Maria Fernanda Plata: “Measurement Drawings”

Nov 22/07 – Jan 31/08

Emerging contemporary artist Maria Fernanda Plata presents “Dibujo sobre medida” (Measurement Drawings), an exhibition featuring impeccable monochromatic works dealing with systems of measurement used for determining length, area and mass. This new series of works which implicitly refer to the notion of vernacular architecture, contain carefully crafted images determined by the amount of material employed by the artist.

The project— which arises from the idea of taking a specific distance and reducing it within the smallest space possible— assumes material form with the creation of drawings made with a continuous piece of thread whose measurement has been previously fixed by the artist. The thread drawings which explore the concept of distance, serve as the springboard for the creation of drawings dealing with the concepts of area and mass. The works concerned with the notion of area have been created using a module measuring 1cm2 which is repeated a specific number of times; those concerned with mass are collages that weight a fixed amount of grams. In other words each of the drawings comprises units whose amounts have been arbitrarily set by the artist.

The measurement concept seemingly predominates in Plata’s exhibition however, the imagery employed by the artist is indicative of the fact that architecture is one of the underlying themes in this new body of work; an urban architecture free from austerity and better defined as vernacular, intimate and feminine, embodied in facades of residential neighborhood houses, fragmented patterned floors and highly decorated railing. “Dibujo sobre medida” (Measurement Drawings) is a visually homogeneous exhibition dealing with an apparently rigorous and calculated theme that is cleverly contrasted to an imagery that blurs the social connotations inherent in architecture.

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