Amparo Garrido

3674125649_00f46b6096The work of Amparo Garrido questions (itself) even as its questions are directed at us.
It simply will not permit us to stop short in smug contemplation of the beauty of her images. No loitering allowed for good consciences of any description, as Jacques Derrida might say.

But then, neither does her work concern itself obsessively with the jagged edges that we, as human beings, are bound to encounter. Her images are situated somewhere between those two extremes and, with that for their point of departure, badger us their incessant questioning.

For example: Is it possible to see beyond the visible world? Is that the secret that the image invites us to see revealed? Is photography just like any other art form in that, above and beyond its ideal aesthetic, it represents a valid approach to knowledge and man’s struggle with himself?

As the photographer herself will acknowledge, a common dynamic runs through the images that make up each of her successive series. It is produced by the irreconcilable tension between opposites: savage vs. civilized, wild vs. domesticated, full vs. empty. This tension is rendered into something more than mere metaphor, something that is closer to the essence of human destiny.

What is it that we have lost and what have we gained? It is somewhere between the tyranny of the pulsional life and the cultural strictures it imposes, that the great questions take shape: What should I do? How should I live? The only way to find out is by following the tracks left by desire: What is it that I really want? The question appears simple, but it is one that will, at the deepest level of his being, cause the individual to fully engage with his own destiny.

It’s not a matter of just achieving states of aesthetic bliss, nor again of unravelling meaning or significance. The search for beauty is an aesthetical/ethical undertaking in its own right. And Amparo’s photographs are a summons for us to begin that search. by

 

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