OLEOAGUA , 2015
80 drawings. Mineral pigments, charcoal, and crude oil
30 × 30 cm each
The OLEOAGUA project emerged from a need to approach, through material experience, the condition of organisms affected by oil spills in bodies of water. By incorporating crude oil as a drawing medium, the material imposes its own conditions—odor, toxicity, and the continuous transformation of the image—exceeding the control of the mark and revealing the instability of form.
The work reflects on the violence inflicted upon animal and plant species by oil spills, placing the relationship between care, consumption, and harm under tension, while drawing attention to the persistence of these events and their impact on multiple forms of life.
INDELEBLES
Silent video, 2'05" loop
2015
Detalle
Explorations on allien perception
In April 2010 the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig sank in the Gulf of Mexico unleashing a sea-floor oil gusher to flow for 87 days until it was capped in late 2010. Therefrom, 1.84 million gallons of oil were spilled in the Caribbean Sea. Images of this disaster were widespread in the news and shocked the public in general, especially those images of fish and birds in agony, with their entire body covered by oil and their wings stuck to the body while their eyes still open. These crude images quickly spread over Internet and, to me this was the first time that I felt intense pain for the birds, fish and water.
What happens to an alive-creature when its entire body is covered with oil?
Intended to be an exercise of understanding, in Oleoagua I used raw petroleum for drawing. As humans we use oil to do most of the things we do, warrantying that spills will continue to happen as they have happened at a rate of, at least, one big spill every year. The following list is a proof of it: In year 2010 the Eagle Otome crashed in Sabine-Neches Waterway, USA; in 2009 cyclone Hamish cased spilling from the Pacific Adventurer en Queensland, Australia; in 2008 two vessels filled with hard combustible crashed in the Mississippi River and in December 2007 in South Korea the Hebei Spirit crashed and 2,8 million of gallons of raw oil ended up in the water. In 2006 there are at least three considerable spills, one in the Calcasieu River, Louisiana, another one in Beirut, Lebanon, and another one in the Guimaras Islands in Philippines.
Hurricane Katrina caused several oil spilling in the Louisiana coasts in 2005 due to pipeline, industrial plants and storage tanks breakages. In 2004 the turn was for the Aleutians Islands in Alaska, and in 2003 for Pakistan, were the Tasmanian Spirit crashed near Karachi. In year 2002 the Prestige´s hull got damages and it finally ended up sinking in Spanish coasts. I have no information about big spills during 2001, but 2000 ties up with two: one in Río de Janeiro, Guanabará Bay, and the other one in the low Mississippi River. In 1999 in Bretagne, France, 3 million gallons spilled in the Atlantic Sea; in 1996 the Gales coasts received 70 mil tons from the Sea Empress, and in the year 1994 the turn was for Russia, with a spill that affected the Kolva River. Tampa in 1993… the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan in 1992… Kuwait in 1992… Galveston, Texas in 1990…. Year 1989 was especially hard with the Exxon Valdés in Alaska and an explosion in Las Palmas, Canarias Islands. 1988, Scotland, 1986 the Persian Gulf, 1980 Norway, 1979 the Mexican Gulf, 1978 France, 1977 the North Sea. This list continues…
BB. Dec. 2015.