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Gods and Stones

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is making clay figures. That was the starting point. We could call it the time to lay the foundation stone.

Many years later, I was fortunate that a book by René Guénon came to my hands: The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times (French: Le Règne de la Quantité et les Signes des Temps). “Skip the first chapters, they are very mathematical …” were the words of José Manuel de Rivas Fernández. Contrary to my friend’s indication, it was precisely those chapters that managed to attract my attention to such a strange specimen.

I remember, among other things, this phrase: Substance, from the Latin sub-stare, to be below, that is, what supports or sustains the manifestation.

God created the world from nothing. Yes. From nothing different from Him. If there were something next to, above, outside, or different from God, we would be falling into Manichaeism.

Modeling sculptures is updating the creation from the beginning. We have the original substance: the modeling material. From which all the different forms can arise and to which they can all return to resurface as a new form. Only the thought makes us pre-create these figures, and the mind creates the previous distinction that will later be manifested when the original material operates correctly.

If a finished figure we melt it again, it will only be one and the same original substance, containing itself all the possibilities of manifestation.

“You are Peter, and on this stone, I will build my church” is an obvious example of the use of stone as the foundation of the path. Prajápati* is severed, and in the end, only the foundation stone remains. Adepts are those who have obtained the Philosopher’s Stone. The stone contains, among others, the symbolism of the base, of the origin.

The gods and stones series consists of sculptures from different traditions relating the God to a stone, but to represent a god or a divine attribute, it must have the exact nature of divinity. Only the correct form can contain the living God itself. Raimon Arola’s book “The Living Statues” narrates us in a masterful way how a sculpture was brought to life, making the divinity penetrate it.

* Very ancient Hindu deity corresponding to the auto-created, father of all gods.

Solidarity

In the late eighties and early nineties, the Mexican government started its flagship program, “Solidarity.” With this theme, I started a series of sculptures that will become the series under that name, first playing with the National Mood and taking the national idiosyncrasy with humor.

The first Solidarity piece sought to leave out the standard concept of the base within the sculpture concepts and make it a part of the sculpture itself. I wanted to apply my structural knowledge in the same way, so I started to use the bronze tensile and bending stress properties.

The results from 1989 to 1994 were: “Solidarity,” “Solidarity II” or “the pact continues,” “Out of the hole,” “Hanging by a pipe,” and the “NAFTA” (Free Trade Agreement), which later changed its name to “the stairs.”

After the success and expectation created with these sculptures, I have created different variations, continuing the merge of the base as part of the sculpture, a combination of men and women, and the grips between them. I also have versions in different sizes, and of course, they can be made monumental in size adapted to the available space.

Erotic

There is an Italian saying that goes: “Chi non ami il vino, le donne e il canto sarà un pazzo e mai un santo” (whoever does not love wine, women, and the singing, will be a madman and never be a saint).

We can expand the meaning of this phrase to all erotic possibilities to be inclusive.

Eros represents that love that takes you away, the one that makes us lose consciousness of ourselves and unites us with the person we love. Eros can start to burn from sight, a scent, a few words, or, as often happens, with the combination of those actions.