Buenos Aires Herald / Alfredo Cernadas / Batalla´s bulges

Batalla’s bulges



In 1513 King Manuel of Portugal had a rhinoceros brought to his court in Lisbon from India, much to the amazement of all the Europeans who beheld it. One of them described the beast in detail to Albrecht Düerer, who drew the engraving that would become famous. That work inspired sculptor Juan Batalla to create the weird, lumpy things displayed at the Recoleta Cultural Centre. Actually, there is a relation between all three, beginning by the hunky artist’s physique, far more comparable to a rhino than a stork.   
    
Besides, Batalla’s works are noteworthy for their lumpiness and the powerful results he obtains working with a rather unusual, heavy, rather unwieldy raw material: rubber truck, car or bicycle tyres . With them Batalla, honouring his name, battles with the chunks of rubber and turns them into fantastic shapes as amazing as the rhino was to the 16th century Europeans. The results are quite amazing. He twists and turns them into abstract things or others as recognizable as a silver blue pillow or a monster not unlike the one in the thriller Alien. The general impression of these thick bas-reliefs is that of the sculpture covered walls of ancient Indian temples, or they can also give the impression of snakes, either stretched or mingling. A rather bizarre, unusual but stimulating show.
9 de mayo 2010