Cristina Iglesias

(San Sebastian, 1956)

Celosía X

2006

stoneware

Variable measurements

Inv. no. 35537

BBVA Collection Spain



Entering through an enchanted door we embark on an enigmatic journey towards a secret forest, imbued with narrative and poetry, containing philosophical references to time and space.

The works of Cristina Iglesias are mid-way between abstraction and naturalism, and also have an element of minimalism. Her obsession with invention gives her a personal and unmistakable style. Her sculptures have a markedly architectural quality; they are walls or doors which encourage us to walk in, to enter her private world. Indeed, that is her aim, to make viewers enjoy her works, experience them by interacting with them, immerse themselves in them, walk round them, look at them close up and from a distance, in order to discover her obsession.

The materials she uses — alabaster, cement, iron, stoneware, resin, etc. — are also related to the world of architecture. Iglesias is concerned to explore and utilise all the expressive, technical and visual possibilities they have to offer her.

Like many of her works, Celosía X was made especially for a specific place: in this case, the garden of the Marquis of Salamanca’s palace. In this piece, the way light and space complement each other is essential to creating the atmosphere of the setting and accentuating its spirituality. It creates a hidden interplay of glances, a forest of light and shade which we enter and, as the name indicates, a celosía or lattice through which we can see without being seen.

Cristina Iglesias is an enthusiast for literature, poetry and painting, and her sculptures are forests of letters. She uses texts, sometimes her own, sometimes by other writers such as Raymond Roussel or J. G. Ballard, which describe her state of mind and are, in general, a eulogy for the act of walking, texts inserted into geometric structures, like hieroglyphs, creating a narrative that is real, even if it does not seem to be. They are an elaborate and thoughtful discourse on invention and space.

The creative process begins with a drawing; this is turned into a model, which she then photographs. Finally, she draws on the photographs, copiously annotating and retouching them to mark out the final result she will use to produce the sculpture. The collection possesses four original studies for this work, two of which are painted photographs.