Adentro es Afuera

“Hipersuperficies” by Ricardo Rendón

Rendón’s work persistently explores the elemental principles of sculpture. In this series, we can observe its emergence from the transition from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. It is a quantum intertwining, originating from the superpositions of planes within the same system: a diagram of axes calculated and traced on a steel plane, similar to the constructive folding pattern of origami, which rhythmically unfolds into multiple variations to unveil the fourth dimension; these are unfoldings in time.

In Rendón’s words: it’s like tossing a coin in the air; the unfolding of the plane allows us to simultaneously perceive two states of the same object. From an ordinary perspective, we would only appreciate the apparent state or one side of the coin, but this system prevents the two states from canceling each other out, allowing us to also appreciate the other state, which exists there in its potentiality. And this potentiality is not fixed; it multiplies into possibilities of forms when Rendón allows us to manipulate them. The scale of these sculptures invites us to change orientation and perspective, in variations calculated and resolved by the artist, but when unfolded with such naturalness, they allow us to appreciate a certain lightness, the lightness of paper.

These compositions function as hypersurfaces, geometric objects that generalize the notion of two-dimensional surfaces to higher dimensions. Mathematically, they allow speculation based on movement and time. Rendón creates these objects, and above all, these movements, from non-Euclidean geometry and quantum physics.

Unlike Rendón’s other research, such as “Sistema relacional” (2019) or “Somos constelaciones” (2019), which are focused on the tensions generated between gravity, matter, and void, in this series, the process is freed from tensions thanks to spontaneity. “ADENTRO ES AFUERA” (INSIDE IS OUTSIDE) only serves to highlight the balance and self-sustainability that arises naturally from the random unfolding that the action implies. In the unfolding, once again, as in much of Rendón’s work, the manual process becomes transparent, the experience with the material to shape the form, empirical construction without design.

In a simplified process and with material austerity, these forms conceived for outdoor spaces contain the possibility of monumentality, thus establishing a dialogue with the geometricism of Hersúa and the public works of Mathias Goeritz.

Emmanuel Albarrán Rueda Mexico City 2023