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Writer's pictureMonica Blignaut

Carlos Amorales


Artist 254

Carlos Amorales

Black Cloud

Installation Art


Carlos Amorales (born 1970) is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist who specializes in exploring limitations in language and translation through cultural experimentation.


Amorales works in a variety of media, including video, animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance.


Much of his work explores the limits of language and translation systems to venture into the field of cultural experimentation.



Amorales examines identity construction processes, proposes a constant re signification of forms present in his work, and provokes a clash between art and pop culture.


One project is ‘Liquid Archive’ Amorales has been building a digital database of his drawings in the form of vector graphics which he uses produce visual compositions in various media. The graphics, birds, spiders, trees, kneeling figures in blacks, reds, and grays reappear throughout his work and provide his signature style.



Some of his works involve and feature performances like his work with masked Mexican wrestlers inspired by the Lucha libre performing in wrestling rings throughout the world. Or like in his exhibition Discarded Spider for this show, Amorales also staged a performance with the Cincinnati Ballet.


Carlos Amorales is considered one of Mexico’s most important contemporary artists from the 1990s to the present day.



Amorales through his art has created a world of fantastical images and stories that explore the field of tension between the individual and society.


Today’s focus is on his artwork ‘Black Cloud’ is which gathers about 30,000 butterflies of different sizes made of paper and accumulated on the walls and ceilings of the exhibition places that it invests.



The installation of the work requires a team of fourteen people working uninterrupted for five days to install one by one each insect. The result is confusing: close up, each butterfly is cut out and deposited on the wall with finesse, which contrasts with the general surreal and disturbing atmosphere created by their accumulation.


I love the experience ‘Black cloud’ provides and would love to see it in person.





Sources Consulted


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Amorales


https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/carlos-amorales

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