Carlos Santos
Throughout my creative process, I have been dedicated to decontextualizing and recontextualizing objects, materials and stories by utilizing different concepts and techniques such as: drawing, sculpture, installation, embroidery and photography. Many of the materials I use bleed into the space as a figurative extension of structures and objects found in the area where I live. The participation of my relatives in my work is something that is always present in the process, seeking to question the authorship of the resulting works.
Oftentimes topics in my work are recurrent to my identity: medicine/death (body) and environment/social condition (space) where I explore the symbolic materiality of the human or animal body as it pertains to constant change and transformation. In the last decade, I have used the carving and drafting of animal skulls and embroidery on fabric as representations of the anatomy of the human body. I have also drawn the evocation of hospital X-rays, as in the Mental Landscape series, where eye corneas are depicted with spices and fruit seeds and mixed with marbles, sands and inks.
The key element in my artistic production is to unify the different materials that are extracted from my environment and the daily activities of my life, thus making connections between myself and context and bringing art into my own territories. These actions allow me to intertwine my past, present and future into the experience of my personal artistic process- one which is permanently modified as time goes on.
