Photograph courtesy of Teofilo Cohen and Gabriel de la Mora
In contrast to the lightning pace of modern life, artist form and volume to each curving line and elaborate
Darío Escobar uses a slow, hand-wrought process scroll. Finally, the sheets are attached to the selected
from centuries past to make his fun but luminous object. To give the surface its shine, Escobar brushes
sculptures. Playing with conceptual borders — it with the same mixture of lemon and bicarbonate
between old and new, high and low, religious and used by craftsmen long ago.
secular — Escobar enshrines contemporary objects Escobar lives and works in Guatemala City, but
like a skateboard, surfboard, or basketball back- his resplendent sculptures have been exhibited in
board in shimmering metal, using gilding and silver the United States, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ireland.
embossing techniques from the colonial era of his Recently his work traveled to the Museum of
native Guatemala. Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia, and to the
The 12th century techniques lent baroque altars exhibition Poetics of the Handmade curated by
and candlesticks a sacred glow. Using them on every- Alma Ruiz at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
day objects, Escobar draws humorous and insightful Los Angeles. The weight of Escobar’s metal-clad
connections between devotion and consumerism. sculptures makes transport tricky, and this exhibition
His labor-intensive process produces amazing brought five of them together at the same time.
results, but it takes time. To complete the surfboard, Of the exhibition, Escobar says it was “fantastic”
for example, it took Escobar three months of full- and explains that “to see so many of the works
time work with the help of four assistants. together in one room, in dialogue with the public
To start with, he chooses the object by reflecting on and with other artists, was very emotional.” symbolism, in particular from North American sports —Annie Buckley culture. Next he draws an elaborate design on silver, tin, or aluminum. The metal is then pounded to give
>> Darío Escobar: craftzine.com/go/escobar
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