On the keys of a typewriter, she hurriedly transcribes an infinite list of figures and accounting formulas that entangle her thoughts. The strokes of the machine go to the rhythm of the score written from a whirlwind of images that she transfers to paper, giving it the form of a symphony. Notes in gold, like a golden fleece that tries to escape but must stick to the stave, even though they are endowed with formulas difficult to interpret. It is music written for a ledger.
Transferring the value of things, the value of buying and selling, underlies the origin of the pieces in this exhibition to then ask ourselves: can a work of art have value? In the market, it clearly does, but what about in the mind of a collector, a gallery owner, or even an artist?
Collectors generally approach a work of art primarily out of passion. Is it possible to put a price on this gesture? How much is the passion for a work of art worth? In many cases, it is a “fatal” attraction comparable to many others, and trying to put a value on this is complicated, but Luisa Pastor tries. Her mathematics, her accounts and statistics, and the origin of her works in accounting books try to shed light on a subject that is difficult to catalog. Some pieces you look at and trap you under formulas endowed with such poetry that it is difficult to get to the beginning.
As in music, mathematics are formulas that we can endow with harmonies, counterpoints, and vanishing lines that lead us to the heart and the deepest psyche, where the melody transports us to a universe full of aura. This formula can be observed in previous studies that the artist has carried out for her works. There is no doubt that her aesthetic contains a mystique of beauty. In her works, there is a dialogue between volume, light, matter, and movement, of drawing in space, of creating volume from the emptiness that supports the interior of the piece, joining fragments that delimit it. She takes to its ultimate consequences an abstract conception of space without dispensing with a certain formal stylization and certain sensual effects, incorporating tactile material sensations.
Science and technology form an alliance that, through the language of art, can change the world in a transgressive and creative way. They are also catalysts for social change that begins with a change in narrative. The value of art enters this algorithm in a tangential way to later obviate it for a value that leads us to passion.
As in the tale of Alice in Wonderland, Luisa Pastor invites us to observe a path from which something as “gridded” as a ledger can be derived:
“Alice asked the Cheshire Cat, who was sitting in a tree, “What road do I
take?”
The cat asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know,” Alice answered.
“Then, said the cat, “it really doesn’t matter, does it?”.
Art certainly helps us to be connected to the world and to understand it better. Art is not limited to what you can see but invites you to be more open to your senses. Artists help us to discern and to try different interpretations without fear of being wrong.
Suggesting, imagining, dreaming, and nodding are what take off from this exhibition. With these works, we will listen more and talk less.
Alicia Ventura
