Gabriel Kuri preemptive particles 8/1/2, 2024
Hard shell gourd, painted fibreglass and resin, MDF, paint
40 x ø 48 cm (15 3/4 x 18 7/8 in)
preemptive particles 8/1/2 consists of a gourd, an object resembling a monumentally enlarged bean, and two white discs.
The artist often changes the scale of objects in order to alter and abstract their meaning. In this process, recognizable and functional things become transformed into sculptural metaphors.
The title refers to the distinctive sinuous "8" shape of the hard shell gourd, and the number of the other elements included.
The sculpture brings together disparate shapes and objects. While the configuration suggests an oblique message or system, a major theme in the artist's practice, these are always only associative and not made explicit. Thus, the hard shell gourd may refer to its use as vessel in Mesoamerica since 8000 BCE; the enlarged bean may be reminiscent of over-dimensional toys or invoke fairy tales for some; and the two discs vaguely recall Kuri's recurring motif of greatly enlarged coins. Yet, the significance of Kuri's sculptures lie less in any direct references than in signifying abstract processes, ways of thinking and organizing knowledge through formal relationships between the elements.
The title refers to the distinctive sinuous "8" shape of the hard shell gourd, and the number of the other elements included.