NeoRetro is a conceptual artwork consisting of a series of handmade tapestries inspired by the diverse graphics of pre-Columbian and indigenous Latin American cultures. The contrast between industrial and natural materials shows the artist's clear intention to work the aesthetics of a traditional practice with materials of the digital age.
While artisans use natural materials that return to the earth (if it is wood or if it is plant fibre, it can be replanted), the NeoRetro concept is born from the reuse of objects as raw materials. In this case newly obsolete objects that were put on the street to be discarded.
What is an object? What is matter?
What determines materiality?
Are there really objects or is there only matter?
These questions are the foundation of NeoRetro, and from them arise the dichotomies that the work represents: The direct relationship between the analogue and the digital. The differentiation and meaning of industrial production and traditional manual work. The breaking down of the boundary between artisanal work and art. And it addresses the political relationship between the global north, which produces and uses technology and industry, and the global south, which makes this possible by providing whether fairly or not - raw materials and manpower.
The work was conceived during the first wave of the Corona in 2020 and has been developed over the last 3 years.
Text: Santiago Archila Salcedo 2023