommunication cables were deployed in the emptiness of the room as colorful networks that draw the promise of a living figure –be it human, plant or animal– and then reduce themselves to simple, pure forms: the running line, the knot. But it wasn’t just the pleasure of drawing in space that was then involved: in its clear material resignification, Cromoterapia symbolized both an expectation and a vestige of communication.
This double burden of meaning remains in Cuaderno de dibujo, only this time, the profusely recycled cable embraces even more fields of representation. It also imposes a dramatic change of perspective. If in Cromoterapia the point of departure to reach the drawing was fabric, the strategy now turns 180 degrees and shows its opposite: the drawing is the starting point to reach, sometimes, an embroidery that sits between an image of intimacy and an unique expressionist affiliation; and to arrive, some other times, to a sophisticated spatial design that frees imagination to inhabit the drawing; the body-design relation fantasy.
II
Like other artists, Cárdenas usually accompanies everyday life with notebooks intervened with collages, drawings and texts. These books work as graphic diaries, and show a will for immediacy, an unmediated emotional record. It all begins there for Cuaderno de dibujo. And the project's first stop, Hojas sueltas, is the result of what is at stake when it comes to translating the images of those books to a wire and thread embroidery on canvas. What is lost and what is gained in this operation? What new promises of meaning are summoned? In Hojas sueltas, the typical associations offered by the notion of embroidery (sensitivity, utilitarian value) are convincingly subverted, approaching an emancipatory vocation, an ethics of sensibility. The wire is stretched tight and contracted and even plays at symbolizing the free-hand drawing speed that is beyond the canvas and takes over the air, the limits of convention.
III
A group of gracefully corporeal forms inhabit the Apuntes a lápiz installation. By molding the brown and white telephone wires, each piece stands for a typical sketch of a moving human figure. Only that the scale is real, and the incomplete figure, floating or barely sustained in a frozen dance movement, summons other apparently ambiguous similarities: the inhabited silence of a forest, or a frightening butcher’s freezer, if we are extremely apprehensive. Apuntes a lápiz invites us to penetrate its own organism, measuring ourselves up to it. And in the footprints left by our steps on the quartz dust (imagined as a rainfall of chalk dust), we witness the registry of drawing in emptiness; the registry of air –the nothing, the pure will– as support for the drawing.
IV
Tinta negra’s thick strike cables –it isn’t gratuitous that the technical name of the material is "strike"– are also expressionist high-voltage conductors, only they aren’t confronted with a bidimensional format but rather fully appropriate their space. A device that plays to fixating and keeping the speed of a bold trace of heroic dimensions, Tinta negra is actually an installation that gravitates around the notions of passion and persistence: the great figures only exist from the waist down; they only exist to go forward and to desire. And the power of such a drawing –the heavy drops that fall and accumulate in huge amounts– is translated to sculpture. In other words, it frees itself.
Diego Otero, march 2009

Spinning Colours, Weaving Meaning

It is not fortuitous that the web is the image that best defines the progress of sculptor Nani Cárdenas’ visual vocabulary: the web as strategy and road map, but also as metaphor. From the initial investigations in the interstices of meaning in wood carvings to the delicate and complex spatial drawings in “Chromotherapy”, this is an oeuvre with an increasing density of symbolism that has conquered domains of experience and representation. These domains interweave, intersect and communicate, and it is in this movement that they find their relevance.

There is, however, an eloquent breaking point in this expansive growth: a medium format piece called “Arachne” (2003). Starting with the choice of material, this piece elaborates on the myth of the spinner that challenges the gods and is transformed into a spider. It represents the character as a mutant figure, with the human half growing from the waist in a graceful sweep of wood and the animal half flowing in a series of long metal extremities. These fingers, designed for spinning, are in themselves yarn, the promise of a textile.

Besides linking two clearly defined stages in the artist’s work –wood carvings and metal weavings–, “Arachne” is in itself a poetics. It reveals the meaning that Cárdenas’ work has given to the act of weaving: it is a celebration and documentation of bonds, but at the same time an act of survival. The spider weaves in order to catch her food and define the boundaries of her territory. Her web is also her saliva, the metonymic image of her discourse. Within the tightly-packed symbolism of this universe the discourse becomes nourishment; representation feeds on the act of communication.

If we reflect on the myth of Arachne, and bear in mind that the event that unleashes the tragedy is a deliberate act of misinformation –a particular interference in communication– we are able to grasp the meaning behind the recent choice of materials. In “Chromotherapy”, telecommunication wires are recycled not only for their ductility, lightness and colour, but also because they reverberate with double meaning: they represent at the same time the expectation of a virtual rendezvous and its trace. Thus, in its vital explosion, in its appearance of veil dancing and healing spells, “Chromotherapy” is, above all, a celebration of dialogue.

