Valeria Montoya
TACTILE LOOK
- Residence
- 07.09.2023 — 07.10.2023
For this residency I take as reference a series of previous works (The Languages, 2022) who use hair to investigate the spatial relationships that exist between bodies, going beyond the traditional representation of the human figure.
In most of the works I try to make, the body is examined from a perspective that is not centered on the eye, and then returns to it.
The visual emanates from other physical senses, primarily touch, and then converges in the image itself. I am motivated by the emergence of a corporality that comes from the sensorial and the sensual. A corporality that is transferred to touch and then manifests itself visually through the images I construct and the objects I manipulate.
The work I propose and its antecedent (Las Lenguas, 2022), will explore three fundamental points:
In most of the works I try to make, the body is examined from a perspective that is not centered on the eye, and then returns to it.
The visual emanates from other physical senses, primarily touch, and then converges in the image itself. I am motivated by the emergence of a corporality that comes from the sensorial and the sensual. A corporality that is transferred to touch and then manifests itself visually through the images I construct and the objects I manipulate.
The work I propose and its antecedent (Las Lenguas, 2022), will explore three fundamental points:
-The "tactile gaze": I draw on our haptic capacity to learn to perceive with parts of our bodies other than our eyes. I'm interested in provoking careful observation and a sensitive and sensual appreciation of the pieces.
-The convergence of digital and analog: In our daily lives, we've learned to "read" by touch when interacting with screens and electronic devices. My interest lies in returning to a middle ground, albeit in a less accelerated context and from an analog perspective.
-Soft Weapons: Some of these pieces consider certain power dynamics between bodies, but from a softer, more subtle perspective. One example is the Tongues series (2022), where I created whips out of human hair. Weapons with a soft texture that awaken a somatic space between our bodies. These whips are a metaphor for the dynamics of labor and submission that exist within our physical world, exploring how these elements intertwine in our bodily interactions, but prioritizing a return to the soma.
-The convergence of digital and analog: In our daily lives, we've learned to "read" by touch when interacting with screens and electronic devices. My interest lies in returning to a middle ground, albeit in a less accelerated context and from an analog perspective.
-Soft Weapons: Some of these pieces consider certain power dynamics between bodies, but from a softer, more subtle perspective. One example is the Tongues series (2022), where I created whips out of human hair. Weapons with a soft texture that awaken a somatic space between our bodies. These whips are a metaphor for the dynamics of labor and submission that exist within our physical world, exploring how these elements intertwine in our bodily interactions, but prioritizing a return to the soma.