The story of Las Ratas
This diptych deals with ephemeral, fear, balance, and profound beauty. Sergio designed the two paintings to be exhibited back to back, so the viewer can immerse himself by looking at them from different perspectives.
Using an aerial acrobat, we reach the ephemeral through the fleetingness of an instant, a brief slice in time, in seemingly frozen suspension as a model.
The factor of fear is evident: How disturbing could the feeling of fear and disgust be while rats are walking over your body, unable to do anything about it?
Equilibrium is reached through a careful attempt at the symmetry of a body in tension, achieving an almost impossible posture that requires tremendous physical control.
This fragile balance would be lost with any physical reaction towards the rats, so only the mind can fight back…
Beauty and elegance have always been present in Sergio’s work; this is how he reviews and investigates his perception of beauty and ugliness, attraction, and disgust.
Sergio explains: “With Las Ratas, I used the fear and disgust that rats have always provoked in me to question the nature of those feelings.
In the current context, where we are ruled by “I like it,” “I don’t like it,” or “it offends me,” I think it is essential to point out that the depth of profound beauty is only appreciable when it becomes contrasted with ugliness.
So ugliness must be accepted as part of our truth, or we will build a false and superficial self-image.
I would like to believe that specific images might be able to help us understand what we reject and what we love.”
2021, oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm
2021, oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm
“It is essential to point out that the depth of profound beauty is only appreciable when contrasted with ugliness.”
- Sergio Martinez
How it all began
Small skinny, scrawny fingers tingle up her arm… something brushes against her ear and jaw – what was that? –
A compromising position mixed with the perfect smile of a skilled performer.
Not exactly a regular day in the life of Sergio’s acrobatic model, but on the day of the photoshoot, this was her reality. Or rather, it was Sergio’s
magical world that she had entered to become its main character.
The photoshoot that followed was challenging. Rats don’t follow directions and need to be kept interested and comfortable.
Several months later, well into the progress of the painting, an unexpected and dramatic change was about to take place…
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The Change of the ratS
It was a hot, sweltering summer night, and Sergio gasped for air when he woke up from a restless sleep, bathing in sweat. We will never know whether it was an epiphany or perhaps it was just a bad dream, but one thing was sure: The rats had to go… Sergio, why??
“It might be better” was his clever reply when reasoning with him about this. With a cheeky smile, he continues : “I don’t want to feel like a prisoner of an idea I had a year ago.”
“During the process in which you are in front of the work, you interact with it, deepen the idea and realize that you can improve upon some things, and in this case, I believed that the new rats would help to understand the idea better.”
To execute this new vision perfectly, Sergio ultimately decided to redo the whole shoot together with the original crew…