Santuario

2018-
Mixed media

Spanish word for Sanctuary; a place of refuge and protection.

Santuario is a series of photographs printed in Vellum paper and presented inside a lightbox frame with natural flora pressed against the glass. This work takes on the question of how nature’s beauty can be elevated by reframing it and taking it out of its usual context. Deeply rooted in meaningful memories of the artist’s short visits to their home country, Spain, it also asks the question of whether the perception of this beauty is directly connected to important memories that shape our life experiences or if it can be valued and processed by what it is. By juxtaposing the faded print of a landscape with an actual plant suspended in a transitory incarnation, the artist poses if the only way we can feel attached to nature is by connecting it to remembrance and exerting power over it, changing it, reframing it and ultimately destroying it.