Damian Ortega: Reading Landscapes

Mexican artist Damián Ortega (born 1967) is well known for his sculptures that literally deconstruct and reconfigure commercial products, like Coke bottles or, in one of his most celebrated works, a Volkswagen Beetle. In a new body of sculptural work, documented in Damián Ortega: Reading Landscapes, the artist turns his deconstructive impulses toward natural, geologic forms. Inspired by ideas of "deep time," a geological concept of how the earth documents its own history in layers of rock deposited over some 4.6 billion years, Ortega explores how basic concepts of geology — like the phenomenon of sedimentary layers--can be used as a formal approach to making sculpture. Damián Ortega: Reading Landscapes, published to accompany the artist's first solo show in Korea, includes an interview with the artist conducted by Clara Kim and a text by Gabriel Kuri.