Venue Details

13.01.25 - 17.01.25

The folly | Amethyst

11:00 AM - 7:30 PM (Mon - Sun)

Is it a room or a chamber? Is it contained or does it reach out to infinity? Is it suspended in time or is it aging as we speak? Who are these dead men and women whose frames hang within the image? Do they converse with each other when the light has gone; when the living are asleep, or when they’ve retired to elsewhere worlds across the seas, abandoning their precious interiors to be playthings of the elements?

Sebastian Cortés’ photographs are saturated with such ever-questioning detail. Clues abound. But what is the great mystery they serve to address? Within this astute body of work, objects are testaments and the sitters, when framed, are firmly in attendance. Both categories of inhabitants allude to that which is present and that which has past, transforming Cortés’ photographs into documents that will determine the future of the multiple mis-en-scenes.

Cortés reinvents remains. His contemporary lens preys on remaindered detail, fragments, traces of what were once prized acquisitions, aesthetic luxuries. In doing so, he references their metonymic relation to Time Past. Their resilience against erosion, decay, and their survival in the face of neglect and abandonment constitutes the poetry of the present. Cortés alludes to the momentary present; that which was in existence, however prolonged or accidental that existence may have been.

EXHIBITING ARTIST

Internationally recognized as a lifestyle and fashion photographer, Sebastian Cortés has always maintained a firm commitment to fine art photography. Influenced by the American school of photography in the tradition of Stephen Shore, William Eggleston, and Fox Talbot’s astute observation of the camera’s special aptitude for recording “the injuries of time”, he has developed a highly personal analysis of the camera as an instrument for recording “the layering of time and sense of place”. This is clearly illustrated in the photographs exhibited , which resonate with a sense of melancholic loss.

PROGRAMS AS PART OF THE SHOW