A Fragile Red Line

Mix media installation, Variable dimensions.

A Conversation with Pancho Lopez (art curator) regarding the outcome of the residency.

Edwin Soriano: I try to distill these ideas into a very simple graphic style—yet that minimalism is difficult; the more you know, the more complex it becomes to simplify. I am still engaged in that process of reducing it to a clearer symbology.

I have also worked in installation art. What you see here is a kind of maximalism, a Baroque sensibility: my mind is reflected across a multitude of elements and materials. My work is open to multiple interpretations, depending on the viewer's level of sensitivity—whether cultural, academic, or intuitive—and for me, the intuitive aspect is paramount.

I began this piece involving threads five years ago. It speaks to the nature of perishable and imperishable materials, and was also influenced by works of fiction—such as We or Orwell’s 1984—with their depictions of repressive processes. My country has always been bound by a political Manichaeism—a dichotomy between Right and Left—that persists to this day. Fiction...

Pancho López:

I immediately perceive a relationship between architecture and blueprints. What strikes me is that you work on that shiny, silver paper—and the interplay between the white, the black, and those red details. On one hand, I think of architectural plans: towers, buildings, cities, antennas... and on the other, of structures resembling trees. Roots appear—and the root serves as a metaphor: holding fast, finding ground, establishing a point of reference, stability.