Art / arnolfini
Sensory reflections
A new installation from Donna Huanca made specifically for Arnolfini, CUEVA DE COPAL will be opening at the gallery on February 5.
The Chicago-born artist known for her live ‘skin’ paintings made her name through a rich and multi-layered interdisciplinary practice across painting, sculpture, performance, choreography, video and sound.
Her hybrid approach creates a sensory experience for viewers that takes them away from the outside world and provides moments of quiet, intimate self-reflection.
In this exhibition, Huanca’s artistic preoccupation with the human body moves away from the live body towards mirrored sculptures and expansive multi-panelled abstract paintings.
The Arnolfini presentation will also feature enhanced treatment of darkness and light, taking viewers into an other-worldly cocoon as they explore the space.
Donna Huanca, Cueva de Copal #1 (2021), photo: courtesy of Peres Projects, Berlin
In previous site-specific work, Huanca has transformed a unique industrial space at the Copenhagen Contemporary, the early 18th century palace of the Belverdere Museum, Vienna, and the desert landscape around the Ballroom Marfa, Texas. “The way that I set up an exhibition environment is a very intuitive process,” she reflects.
“The materials are important cultural references and traces tools we use as humans to camouflage, express and explore the complexity of our ever disintegrating bodies, along with natural materials drawn from our ecosystems.”
Donna Huanca portrait – photo: Tobias Willmann
Donna Huanca – Cueva De Copal is at Arnolfini from February 5 to May 29. For more information, visit www.arnolfini.org.uk
Main photo courtesy of Peres Projects, Berlin
Read more: Arnolfini announces major exhibitions from three female artists
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