iris barrera
iris barrera Selected works 2008-2015
The enigmas presented to me by everyday life are the impulse of my artistic production. Contemporary delusion derived from being extremely secure, protected, from limits, enclosure and boundaries, and the underlying fear of death, are some of the subjects I question. Anonymous debris that bears untold stories and encloses the unknown, attract my sight and invite me to record them in a profound state of contemplation. A whimsical observation, infinite, almost unachievable. I collect images as if gathering a tedious inventory. Hordes. Enjoying the meaninglessness of casting time. Painting takes me to the limits of obsession, through a process of superposing layers of abstraction and realism, creating delimited spaces that overlap, intensifying the distance between the different planes.
Nature and man, in their hopeless and strange relationship, is one of the fundamental topics in the work of Barrera. Through photography, she's delved in what caught her attention even before defining herself as an artist. Her work's methodology, adopted from the outset to seek within the object's memories their relationship between their present and past condition, is partly composed by a thorough gaze, a systematic documentation and classification of images. Solely someone with such character is capable of observing the world's tragedy without being overwhelmed; a capability that has allowed her to deal with distressing issues - such as infant mortality in South Africa - through works as esthetically daunting as the themes discussed within them. The “Limbo” series contains baroque images while “Set Aside” implies documentation; both approached from a hyper-fragmented perspective. Thus, the truism quickly gives way to the mystery of the coded image, which is so necessary to swallow that bitter pill. In the series “Battered”, a number of potatoes are exposed on a worktable for the artist to contemplate as they decompose, to be later photographed using a scanner when the odor becomes unbearable. A photographic laboratory for experimenting the fate of nature. Guido Ignatti March 2015
Prelude
Set aside
Haze
Limbo
Battered
Photographic composition made from objects inherited from my parents.
Prelude, 2008 Gelatin silver prints 42 cm x 29,7 cm
Scanned images of tubers I left to dry for weeks after germinating them for months. The growth of roots and foliage was observed in time until hydration was suspended arbitrarily, causing the tubers to deteriorate. When the bodies ran out of bliss and withered, their damaged frames were captured directly over a scanner.
Battered, 2014 Lambda prints 42cm x 29,7cm
Photographs of objects carried away by the current of Jukskei River in Johannesburg, South Africa. During the course of two years, I recorded the remnants coming from nearby villages of low socioeconomic status, which dragged by the river got stranded on the gardens of Dainfern Valley, an upper-class residential state. These remnants were removed daily leaving the gardens spotless.
Set Aside , 2010 Lamda prints 42 cm x 40 cm
Installations made with used and new empty transparent PVC containers.
Haze, 2012 Disposable plastic food containers and monofilament 330 cm x 300 cm
Pictures of children's graves taken throughout several visits to South African cemeteries. According to UNICEF, approximately 1.2 million children are born every year in South Africa; 300,000 of those from mothers infected with HIV. 100,000 will carry the virus, meaning almost half will die before turning 2 years old.
Limbo, 2010 Lambda prints 42 cm x 29,7 cm
Iris Barrera (1964, Argentina) is an artist based in Buenos Aires and Nice. Having attended several art and portfolio review seminars with Manuel Amestoy, Andrea Juan, Augusto Zanella, Sergio Bazán and Eduardo Medici at Arte x Arte Gallery in Buenos Aires, she went on to study painting at Sergio Bazán's Atelier, where she continues to perfect her techniques. Iris studied photography at Academia de Artes Visuales (AAVI) in Mexico, at The National College of Photography of Johannesburg and as an Artist-inResidence at the School of Visual Arts of New York, while also holding a Bsc in Finance from Universidad Argentina de la Empresa.
EXPOSITIONS Perdido, Panal 361 Gallery, curated by Furor Arte 2014 Perdido, #3, El Ojo Errante Gallery, curated by Furor Arte 2014 Plan de juego #3, desvíos, ArtexArte Gallery, curated by Andrea Juan 2013 Cruces y desvíos, fin, La Sin Futuro Gallery, curated by Augusto Zanella 2013 La del fin, Castelar, ArtexArte Gallery, curated by Sergio Bazan 2013 Castelar, tiempos, ArtexArte Gallery, curated by M. Ameztoy Ameztoy 2012 Composición en tres tiempos, evidence, solo exhibition at JWT Johannesburg Head Office 2011 Tracing evidence,
Concept and image selection Iris Barrera Marcos Mangani Texts Iris Barrera Guido Ignatti Translation Lucila Gamen (English - French) Ramiro Gamen (Spanish - English) Tomรกs Grosz (Spanish - French) Graphic design Marcos Mangani Special thanks to: Sergio Bazรกn Mirta Cammerucci Adriana Carambia Edition March 2015 www.irisbarrera.com // contact@irisbarrera.com