GALLERY PROYECTO T

Áspid
5/10/23 - 4/11/23

The one with bells on the cheeks, Ceramic, 86 x 86, 2023

​Áspid

When examining nature and the universe, says physicist Werner Heisenberg, instead of looking and finding objective qualities, “man encounters himself”. With a background in film and animation, Andrea Sotelo began painting in an effort to explore and make sense of the symbols that emerged from her unconscious.

The serpent or aspid in Andrea’s most recent body of work, is part of an ongoing investigation on the female body. An everlasting symbol of the collective unconscious, the serpent emerges from the depths of the earth and the shedding of its skin represents the regenerative energy of life. By incorporating it in her pieces, Andrea challenges the moral duality implicit in the Judeo-Christian myth to capture instead a more complex and cyclical nature, reinforcing the powerful connection to the dark feminine as the realm of possibilities. In its movement, the body of the snake undulates, accidentally revealing the outline of a woman with open legs; while in another series of pieces, its forked tongue draws a perfect symmetry in the style of a window or a portal, evoking the channel through which life is sown to gestate and from there to sprout.

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Regardless of one’s understanding of the universe, the moral social codes of modern civilizations remain grounded in ancient mythology. And while historians have undertaken the task of proving that myths cannot be seen as facts, psychology has identified them as permanent features of our human spirit; as a symbol-based record of a species struggling to make sense of its existence. From this perspective, our psyche is therefore the only means by which we can grasp and give meaning to reality.

Áspid is Andrea Sotelo’s first solo show and it is the result of an in-depth analysis of her internal world. In an attempt to integrate the unconscious with the conscious, Andrea lays bare her own mythology, revealing an individuation process, a reconciliation with her personal essence.

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Aída Cantú Artigas

​Áspid, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 90, 2023

​Áspid, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 90, 2023

​Áspid, Acrylic on canvas, 130 x 90, 2023