"MATERIAL INTERMITTENCIES"

It is expected that when we think of sculpture, we think of marble as if it was an inherent relationship. Classical art continues to be the prevailing parameter of three-dimensional representation, not only for its formal qualities but also for symbolic reasons. Marble, onyx, alabaster, and other materials such as bronze have had intermittences throughout history; we can describe periods, epochs, or even determine eras and civilizations according to the use of these materials. In art, these reiterations with the materials have been taking distance from the academy's perennial ideals.

Jacobo Alonso uses materials little associated with sculptural creation but similarly intermittent. Felt is by far the oldest textile on record. Originally made of animal hair, felt is a prehistoric material with waterproof, sound, and temperature insulating qualities; it can resist even fire. This material is practically indestructible, and its myriad of uses reaffirms its strength and nobility.

Alonso proposes an unsuspected encounter between form and matter. He takes classical sculpture models - like the Laocoon or the Sabina - he digitizes them and cuts them into hundreds of layers of felt that he sews together by hand. The malleability of the material allows the artist to modify the sculptures, in some cases, to obtain a dissonant shape, revealing its own weight by the inevitable gravity that distorts the perfection and solemnity of canonical aesthetics. Models of human figures can range from the most exact representation to the synthesis of elongated bodies' fragments, fused in strident colors that are unrelated to the nineteenth-century readings.

The material intermittence of the body is the axis that governs Alonso's exploration, formal assonances that reveal nuances of representation, and the material contrasts that make it possible.

Karen Perry

Plastic artist

Member of the National System of Creators