Barrio Escalante, San José

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Bullyng, by Alexander Chaves. The crowding of dozens of school pencils, squeezed until they form a compact block, produces a bristling surface that recalls a sharp brush or a defensive palisade.
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Alexander Chaves

BullyngInquire about availability

Year
2014
Technique
Art Object
Dimensions
10 × 5 × 30 cm
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
mustard yellow, jet black, graphite grey, wood ochre, burnished metal
Brushwork
Sculptural assemblage of preexisting objects with visible mechanical tension.

Curatorial analysis

The crowding of dozens of school pencils, squeezed until they form a compact block, produces a bristling surface that recalls a sharp brush or a defensive palisade. The sharpened graphite tips converge at the top as an aggressive cluster, transforming a staple of childhood learning into an instrument of intimidation. Around this cylindrical bundle, a black leather belt exerts a suffocating pressure, tightly fastened by its metal buckle.

The rigid verticality of the bundle contrasts with the sinuous curve described by the loose end of the strap. This black strip unfolds across the base with an almost organic ease, evoking the tail of a scorpion or the whip's flexible trace after impact. The geometric regularity of the carved wood, varnished in mustard yellow, is disrupted by the roughness of the perforated leather, establishing a taut dialogue between containment and release. The intimate scale of the object intensifies its symbolic weight, requiring no monumentality to trigger resonances of domestic and institutional punishment.

In this material confrontation, the pencils lose their communicative function to become a collective body under duress, or perhaps an improvised bludgeon. The belt, historically associated with corporal discipline within the home, acts simultaneously as a binding force and an instrument of subjugation. The title lays bare a social wound where schooling and physical violence entwine in a deeply disturbing manner. The piece leaves unresolved a question regarding the nature of the aggression: whether the force originates from the external restraint that constricts, or whether the true danger emanates from the cluster of points preparing to wound in self-defense.

Bullyng

More works by Alexander Chaves

33 works

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