COVID-19
Collapse, reconstruction, collapse, reconstruction—at this point in time, the question is not if but how. With how much care will the restoration of the world be accomplished? Hopefully with the amount of awareness and tenderness evidenced in Alejandro Medina’s Reconstrucción, on view at La Nueva Fábrica in Antigua, Guatemala. The title installation features dozens of branches balanced on free-standing metal stilts, each one forking off toward another, then another, then another, resulting in a complex web of interconnection. When some inevitably fall, others follow, and Medina must commit to rebuilding them. Nearby, six “Atmósferas”—terrarium towers filled with soil, water and germinating native tree seeds—stand precariously atop plinths made of the teak wood whose global demand threatens to eliminate them from local forests. In these sculptures, Medina works with the symbolic, but in “Intercambio” he proceeds pragmatically, providing a seedbank with an ever-changing inventory of native seeds for the giving and taking.
—Lori Waxman 2021-01-26 10:53 AM