Within the coordinates proposed by Cárdenas’ work, weaving has ceased to be functional, generic and anchored in the cliché of the feminine to become a representation of drawing in space: pure colours, free strokes, knots and denouements. Each of the pieces in “Cromotherapy” acts rhythmically, gaining volume and then narrowing down until it becomes a surface, and offering itself as an outline of a human, animal or plant figure before returning to being a flowing line, the purity of form. Thus, “Chromotherapy” is also a sketchbook; a book whose material is the semantic recycling of the verb ‘to weave’.

Text by Diego Otero

Translated by:Alessandra Pinasco

Fiar cores, tecer sentidos

Não é de graça que seja a figura da rede a que melhor define o trajeto realizado através do tempo pelo vocabulário visual da escultora Nani Cárdenas. A figura da rede como estratégia e como rumo de deslocamentos, mas também como metáfora. Daquelas investigações iniciais nos interstícios do sentido da talha em madeira até o delicado e complexo desenho no espaço de Cromoterapia, nós estamos diante duma obra que tem ido se adensando simbolicamente e conquistando territórios de experiência e representação. Territórios que são entrelaçados, cruzados e comunicados, e que nesse movimento encontram pertinência.

Tem neste crescimento expansivo, no entanto, um ponto eloqüente de ruptura: uma peça de formato meio chamada Aracne Uma peça que refaz, da eleição mesma dos materiais, o mito da fiandeira que desafia aos deuses e é transformada numa aranha. Na peça, que representa ao personagem como uma criatura mutante, a parte humana sobe da cintura num grácil trajeto de madeira, e a parte animal funciona na forma duma série de extremidades metálicas muito compridas. As extremidades que são dedos desenhados para fiar, mas que são também, em si mesmos, fios, promessa de tecido.
Aracne, então, além de ser uma escultura que engasta dois momentos definidos na obra do artista - o trabalho com a madeira e o fiado em metal, opera como uma poética. Uma poética que revela para nós o sentido que a obra de Cárdenas tem vindo concedendo ao ato de tecer, que é celebração e documento de conexões, mas também trabalho de sobrevivência A aranha tece para capturar seu alimento e para definir os limites de seu território. E sua tela é também sua saliva. Vale dizer, a imagem metonímica de seu discurso. De jeito que, finalmente, ao interior deste apertado universo simbólico, o discurso termina sendo alimento; a representação nutre-se do fato comunicativo.

E se nós confiamos no mito que dá origem à peça, e lembramos que aquilo que desencadeia a tragédia nele é uma sorte de desinformação voluntária - uma particular interferência na comunicação-, podemos compreender exatamente a eleição dos materiais recentes. Porque na Cromoterapia não trata-se de reciclar cabos de telecomunicações só pela sua ductilidade, ligeireza e cor, mas porque reverbera em eles uma acepção dupla: são, simultaneamente, expectativa e vestígio de encontros virtuais. Conseqüentemente, na sua explosão vitalista, na sua aparência de dança dos véus e no conjuro curador, a Cromoterapia é principalmente uma celebração do diálogo.

Ao interior das coordenadas que a obra de Cárdenas propõe, o tecido tem deixado de ser funcional, genérico, escorado, ancorado no clichê da coisa feminina, para transformar-se numa representação do desenho no espaço: Cores puros, esboços livres, nós e desenlaces. Cada uma das peças de Cromoterapia age ritmicamente; ganha volume e ainda mais, contrai-se até ser superfície, e oferece-se como esboço da figura humana, animal ou do vegetal, para logo retornar a ser só uma linha correndo, forma pura. Assim, Cromoterapia é também um caderno de desenho. Um caderno cujo material é a reciclagem semântica da palavra tecer.

