Nara Roesler, Rio de Janeiro is pleased to announce Maquinamata- a solo show by Laura Vinci that opens to the public on June 9th and will be on view until August 8th, 2022. In the exhibition, a unique set of kinetic sculptures, created especially for the show, subtly explores unusual relationships between the mechanical and the natural universe.
For a long time, nature has been present in Laura Vinci’s practice, either through the use of its elements or through the appropriation of its forms. In No ar, for example, she uses high-pressure spray nozzles, causing the water released to be between a gaseous and a liquid state, thus creating a kind of fog that spreads across the exhibition, be it a closed space or open air.
In Estados, Vinci uses cooling processes to condense particles of water suspended in the air, making them visible on metal signs, while in Máquina do mundo, a work that is part of Inhotim's permanent collection, a conveyor belt transports marble dust from one place to another, in a repetitive, slow, and ostensibly unproductive effort.
In these works, the use of technology highlights invisible elements such as air, humidity and, above all, time itself, altering the dynamics between the perception of the environment and our body.
In recent years, Vinci has continued this approach to nature by creating gold-plated brass sculptures of branches and leaves, making living flora permanent. Hanging from the ceiling or walls, these structures transform the space in which they are inserted into enigmatic forests with no fixed place, as seen in the exhibition Folhas avulsas e galhos, at the Museum of Modern Art in São Paulo, in 2019.
The title of the exhibition has multiple meanings, as it speaks to both the destructive force of the machine, leading us to think about the effects of unbridled industrialization in the world, but also asks us to consider the forest as a kind of machine, in light of its delicate internal engineering, survival mechanisms and extraordinary and expansive capacity to multiply.
Maquinamata captures, at the same time, the dubious and instigating character of the works presented by Vinci, which combine small engines with brass structures of leaves and natural branches. By activating evocative fragments of nature – a leaf that twirls in the air, branches shaken by the wind, unexpected puffs of pollen –, these devices awaken an aura that resonates poetically in our affective memory, showing itself at the same time, in a disturbing and almost sinister, ghostly and robotic way.
Laura Vinci points to the urgent need to create new paradigms, for the ways in which we perceive and relate to what we still call, although perhaps too late, the natural world. The machine -a distinguished human creation- is representative of the industrial development that distanced us from nature, and is hereby addressed from an unusual standpoint – with a sensitive approach that is at the same time humorous, corrosive, lyrical and poignant.
The exhibition is accompanied by a text written by Felipe Scovino.
