Following the U.S. Capitol insurrection in January 2021, I wrote "This Apple." Six months earlier, the Reichstag was stormed by neo-Nazis in Berlin. In both cases, lethal flags flew in the sky and the bloodshed was palpable: captive water droplets in the air on a hot day before a catastrophic storm. The media tirelessly regurgitates the horrors of the ongoing assaults on (what they claim as) our democracies. But what do we do, if anything? Nationalism in its perpetual crusade to colonize. Or is it capitalism - is there a difference? ~ Melanie Teresa Bohrer
White lies carve canyons is born from this reflection and first poem: 'This Apple', and does so as an artist's book of variable dimensions that extends throughout the entire gallery space and is only completed and activated with the participation of the public.
Just as the histories of our nations leave their mark on us, so do the essential materials that make up the piece: graphite and iron oxide. Both pigments have been with us since ancient times, used to mark, dye, preserve and corrode; materials that are still very present in our daily lives, with which, whether we are aware of it or not, we are in direct contact.
In the center of the room, there is a piece of silk stretched out in the shape of an ellipse - without beginning or end, which invites us to intervene on it through two simple gestures: mending or cutting, each of which will leave a different imprint on the fabric (the thread impregnated with rust; the scissors with graphite), in turn transforming the imprint of the other.
White lies carve canyons is an open and collective proposal that allows us to relate to the artist's work in a sensorial way not only through the hands, but with the whole body and especially with our body in conversation with those of others; exploring how through everyday actions, sewing and cutting, and necessary forces, building and destroying, we weave the connective tissue that shapes us as a society.