The Map and The Fact

Magnan Metz Gallery
New York City. USA
September 12 – October 12, 2014

 Arrechea examines this idea from a mathematical, existential, and historical perspective creating a visual metaphor for Pre-Colombian cartography and how its “placement” of one continent over another was simply a construct used to illustrate power. The Map (7 ½ x 16 feet), a four panel watercolor lays out all four hemispheres and their continents on a blue that is reminiscent of the color of the sea. The land forms are familiar but not easily discernible against the rippling surface of the oceans. 

 From this drawing emerges The Fact, a sculptural installation in a sun-drenched yellowish orange hue. The sculpture is positioned as a parenthesis, or fragment, of the drawing. Although it owes its existence to the drawing, it is independent. The viewer is left to consider the complexities of the fragment vs. the whole, global versus local or vice versa. The small concentric circles floating atop the surface of the sculpture contain photographs of a single drop of water and honey representing the totality of life and all its sweetness.