I attended the Centraltrak event featuring Alejandro Borsani
on November 8th. I didn't really know what to expect going in, While I
respected the first few pieces he discussed for their ability to record and
portray various extreme situations in South America, I found it hard to gain
interest in the pieces.
However, as he began to discuss his later works I became far
more interested. It seems to me that in his more recent works that the
installations are much more tangible and easier to understand.
The piece he discussed that I think I liked the most was the
one with drops of water slowly falling on a hot metal sheet, turning instantly
to steam and creating unique lighting effects. In particular, I really liked
the idea of having a single pedestal with drops of water in the center of the
room completely defining the entire piece.
It seems like the themes of water, nature, and light were
consistently present in almost all of his pieces after coming to America. It
didn’t seem like there was an overarching reason, but every piece managed to take
such a unique spin on so vastly similar subject matter.
While I’ve never been particularly interested in
installations, and it hasn’t motivated me to work with installations, I would
definitely enjoy seeing one of his contraptions in person.
