Whistle is pleased to present Transits, a solo exhibition by Patricia Fernández featuring new works of painting and sculpture. On view from 12 November to 18 December, this will be an exclusive first presentation of her work in Korea.
In Transits, Patricia Fernández explores the cycle of the sensory organs, development, transition, and decline, to reorganise and assemble linked personal narratives in her work. Following Heartbeats at Commonwealth and Council (2021), which embodies the abstract sense of vision the artist has come to recognize from the uncertainty that arises from isolation, Transits focuses on the processes of physical change and psychological development experienced during the same period.
Fernández, who lives and works in Los Angeles, gave birth to her first child in February. During her ten lunar-month pregnancy, the artist spent most of her time in the Mojave Desert, due to the severe pandemic. While alone in the vastness of nature, she researched and archived materials relevant to the changes she observed in her body. The wheel shape appearing in Visualization for Dilation 1-10 (2021) references an instructional tool on cervical dilation used by midwives. Simultaneously occurring in this series are such phenomena as microchimerism, or the exchange of cells between fetus and mother; diagrams for ocular and tactile stimulation; and the phases of the moon. The red linen used in the paintings is dyed with cochineal collected by the artist; the cochineal pigment can only be extracted from females of the thus-named scale inspect species. Representing ten months, they are paired with ten round walnut discs engraved with the symbol 'x'.
The 'x' pattern seen throughout Fernández's sculptures signifies the connection between generations through the conveyance of history and symbolizes the relationship of the past and the future. This sculptural method is passed on from her grandfather living in Spain, and the project Box (a proposition for ten years) (2012–2022) allows for a closer look into the transmission of knowledge. In Transits, the artist presents five sculptures reminiscent of children's tactile play toys, as in Horizontal Hand-Eye (2021) and Vertical Hand/Eye (2021). These works visualize a device that reflects perception through touch, such as in the case of her grandfather, who is losing sight as he enters the latter stages of his life. The development of vision and touch in newborns is similar to that of senile sensory degeneration. Patricia Fernández abstractly lists the connections between birth and death, what is felt first and last. Transits proposes a consideration of time, rising between us and the objects corresponding to the artist's sentiments.
Patricia Fernández (b.1980, Spain) received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and her BFA from University of California, Los Angeles. Selected recent solo exhibitions include Heartbeats, Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles (2021); Here is My Name, Todd Madigan Gallery, California State University, Bakersfield, California (2018); Cinco caminos de partida, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Caja de Burgos, Burgos (2015), and the ongoing Box (a proposition for ten years), Commonwealth & Council, Los Angeles (2014–present). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at such institutions as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2020); Angel's Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, California (2019); Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana, California (2017); Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2012).
Press release courtesy Whistle.
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