Cecilia Paredes: The Two Twilights: New York

April 1 - June 18, 2021
  • 'Paredes’ works invoke forms of empathy lost in today's increasingly rushed life as well as forms of adaptation that living...
    Cecilia Paredes
    Blue Flight, 2021
    Photo performance inkjet print
    46.75 x 36 in
    118.6 x 91.4 cm
    Edition of 7
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    "Paredes’ works invoke forms of empathy lost in today's increasingly rushed life as well as forms of adaptation that living organisms invent to extend their survival. Her work thus forces us to halt, breathe look at our bodies and reconnect with our own transient and perishable condition."

     

    - Miguel A. Lopez from "Fragility Is My Name: The unstoppable creative river of Cecilia Paredes", Cecilia Paredes: El No Retorno, 2018.

  • Ruiz-Healy Art is pleased to present Cecilia Paredes: The Two Twilights. This is the fourth solo show of Cecilia Paredes with Ruiz-Healy Art but the first at our New York City gallery. An exhibition catalogue with an essay by Elizabeth Ferrer will be available.

     

    Paredes’s photo performance works often center around the concept of home and relocation, stemming from her move to the United States from Costa Rica in 2004. The Two Twilights draws further inspiration from the periods of quarantine and isolation experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Hidden among themes of suffering are symbols of hope and rebirth that leave the viewer with a feeling of comfort in a time of great uncertainty.

     

    "History of the Night", a poem by Jorge Luis Borges, frames these works perfectly and embodies the human experience at its present state. There is before and after this. And both are blue, blue as for longing and bittersweet memories and blue as the wonderful blue sea or the sky, so profoundly renewed every day.

     

     

     

     
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  • 'The front door of my studio is separated from the ER entrance of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital by an...
    Cecilia Paredes
    The Unseen Glance, 2021
    Photo performance inkjet print
    43 x 30 3/4 in
    109.2 x 78 cm
    Edition of 7
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    "The front door of my studio is separated from the ER entrance of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital by an open-air car park. This allows me to see and hear again and again, ambulances and helicopters arriving. A constant reminder of the cruel truth of covid-19. During this time, l have worked on four tapestries and some engravings and one sculpture. I am starting a sculpture in glass right now, fragility is in my mind."

     

    - Cecilia Paredes
  • 'The wings represent escaping, and getting out of what we are currently experiencing, and the thorns are a metaphor for...
    Cecilia Paredes
    Of Wings and Thorns, 2020
    Photo performance inkjet print
    47 x 39 in
    119.4 x 99.1 cm
    Edition of 7 plus 3 artist's proofs
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    "The wings represent escaping, and getting out of what we are currently experiencing, and the thorns are a metaphor for the difficult situation that we are living in."

     

    - Cecilia Paredes

  • In Of Wings and Thorns Paredes photographs herself from a bird's eye view camoflauged among birds and thorns. Bought in France pre-covid, the wallpaper contains tags with the names of influential ornithologists like Alan Turing, John James Audubon, and Charles Darwin whose treatise on adaptation is still so relevant as we all have tried to adapt to our current situation.
  • 'The hands in this photo intertwine, almost like a vine, reflects the idea of vanitas. These works show a beautiful...
    Cecilia Paredes
    Magnolia Stories, 2021
    Photo performance lightbox
    21 x 31 1/2 x 3 in
    53.3 x 80 x 7.6 cm
    Edition of 3
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    "The hands in this photo intertwine, almost like a vine, reflects the idea of vanitas. These works show a beautiful banquet and garden, with people enjoying themselves, yet always contain a motif depicting death. This serves as a reminder that we are just passing."

     

    - Cecilia Paredes

     
  • “I wrap, cover or paint my body with the same pattern of the material and represent myself as part of...
    Cecilia Paredes
    The Voyage, 2019
    Photo performance inkjet print
    58 x 32 3/4 in
    147.3 x 83.1 cm
    Edition of 7 plus 3 artist's proofs
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    “I wrap, cover or paint my body with the same pattern of the material and represent myself as part of that landscape. Through this act, I am working on the theme of building my own identification with the entourage or part of the world where I live or where I feel I can call home.”

     

    – Cecilia Paredes
  • 'In the critic Fietta Jarque's excellent definition, Paredes is a 'secret shaman', 'someone who makes you look and listen, disguised...
    Cecilia Paredes
    The Whisper, 2021
    Photo performance inkjet print
    51 x 34 in
    129.5 x 86.4 cm
    Edition of 7
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    "In the critic Fietta Jarque's excellent definition, Paredes is a 'secret shaman', 'someone who makes you look and listen, disguised among other forms'. This is precisely her strategy: composing new choreographies of elements in order to see the future through them."

     

    - Miguel A. Lopez from "Fragility Is My Name: The unstoppable creative river of Cecilia Paredes", El No Retorno, 2018.
  • Feather dress touches on the ability to fly and have freedom. Its form as a woman’s dress refers to the...
    Cecilia Paredes
    Pheasant and Peacock Dress, 2017
    Fine feathers on cloth
    16.5 x 13 in
    41.9 x 33 cm
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    Feather dress touches on the ability to fly and have freedom. Its form as a woman’s dress refers to the feminine identity and desire to be free.

  • Tapestries

    During the initial lockdown of Spring of 2020, Paredes experimented with using found materials, beginning with an old piece of linen and a pair of curtains. From this experimentation was born the inspiration for her tapestries, made from discarded and intentionally aged materials. Made from silk, felt, and knotted textile, these woven tapestries display themes of destruction and rebuilding. As an artist whose main inspiration comes from traveling and an interest in other cultures, this is a shift from her classic photo performance pieces and a labor of love born out of the pandemic.
  • Cecilia Paredes Constellation, 2021 Silk on felt tapestry 50 x 50 in 127 x 127 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Cecilia Paredes The Weaver, 2021 Photo performance print on silk with fray 68 x 40 in 101.6 x 172.7 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Cecilia Paredes Nights are Proud Waves, 2021 Knotted silk and stained cotton 50 x 44 in 110 x 127 cm (Larger version of this image opens in a popup).
    Cecilia Paredes, Constellation, 2021, Silk on felt tapestry, 50 x 50 in, 127 x 127 cm
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  • We shall never know who forged the word

    for the interval of shadow

    which divides the two twilights;

    we shall never know in what century it stood as a cipher

    for the space between the stars.

    Other men engendered the myth.

    They made it mother of the tranquil Fates

    who weave destiny.... 

     

    And to think it would not exist

    but for those tenuous instruments, the eyes. 

     

    - Jorge Luis Borges from “History of the Night”

  • About the Artist