Diego Otero, março de 2008

FARBTHERAPIE

Farben in die Luft malen, in den Raum zeichnen, das Unsichtbare sichtbar weben, den Blick fesseln an komplizierte Netzwerke und geflochtene Schleierwesen. Kapillar für Kapillar verfolgen, sich mitreißen lassen von diesem bunten, stürmischen Blutstrom, mit dem Auge die langen schmalen Wesen bereisen, die kein Innen und kein Außen kennen. Eintauchen in die gesponnenen Chimären, die in sich verschmelzen, zu schwebenden Traumlandschaften aus Draht. – Das ist Cromoterapia [Farbtherapie]. – Die Rauminstallation der peruanischen Künstlerin Nani Cárdenas verwickelt uns in eine vibrierende Begegnung an der Schwelle zwischen Sichtbarkeit und Unsichtbarkeit. Wie elegante Tentakel medusenhafter Meeresbewohner scheinen die filigranen Drahtgeschöpfe im Raum zu gleiten und sich des Gesetzes der Schwerkraft längst entledigt zu haben. Cárdenas nutzt dabei die Eigenschaften des Materials Draht. Die biegsamen, in sich stabilen, feinen Drahtfasern bedeuten in ihren gewobenen Skulpturen Materialität und zugleich völlige Auflösung des Massiven bis hin zu immaterieller ätherischer Wesenhaftigkeit.Signifikant ist, dass es sich bei den von ihr verwendeten Drähten um Abfallreste handelt, die bei der Herstellung von Telekommunikationsdrähten anfallen. Von der Fachbranche als Mängelware ausgemustert und für den Einsatz im Datentransport als unbrauchbar erachtet, weiß die Künstlerin diese Drähte in neue Schwingungen zu versetzen und für den „Traumtransport“ umzunutzen.In einer Welt in der für Phantasie immer weniger Zeit bleibt und in der sich der Datenverkehr zunehmend als ein zweckorientiertes, zeitökonomisches Unterfangen versteht, setzt Cárdenas mit ihrem Drahtwerk einen Kontrapunkt und schafft Raum für die Vernetzung derjenigen Gedankenimpulse, die abseits der vermeintlichen Standards zweckdienlicher Kommunikation stehen.Organische Formen, Hände, Finger, gelängte Beine, Pumpsschuhe, schemenhafte Gesichter, menschliche luftige Körper, Figuren aus spiralförmigen Drahtwirbeln aufsteigend, sich mitteilend. Ihre Sprache ist die Farbe. – Hier ein loderndes Rot im provokanten Gegensatz zu einem diabolischen Schwarz, dort hervorspringend, ein glühendes Orange im knisternden Wirrwarr mit giftigem Gelb und darauf einwirkend kühlendes Blau, kokettierend mit lebendigem Grün. – Die Künstlerin lässt in Cromoterapia Vorstellungen von traumhaften Wesen interagieren, die das Grenzgebiet zwischen realem Raum und Phantasie beseelen, lässt diese tanzen und „Farbe bekennen“.Zart und doch den Raum beherrschend, transparent aber nicht unsichtbar, scheinbar schwerelos und doch körperhaft, Zeichnungen aus Draht und gleichsam Drahtskulpturen.Verwebung von Wirklichkeit und Traum … zum Tagtraum.

Text: Diego Otero

Translated: Antje Ruwisch

NANI CARDENAS

Bildende Künstlerin, geboren 1969 in Lima, Peru

Sie studierte bildende Kunst an der Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima) und absolvierte dort ihren Abschluss mit hervorragenden Leistungen.
In der aktuellen Kunstszene Perus ist sie mit zahlreichen Gruppen- und Einzelausstellungen sowie Projekten aktiv beteiligt.
Neben dem Material Holz steht für die peruanische Künstlerin seit einiger Zeit das textile Gewebe im Zentrum ihres künstlerischen Schaffens. Gefertigt aus eher textilfremden Werkstoffen, wie Drähten, Kabelwerk oder Metallfäden, die gebogen, ineinander verschlungen, verflochten und verknotet werden, entstehen lichte, dynamische Formen und Wesen.
Werke von Cárdenas sind außerhalb ihres Heimatlandes in Spanien, Frankreich, Großbritannien und Deutschland sowie in den Vereinigten Staaten in unterschiedlichen Sammlungen vertreten.

Ihre Einzelausstellungen in Lima:
Nani Cárdenas (1998),
Piel dura (2001-2002)
Redes (2004) in der Galerie Forum
Línea tejida (2004)
Línea tejida II (2005) in der Galerie Punctum
Einzelausstellung außerhalb Perus:
Esculturas en tránsito (2006) in der Galerie Beaskoa (Barcelona)
Drahtsleben [Vida de alambre] (2006) auf der Wire (internationale Fachmesse für Draht) Düsseldorf
Cromoterapia [Farbtherapie] (2008) auf der Wire (internationale Fachmesse für Draht) Düsseldorf

Die Installation Cromoterapia [Farbtherapie], wurde erstmals auf der Wire in Düsseldorf (vom 31. März bis zum 4. April 2008) ausgestellt und wird ab dem 17. September 2008 in der Botschaft der Republik Peru, in Berlin zu sehen sein.
Die Installation besteht aus einzelnen lichten Objekten, gefertigt aus feinen, farbig ummantelten Drähten, die eigentlich im Bereich der Kommunikationstechnologie genutzt werden.