Visiting Patricia Domínguez’s bespoke installation combining video, watercolours and sculpture at Cecilia Brunson Projects in Bermondsey, south London, is nothing short of an epiphany.
Tres Lunas más Abajo (Three Moons Below) presents a crossover of spiritual and quantum realms, reinforcing Domínguez’s status as one of the most progressive young thinkers in the intersection of art, science and ecology. The film component of the exhibition is inspired by the architecture of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, based in Switzerland; a particle detector that comprises a gigantic golden chamber filled with liquid argon. The artist’s sophisticated watercolours and sculptures are incorporated into this presentation, including robotic eagles from the video, guarding the entrance to the gallery and marking our crossing into her amalgamated world.
he Chajnantor Plateau in the Atacama Desert, in the north of Patricia’s native Chile (where she lives and works), is one of the highest and driest places on Earth, and an ideal location for the largest radio telescope in the world, which detects tiny wavelengths full of information about our cosmic origins. When coupled with the measurements of the particle accelerators of CERN, the high-tech data collides with ancient petroglyphs to act as portals for the film’s protagonists; a woman and her robotic bird companion. Together, they enter a theoretical space, consulting with mystical beings and machines on their intricate journey.
Asked about her notions of that space, Patricia commented that the scientific information from the above sources gave her a deeper understanding of the micro and macro cosmos, and provided her already developed, and curious, spiritual self, with an extra insight about her impressions of reality. Also naturally influenced by Aldous Huxley’s classic The Doors of Perception, she has created, through film, painting and sculpture, different perspectives on our universe beyond what is tangible and visible.
Domínguez’s futuristic and otherworldly imagery is informed by the wide scope of her research, from the Simetría Residency to studies in ethnobotany and South American spiritual practices in plant healing.
Alongside her artistic practice, she is the founder of Studio Vegetalista, an experimental platform for ethnobotanical research. Her video practice is represented in leading programmes in art, science and ecology, most recently in 2024 in the first Klima Biennale, Vienna, the Serpentine’s General Ecology programme in London, and PST ART, organised by the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Tres Lunas más Abajo (Three Moons Below) was produced with the support of Fundación Botín, Arts at CERN, ESO Observatories, Pro Helvetia Southamerica, Corporación Chilena de Video, Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio de Chile, and Cecilia Brunson Projects.
Tres Lunas más Abajo (Three Moons Below)
Cecilia Brunson Projects
2G Royal Oak Yard – Bermondsey Street – London SE1 3GD
17 September – 25 October 2024
