Barrio Escalante, San José

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Quinceañera, by Alexander Chaves. A revolver cylinder sculpted in white marble rises against a pitch-black void, stripped of the barrel and hammer that would complete the firearm.
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Alexander Chaves

QuinceañeraInquire about availability

Year
2014
Technique
Marble and Wood Carving
Dimensions
20 × 10 × 10 cm
Status
Inquire about availability
Palette
marble white, carmine, antique bronze, absolute black
Brushwork
Carved and polished marble in smooth cylindrical surfaces with regular indentations, combined with carved and meticulously polychromed wood.

Curatorial analysis

A revolver cylinder sculpted in white marble rises against a pitch-black void, stripped of the barrel and hammer that would complete the firearm. Instead of lead bullets, each of its seven chambers holds a metallic-looking casing from which the slanted, unctuous tip of a crimson lipstick emerges. This direct substitution instantly upends the nature of the weapon, shifting it into an intimate and heavily charged terrain.

The clash of materials drives the strength of the ensemble. The white stone, cold and satin-finished, evokes classical purity and monumental solidity, while the cylinder's vertical flutes accurately replicate the mechanical grooves of the original mechanism. In contrast, the carved wood cylinders simulating tarnished casings hold the vivid red of the makeup, whose beveled edge precisely mimics the routine wear of a lipstick against skin.

The piece's title, Quinceañera, sharply directs a critical reading of the object. The transition ritual marking a young woman's supposed entry into adult courtship is often inaugurated by social permission to wear lipstick, conceived as an initiatory ornament. By seating that very stick inside the chamber of a firearm, the sculpture casts cosmetics as ammunition and the mandate of beauty as a potentially harmful mechanism, where prescribed femininity shares caliber with danger.

The circular arrangement, seen from a subtly high angle, lends the piece the presence of a frozen roulette or a petrified ceremonial cake. The restrained elegance of the carving does not rely on visual stridency; it opts instead for a sober irony that lays bare the latent violence embedded in the most normalized rituals of domestic and social life.

Quinceañera

More works by Alexander Chaves

33 works

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View all 33 works by Alexander Chaves

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