| dc.description.abstract | Colombian artist Doris Salcedo (b.1958) has investigated her country?s history of political violence for over twenty years. Although her works remain rooted in her country?s political landscape, the artist has progressively embraced more universal themes, replacing mere representations of violence with works that serve as powerful tools for coping with such violence. Salcedo?s 2015 retrospective at the Guggenheim highlighted this shift in her oeuvre. Her later installations increasingly exhibited the meticulous handmade, interactive qualities, and organic material connoting healing. Plegaria Muda (2011) and A Flor de Piel (2014) epitomized this shift and have guided my thesis. Rather than imposing an enforced message, Plegaria Muda and A Flor de Piel more generally incite a personal, engaged interaction with the viewer in order to evoke a feeling of empathy. The works achieve this in three ways: encouraging an embodied response that emphasizes the human form, the activation of the gallery space through the use of installation, and the inclusion of ritualistic language. By encouraging a personal, involved experience, Plegaria Muda and A Flor de Piel ultimately simulate a process similar to mourning. These latest installations, with their increased engagement with the viewer and connotations of ritual and healing, signal Salcedo?s aim to elicit a sense of empathy within the viewer towards incessant suffering that often remains ignored. This empathy is crucial for persevering despite violence.--Abstract. | en_US |
