Under the name of Pico tres are gathered three artistic series, two of them of a photographic nature and another composed by floral designs. Each of them explores several emotions and mental states that shape the experience as a LGTBQ+ person, while also examines the relationship between nature and identity in the field of sexuality and gender.
Norma is the vision from isolation, where the non-normative individual feels that doesn’t belong to the common space. Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair is a concept manifested in two ways. Pt. I refers to the feeling caused by the lack of normalization of the identity by close people, the idea that it’s something that exceeds the commonalty. Pt. II collects that idea and explores it through the passage of time. It is no longer the reaction of an individual, but the presence of a community and the social mark it creates over generations.
The dialogue between the three parts goes from the intimate in the individual sphere to the oppression by the environment, through the footprint, the visibility, that gets consolidated by the community as a whole.
Each series is made up by nine pieces, which make up a total of 27 works, made between 2017 and 2019.
Norma
In 1990, Judith Butler in her book Gender Trouble spoke about the fact that normative sexuality fortifies a normative conception of the gender. In a society in which even the redemption of gender has to fight against a binary vision where normative is the only "natural", this series of photographs aims to continue the dialogue on sexual and gender identity.
Through the superposition of images of people on nature, the portraits speak of the vulnerability to an unconventional identity, where social isolation and alienation in it prevent the person from showing itself as it is. The use of color, always vivid, reveals the identity spectrum and its self-consciousness, that is, the acceptance of it in each of the people, without any self-repression.
In the portraits, the dichotomy between faceless people and images of nature aims to establish the union that exists between nature and identity, and how the human being interprets them according to social characteristics. The strangeness in society is considered an exception that is not part of it: the rare element of the portraits is the lack of faces, the rarity of the nature photos is their orientation.
The series consists of eight pieces, without title, made in 2017.
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Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, pt. I
The first part of Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair explores how nine LGBTQ + individuals would react to close, trustworthy people who continue to see their identity as something out of the ordinary. The conception of the series is in itself a reaction to a family experience of lack of acceptance of the community, where the combination of a crown and a bouquet of flowers constituted an identity mark that pretended to stand out and not go unnoticed.
The photographs present a simple construction: the person, located in the center, reflects the closest reaction to their reality in this type of circumstances. The crowns symbolize that identity seen as divergent, identity that is not afraid to show off, but that entails a differentiation with respect to the rest.
The funds play with the dichotomy between nature and architectural decadence, between the concept of queerness in its highest rank and the dogmatism of the normative system.
All the people who were willing to participate in this project do not identify themselves as heterosexual, while three of them are trans and one non-binary. They are between 17 and 29 years old.
The series consists of nine pieces, made between 2018 and 2019, titled by order of appearance: Isa, Alberto, Alba, Guillermo, Martina, Athena, Andy, Jessie Maria and Esther.
Isa
Alberto
Alba
Guillermo
Martina
Atena
Andy
Jessie María
Esther
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair, pt. II
The second part of Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair is immersed in the theme of memento mori. The crowns, which in Pt. I symbolized that non-normative identity that was not afraid to show off, now show themselves dried by the passage of time. They are a juxtaposition between fragility and legacy, a reminder of the vulnerability and persistence of the community.
The flowers, originating from Pt. I, form shapes that vary between crowns, armor and helmets, symbolism that refers directly to pride and protection, support and the feeling of belonging. The individual is not alone, but his experience is heard and forms a part of the LGBTQ + defense.
The series consists of nine pieces, without title, made in 2019.
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SOLO EXHIBITION
Pico tres was exhibited at the Andalusian Institute of the Youth of Almería from June 27 to July 12, 2019
