Ornament and crime

The modernist architect Adolf Loos in his famous essay "Ornament and Crime" (1929) defended the "immoral" and "degenerate" nature of ornament - of adornment - especially in utilitarian objects. Today the boundaries between art and decoration, minimalism and ornament, or art and craftsmanship are becoming more and more fluid, more and more liquid. Trends and fashions are also blurring and blurring into each other. The work of Estefanía Martín Sáenz (Bilbao, 1982) addresses the meanings latent in ornamental images (from wallpaper patterns to textile prints), in whose design drawing plays a fundamental role. Among the arabesques of these geometric or floral motifs, the artist discovers a lively world of hidden beings and characters. This poetics is characterized by a singular treatment of the feminine universe and its emotions, where sweetness and delicacy, charm and seduction -in short, the "positive" clichés culturally associated with the image of women: charming, submissive, airy, faithful, innocent, self-sacrificing- appear inseparable from their opposites.