Monium, 2024.
Mom was left speechless. The firmness with which she avoided any difficult conversation turned into a trembling lip and lifeless eyes that locked onto mine as if her entire life could be seen in them. Meanwhile, Maria, with her forced jokes, tried to rescue her from her fears, from the rain she once believed would never come because it was April, it was sunny, and dessert hadn’t been served yet. She, thoughtful, with her hands motionless on the table like two lead beams, wandered through the corners of those scenarios she had rehearsed for when this moment arrived. The versions of a shared life that would make sense to everyone. Over time, I came to understand the complexity of that moment, but I was a child, shameless, who unknowingly had pinpointed the wound that united the three dress sizes at that table.
When she saw us, she greeted us with her best smile, a smile that seemed to hold the weight of unspoken stories. Mom and she were like two peas in a pod without knowing it, completely different to the casual observer but united by the same reasons, the same struggle. We boarded the tram and settled into the back seats. Mom and Maria chatted animatedly, their voices weaving a tapestry of shared memories and private jokes, while I listened with a distracted ear. They spoke their own language, spending the day talking about things that made no sense to me; it was a language I learned to decipher over the years. I watched them and felt a profound sense of security, a happiness that these two women existed in my life; or maybe that’s something that came later, with the clarity of hindsight. I looked out the window at the world sliding past, fragmented and fleeting, like in the movies, when the good guys and the bad guys prepare for the worst.
Monium, 2024. Is a sculpture that reflects on the conception of marriage within traditional values in early 20th-century Western cultures. This piece is part of a series of sculptures in relation to “The Way She Walks,” a short novel exploring mimicry and suppression within gender norms during the 1950s in Spain.
The sculpture is an assemblage of found objects and various materials, using references to Victorian, Baroque, and Rococo styles as a contextual umbrella. It proposes a question of functionality, debating between worship and duty, through the suggestion of an altarpiece under the light of love and tradition.
This work illustrates the chapter titled “All the Love Songs Talk About God” in the short novel, where the characters experience an antagonistic version of their ideals and principles as they commit to marriage.
This work is still in process and its final form will be updated soon.
