EDUARDO SARABIA’S TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN
Four Minutes of Darkness, Eduardo Sarabia's inaugural solo exhibition at OMR, unfolds as a cartography of the artist's intricate visual language and marks the second in a trilogy of exhibitions dedicated to the total eclipse of the sun.
Evoking the opacity and shade cast by a solar eclipse, the exhibition explores the power of imagination and the desire to project the future. Through an architectural structure reminiscent of a chapel, the artist expresses his fascination with ancestral, alchemical, and mystical knowledge. A stained-glass ceiling casts soft light as the main protagonist, illuminating a fountain emerging from darkness and awakening various characters. The fountain, with “fuente” meaning both “fountain” and “source” in Spanish, pays homage to the wellsprings of inspiration and the information we draw from.
A surrounding garden stems from the artist’s deeply personal language such as references inspired by his childhood: his grandfather’s treasure hunt tales, reflected in images of coins or diamonds, an intergenerational love for baseball, as well as a profound interest in Mexico’s endemic species. Alongside the traditional evocation of the sacred ceiba in the imagination of Sarabia, elements such as sea and vegetation, earth and universe, light and darkness, microstories and the crow – a newfound symbol of power – all interweave in this exhibition. They are encompassed by a site-specific mural of green vines, a recurring element in the artist’s vocabulary. In the Los Angeles neighborhood where Sarabia grew up, residents painted scenes of vines, flowers, and branches on their house facades to prevent the tagging with graffiti.
The upper floor of the gallery is dedicated to his best-known works: his ceramic pieces. Resembling Mexican talavera with their white and cobalt blue colors, these vases depict the triggers of illegal microeconomies that have affected the country. Throughout his practice, the artist draws connections between the history of Mexico and his personal narrative, marking the country not only as the land of his cultural heritage but as his chosen home.
For his exhibition, the artist has constructed a small temple – a portal that incites the viewer to visit his creative universe. Four Minutes of Darkness is the invitation to cross a threshold where Eduardo Sarabia's imagination converges in a dimension that for a moment distance us from our own and illuminates wisdom, honor, and will.
Four Minutes of Darkness. Individual exhibition by Eduardo Sarabia.
Until March 26th, 2024.
OMR. Córdoba 100, Roma Norte, México City, México.