In Response, Rydz & Sosa Collaboration
In Response, as part of BODYMONOPOLIZINGPOLITICKING, a series of exhibitions curated by Camilo Alvarez at the Brookline Arts Center
Evelyn Rydz and Gabriel Sosa created a series of collaborative, site-specific works on paper for the Brookline Arts Center that explore longing, division, contagion, and the passage of time. In consideration of the Brookline Art Center’s history as a former fire station, Rydz and Sosa used the antagonistic nature of fire and water to emphasize urgency and heightened divides.
Rydz layers together fragments of surface water drawings and photographs from various local rivers and locations across the Atlantic and Pacific in North and South America. Sosa draws from legal proceedings and phrases found in articles and on social media to create jumbles of barely legible texts that float, or sink, among the contours of Rydz’s aquatic imagery. Meanwhile, Rydz layers ripped pieces of paintings with salt water over and under Sosa’s brightly colored smudges and marks.
In their respective art practices, Rydz and Sosa have radically divergent aesthetics and methods of working -the former approaches her work with a patient, almost surgical precision, while the latter works quickly and feverishly. The work of each consumes but reinforces that of the other, reminding us of the division, uncertainty, and hope that mark these times.