Santiago Díaz Escamilla

Planos (Reducir, Constituir, Reinterpretar)
Planes (Reduce, Constitute, Reinterpret)

2017

Black marble dust, black slate, cement, wire mesh

The organic structure of a stone is ever-changing and thus uneven. Here, I first crush it, forcing it to become dust. Then, I compact it again but in a rectilinear form, completely negating its original appearance and behavior. This work examines the concept of “deconstruction,” taking its dictionary definition as a starting point:

“Reduce (something) to its constituent parts in order to reinterpret it” (Oxford Languages).

The powder, made from a mixture of black marble dust, hand-ground black slate, and a small portion of cement, is employed to build blocks. Although solid in appearance, these heavy masses are fragile and unstable, readily crumbling when handled.

During their elaboration process, I notice how the mix reacts, imposing its limits and yielding to a certain extent to the attempt of being controlled. I associate this effort to tame the material with the impossibility of bringing a system as complex as planet Earth to human reasoning. 

This work pairs with another piece called Criterios de selección (Selection Criteria), 2017. The latter is a series of silkscreen prints in which I decompose —using a vector graphics editor— an engraving made in the 17th century by German scientist Athanasius Kircher. The image depicts a mountain cut in half.
Therefore, the blocks are built with the same dimensions as the prints, resonating with the action of separating by layers.