Carolina Aguirre

Carolina Aguirre (b.1990, Chile) is an Argentinean artist based in London. 

Having lived in Chile, South Africa, and Egypt, she attended UWC Atlantic, graduated with a BA (Hons) Graphic Design (1st) from UAL: Central Saint Martins and worked in the film industry before transitioning into an interdisciplinary art practice. She is a recipient of the Ali H. Alkazzi Scholarship Award (2021-2023) and the 2022 Kyoto City University of the Arts exchange programme. She has exhibited internationally, a recent highlight being her duo-show Ghost Notes at Fold Gallery, London.

She is currently exhibiting sculptural works at Soft Monuments, Frestonian Gallery (until 05/08/23) and a painting at the Summer Exhibition (in Gallery III), Royal Academy of Arts (until 20/08/23), both in London.

Upcoming projects for 2024 include a solo installation at Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland, and solo presentations with Paulina Caspari, Munich and Ruttowski;68, Cologne. Dates TBA.

Carolina Aguirre’s mythopoetic works question the experience of belonging as it relates to location, nature, and otherness. Belonging is chosen as an embodied and emotional access point to wider themes of environmentalism and identity politics resulting from mobility. The interdisciplinary practice incorporates painting, video, sculpture and performance and is guided by materiality, spirituality, and tenderness.

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Long Read:

The painting process, which forms the foundation of the practice, feels both archeological and psychoanalytical. It starts with covering the wooden panels in ink, and then carefully washing layers to unearth interlocking or fusing masses. The resulting landscapes allude to land as seen from a flight home, browsed longingly on google maps, or studied up close on a rock. This is also how migrating birds, Gods, insects and ancestors see our world.  

The textures, which feel geological, biological and at times almost glitchy, are achieved through attention to material; the mineral sheen of Sumi ink, the sticky, bodily gloss of shellac (made from the female Lac beetle), the smokiness of charcoal and the chalkiness of Gofun (made from crushed up seashells). Painting on the floor is key as it provides an aerial, unfixed view, with the final orientation of the painting often settling quite late in the process, only once human narratives (mythical, layered and ambiguous) are fully woven into the landscape.

The latest series of sculptures/installations address waste as fertile material through its physical and metaphorical potential. Domestic debris is compacted into circular time-capsules and sealed with tinted paper pulp. They are reminiscent of fossils or coals, which can be reimagined (and reused) into different forms. In this way, the past is cared for and welcomed back to interact with the present, creating space for alternative understandings and healing. Other materials incorporated into these narratives include human ashes, hair, and live plants.

Writing, soundscape, video, and performance act as primary research for, accompany and /or activate the physical work; these incorporate field-recordings, music, phone-calls, active imagination and spoken word.