PROLOGUE

Maureen Paley, London, September - October 2023.

For his second solo show at Maureen Paley, the Mexican-American artist Eduardo Sarabia shows a selection of recent work that opens a return to the central and the present. Prologue, is the first of a series of exhibitions in which the artist prepares us for an astronomical event: the total eclipse of the sun that will take place in April 2024 and that will be visible from Mexico, especially Mazatlán, Sinaloa, where a final show will take place at the Museum of Art in Mazatlán.

Sarabia’s work has its origin in a playful but politicized vision of his environment, in which he addressed complex issues at a social and cultural level, but it is from 2019 that warmer and deeper scenes appear. His images have taken a more personal and autobiographical path, his intimate, affective and spiritual life are approached to amplify a reading on external events. Ancient mystical elements still appear in his imagery, but now they are added to his own language where symbolism appears constantly over time. His power animals, the quetzal, the sacred ceiba tree, now the hands (which evoke palmistry, deep self-knowledge and connection with others), the ramifications as a sign of roots, of link between heaven and earth, but also of belonging and inhabiting; all this unites the past, the present and the future.

According to different ancient cultures, the total eclipse of the sun opens the possibility of new astronomical events, the birth of new stars, and in general a new life. The opportunity to experience it from the state of Sinaloa, in Mexico, acquires a particular importance for Sarabia, given that his family comes from that territory. Much of the family story and Sarabia’s legacy, including its relationship with the landscape, comes from that complex and naturally rich territory.

Thus, for the artist this will be an opportunity to look directly into the light but also into the shadow. The conjunction in the stars is also a moment of reflection that we can take to see with a new look what We know, but also what We have kept hidden from ourselves as individuals and as communities. Everything overlaps and crosses in the present. We live NOW but We are inhabited by the memory and learning of other years. We stop at this very moment but We are moved by desire and hope for what is about to come. Prologue talks about the past and the future from a conscious and active present. The materiality of the work invites the visitor to look at other places, above and below, at what is in the air, something that always shows us that there is much more than what We see, behind all things. Only then We can really embrace who we are.