LUISA DUARTE
BY OFELIA SOTO. MARACAIBO, March 26, 2005
Luisa Duarte is capable of creating meticulous, fragile, and complex art—an art that encompasses diverse skills in practice, knowledge, conceptualization, and longing.
An art anchored in physical constraints, with guiding threads—both real and mental—that allow limits to dissolve as they project in various directions.
Suspended art. Contained. Brief. A resonant echo of drawing, embedded in the very material of the object. Whether it be a lifeless beetle. A new or ancient sign. A dense or articulated symbol. Whether it be organic fabric bound to the circle, to the sun, or to its perpetually circular task of renewal. The tireless labor of centuries. A distant myth. A natural message.
Or perhaps, it is a small, real piece of wood—tightly knotted—that may be understood as support, ballast, or foundation. Or it may speak of a raft adrift, with no fixed star, or a vessel on a protective course, pointing beyond.
An interwoven grip. A clever and risky weave, of a minimal yet vital object that both "signifies" and is "significant." A mysterious reference, a preceding connection, a hook in the wind, a line toward the future. A recapitulation of the world. A recognition—both confused and true—that appears like a drop of water expanding, free and fleeting. Or that emerges along its path from the undulation of paper, from the resonance of color, or from structural elegance.
Task and absurdity. A useless and serious game. A trace in the void. A mark in time. An essential metaphor. A shared reference. A private space. A public territory. Suspended movement. Obsession and discovery. Idea and lightning. Object and event.
In the end—Art.