FLORENCIA ESCUDERO
November 14, 2019 - January 18, 2020


Florencia Escudero’s debut solo exhibition at the gallery features new sculptures that explore the relationship between the female form and objects.  Sculptures juxtapose soft and handmade components with digitally rendered imagery and printing.

Feminist theory, cyber culture, and an embrace of various techniques such as digital photo collage, hand sewing, and silk-screening culminate in Escudero's sculptures.  Spandex and satin combine with rigid components such as 3d-printed plastic and laser-cut mirrors in the shape of scissors, teardrops, and spirals.  These materials place each sculpture in the realm of both the machine-made and the handmade.  Sculpted handbags, found stockings, and wearable blankets form torsos, appendages, and portions of the female visage, punctuated with various direct and sideways gazes.

“When making these pieces I am thinking about the history of feminist art that looks at the objectification of women's bodies. I want to flip the expectation and look at how objects become human. We currently live in a time in which AI and robots are no longer limited to the realm of science fiction, but are part of our reality. I wonder how the design of automata reflects and inherits both positive and negative traits.”

Florencia Escudero was born in Singapore in 1987 and grew up in Mendoza, Argentina. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Escudero received an MFA in Sculpture from the Yale University School of Art in 2012 and a BFA in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts in 2010. Her works have been exhibited at Kristen Lorello, New York, NY, Instituto Cervantes, New York, NY, and The Steuben Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York, NY, among other venues. She was a 2016 year-long Artist in Residence at the Loisaida Center, New York, NY, and has also completed residencies at Art Farm, Marquette, NE, and Pilchuck Glass School, Seattle, WA. Works by Escudero have been discussed in Editorial Magazine, Aether Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Hyperallergic, and The American Reader. She is an editor and founder of Precog Magazine.

 


This 28-second video gives a view of Florencia Escudero's studio, the site where she creates the fabric-based soft sculptures that comprise her November 2019 solo exhibition at Kristen Lorello. The video was made by filmmaker Matthew Kohn. The film begins with a few of Escudero from behind. She is seated at her desk, sewing a purple piece of fabric on her electric sewing machine. She is wearing a red worksuit. In the background we see a red cup of pens in different colors. The next view shows her standing in a corner of the studio. A large red sculpture made from a cut blanket hangs on the wall. It is larger than the artist. Escuder is seen fixing a sculptural appendage to the form. These appendages feature a printed image of an insect-looking form in purple and white bordered with black velvet. To the left of Escudero, a second sculpture hangs on the wall. It is made from a printed fabric of five leg-like forms. It is purple and turquoise and hangs from the wall by a silver chain. Next we see a close-up of Escudero sewing by hand a piece of a sculpture covered in black velvet fabric. A closer view shows Escudero's fingernails, painted clear and black. She is wearing a ring and a black wristwatch. We then see her cutting a black piece of the black velvet fabric, part of one of the appendage forms shown earlier in the film as part of the large blanket-like sculpture. She cuts the velvet with turquoise and silver scissors. A sewing pin cushion in the background is filled with yellow sewing pins. Next, the camera closes in on details of several of the sculptures. First we see a close view of the large blanket-like sculpture. It features a bear-like graphic form that appears to smile and insect-like legs in purple, cushioned by black velvet. The camera then pans across the hanging sculpture made of the repeated large purple leg motif. This sculpture includes green soft spike-like components. Finally, a close up of a separate sculpture 'Frog Licker' features a circular head with eyes, a nose, and visable sections of hand-stitching. We then see this sculpture set atop stool-like sculptures made of velvet and foam. They look squishy and hold smaller sculptures with eyes and a decorative print on top of them. Next, the camera shows us other tools around Escudero's studio. A close up view of rows of thread spools in bright colors arranged upright, stationed into holders. Next is a view of Escudero seated cross-legged on the floor, hand sewing a portion of sculpture in black velvet. Buckets are next to her. She threads a needle. In the background a closet holds other sculptures she has made in the past that hang from a rod. Various photographs and drawings of sculptures to be made are pasted on the wall behind her like a storyboard. Then, a close up of the pin cushion, a close up of one bucket that holds different types of scissors. She takes a pair of scissors out of the bucket and cuts a large piece of beige fabric. On the floor is a large foam sculpture that will become the interior of the final sculptural form. It looks like a pair of oversized sneakers. Finally, we see a close-up view of the sewing machine, as she sews a different piece of purple fabric.

Florencia Escudero / sculptures in process / video by Matthew Kohn

Link to written description of the video