ANDRÉS BEDOYA
ONE OF MY FINGERS IS A SNAKE
Exhibition dates: March 1 - April 14, 2024
Opening: Friday March 1st, 6-8pm
SITUATIONS HENRY ST
127 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002
SITUATIONS presents Andrés Bedoya: One of My Fingers is a Snake. The exhibition's title highlights the irreverent nature of his latest works, contrasting their content with the formally rigorous techniques used in their creation.
In his series of Looking Glass works, the Mexico City-based, Bolivian-born artist affixes hand-sculpted brass icons to the surface of domestically-sized antique mirrors. Reminiscent of Milagros or Catholic ex-votos in their depictions of isolated body parts and everyday objects, Bedoya’s sculpted imagery embodies the playful spontaneity of his drawings. Groupings of suspended symbols float atop each mirror, like passing thoughts drifting in and out of view, intercepting one's reflection to form open-ended compositions meant to be projected upon and interpreted. This tension between what is shown and obscured speaks to the impossibility of ever truly defining oneself, acknowledging that our sense of self results from an ever-changing amalgamation of internal and external factors.
While creating these works, Bedoya turned to his personal archive of sketches and drawings as a source of inspiration. Known for his meticulously constructed installations and sculptures, which often reference the biographical, cultural or historical significance of their materiality, these works introduce playfulness as both a driving force for creation and a lens for interpretation. For Bedoya, irreverence becomes a tool to evoke subjective experiences while incorporating a sense of freedom.
Taking an alternate approach in Intestine (2021-24), Bedoya animates a single icon through an absurdist object. A lone three-dimensional intestine, covered with hundreds of small shimmering mirror fragments, hangs from the ceiling from a disco spinner. As Bedoya’s sculpture slowly rotates, it casts roving reflections onto the surrounding surfaces like its nightclub counterpart or a beacon perhaps to come as you are. Guts and their manifold associations – with messiness, vulnerability, intuition – are counterbalanced by the artist’s meticulous technique of laboriously hand-stitching each jagged shard into place.
ANDRÉS BEDOYA (Bolivian, b. 1978) lives and works in Mexico City. His installation, Moscas (2021-23) is on view through May 18, 2024 in the group exhibition El Dorado at the Americas Society in New York City. Bedoya’s sculptures, drawings, installations, and videos have been exhibited in Europe, the US and throughout Latin America. Solo exhibitions include the Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia; Abrons Arts Center in New York City, and SITUATIONS, NYC. Recent group exhibitions include Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Nicelle Beauchene, New York City; Coral Gables Museum. Miami, Florida, among others. He was the co-creator of Brooklyn is Burning, a series of performance and video events held in New York City in various spaces, including MoMA PS1. Bedoya holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design from the University of Texas, Austin.
SITUATIONS HENRY ST is open to the public Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 6PM. For more information, email info@situations.us or visit our website, situations.us.