Book ReviewsMay 23, 2023· By Adriana Herrera
Remains-Tomorrow. Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction
Let’s begin with what the unusual title encompasses: Remains - Tomorrow. Themes in Contemporary Latin American Abstraction. It undoubtedly alludes to a transversal angle of temporal vision, one that acknowledges its debt to the past (which can be as remote as, for example, the textile arts of the ancient Americas) while at the same time projecting itself, from the present creation of various artists, into a tomorrow already claimed as the territory for the inscription of the names that will potentially shape it. It is not only that the past demands to be rewritten from the margins (or from below, from South to North); the future is subverted by an awareness of history as a narrative where the possibility of taking a non-subaltern position remains open.
This project, sheltered under the SamySayago Collection’s “Abstraction in Action” project, begins with an emotional dedication, a declaration of love for friendship and for the collector’s mother, Martha Herrero, which frames the editorial effort in the context of a desire to overcome adversity. It should also be noted that it constitutes a collective effort to inscribe Latin American abstraction
NOTES
(1) In fact, Fajardo-Hill cites Adán Valecillo: “Abstraction is an important exercise in subversion in its own right.”
(2) Ledezma explains that by adding the prefix “sub”, as he does in his drawing dated on October 29 of that year, layering words like “subdeveloped” (underdeveloped), subterranean, subaltern, sublime on top of each other, Oiticica alluded to the possibility of an underground vision, not merely subterranean, but anti-establishment (p. 25).
This project, sheltered under the SamySayago Collection’s “Abstraction in Action” project, begins with an emotional dedication, a declaration of love for friendship and for the collector’s mother, Martha Herrero, which frames the editorial effort in the context of a desire to overcome adversity. It should also be noted that it constitutes a collective effort to inscribe Latin American abstraction
NOTES
(1) In fact, Fajardo-Hill cites Adán Valecillo: “Abstraction is an important exercise in subversion in its own right.”
(2) Ledezma explains that by adding the prefix “sub”, as he does in his drawing dated on October 29 of that year, layering words like “subdeveloped” (underdeveloped), subterranean, subaltern, sublime on top of each other, Oiticica alluded to the possibility of an underground vision, not merely subterranean, but anti-establishment (p. 25).
