Polygraphic Room- Endogamic breeding by Thamara Ugalde

Downloadable brochure of the exhibition

July 20th to October 01st 2016

This project proposes to think about animal abuse through a series of works that explore the dimension of social invisibility of torture and the different forms of aggression, many of which are veiled by consumer logic.

The vast majority of the drawings and prints are anatomic studies of animals. For example, by using the intaglio technique, an engraving of the relief of an image on a flat support, images of an almost invisible body of a cow that is, at the same time, protected by an acrylic intervened through drypoint etching, technique in which a tool with a sharp metal point is utilized to engrave the acrylic and then black ink is applied to it.

Other pieces take information from torture manuals, which the artist presents as an almost invisible text.

For the artist, this game of veiled invisibility alludes to the naturalized ways in which aggression coexists with us, “which is present, but at the same time is not,” to use her words. These describe the ways in which we mask aggression towards non-human living beings on a daily basis. In the same way, the use of braille, a reading and writing system devised for blind people, serves the same purpose as the intaglios. It shows the hidden forms of violence that point to the impossibility of perceiving or interpreting that being declared.

Other works in this exhibition address the physical derivations that animals suffer through inbreeding, the indiscriminate breeding amongst members of the same family in order to preserve the same bloodlines and racial characteristics. In this operation, human beings construct artificial forms for continuing determined genetic characteristics in order to exploit the animals through commerce. Because of this, the animals are more prone to be born with health issues, such as a reduced fertility, bone asymmetries, a higher mortality rate, slow growth, loss of functionality in the immune system and other degenerative effects.

The works gathered here aim to make us approach, from a critical stance, the implications of the animal cruelty with which we live and witness daily. To appreciate animals and be conscious of the factors that sustain the chains of violence, are important steps to think about how we sometimes participate in this without realizing it. It also allows us to imagine ways in which we can distance ourselves from this and build different, more horizontal ways for human beings and other beings to relate.

Thamara Ugalde finished her high school studies at the Conservatorio de Castekkam where she obtained the Medium Level Technical title in Visual Arts, with an emphasis on printmaking, in 2015. She is currently enrolled as Sociology major at the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, as well as preparing to begin studies in Veterinary Medicine.