Tatiana Echeverri Fernandez was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, in 1974 and since then she has lived in Colombia, Germany and the UK, where she studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art. She currently lives and works in Berlin.

In 2008, Fernandez’ work was selected by Tracey Emin for inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Show, and prior to that her work was included in the Barbican exhibition Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art.

Fernandez' work is littered with the remnants of Modernism and the fragments of modern life. Her particular brand of salvage employs string grocery bags and cast concrete architectural elements, materials redolent of a previous, fuller life.

In Fraulein Semiramis and Fraulein Candace, Fernandez transforms everyday crockery through a precise kind of assemblage. She manages to simultaneously conceal the original forms while emphasising their silhouettes. The strip of colour twisting up the totem-like form reveals the original decorations of the crockery, a glimpse of tea roses here, a souvenir of a space mission there.

Concealing and revealing, elevating the kitsch and relegating the high-brow, Fernandez's work is full of contradictions, brought into submission by the artist's intuitive sense of order.

www.carlfreedmangallery.com

 

Glossary

  • Assemblage

    The use of non-art objects and found materials, often junk and/or debris, to create art works. The disparate elements are 'assembled' by gluing, welding or other techniques. Assemblage can be looked at as the three-dimensional counterpart of collage, and similarly traces its origin to Pablo Picasso's and George Braque’s collaborations in 1912-14. This technique was particularly used in the late 1950s and 1960s and continues to be employed by many contemporary artists today.

  • Cast

    To form material such as molten metal, liquid plaster or liquid plastic into a three-dimensional shape, by pouring into a mould. Also see Lost-wax casting.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.