Carla Arocha – Works

Arocha’s scientific training as a biologist is in a certain sense decisive for her investigative approach to sensual perception. Trompe l’oeil techniques and a systematic reconnaissance of the boundaries between what is visible and what is invisible, what is observable (and hence ‘true’) and what is not observable, form the pillars of her work. Painting is what it finally comes down to in the end for her. An important pillar is, in addition, the modernist tradition of design (fashion, graphic design, ‘interior’) as exemplary bridgeheads between art and everyday life, a tradition within which meticulous attention and deep respect for form cannot possibly be seen separately from the utopian substance.
Snow (2003) is typical: a wall remains provocatively blank until the viewer gradually discovers virtually invisible patches of colour. The projection is reduced to an ultimate abstraction in Screen (2006), in which six white rectangles are hung up close together. The screen refuses to be occupied by the projection; the representation is blocked by a fascinating play of light, transparency and displacement. In Untitled (2006), absence is made present by the light through a pile of glass sheets.
Courtesy of Koraalberg Gallery, Antwerp
Untitled (2006) Collection: NBB (National Bank of Belgium)
Screen (2006) Collection: MuHKA (Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp)