Patricia Domínguez
Cámara de Trans-homologación de la Visión
Patricia Domínguez describes this series of watercolor paintings as user manuals to connect with ancestral ways of understanding the world—in particular this is about how to make trans-species connections. Departing from the schematic format of a scientific diagram and reaching into something transcendent and even super-sensorial, this watercolor, like others in the series, uses ultra-vivid and fluorescent colors that suggest energy-transfer but it’s a color palette that also relates to the wildlife (especially birds) in the tropical jungle.
Her unique watercolor painting Cámara de Trans-homologación de la Visión (2023) was inspired by the artist’s extended relationship with a toucan blinded by the fires in the Bolivian Amazon in 2019. The artist lived for some months at the Hotel Biotermal de Aguascalientes (in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia) which was turned into a refuge and recovery hospital for wildlife affected by the forest fires. There she helped take care of animals, and became exceptionally close to this one Toucan who was blinded in one eye… she spent much of her time helping nurse this animal back to health.
In this work, Patricia imagines a scenario of transference and transformation, of a deep and mutually empathetic relation between human and bird—a propositional moment of mutual recognition that enables an activation of a cross-species connection and alliance. The format and size relate to a promotional poster that might appear in animal hospitals or shelters.
Patricia Domínguez is one of the most internationally visible Chilean artists of her generation (who continues to live in Chile). She is a self-proclaimed defender of all living beings. In her work she brings together experimental research on ethnobotany and the trans-human, mixed with a uniquely psychedelic aesthetic. Her work is suggestive of empathetic connections across species, and follows a critical inquiry about the transference from colonial times into neoliberal practices of extraction. I met Patricia in Santiago last November, and was impressed by her range of practice—often involving experimental or advanced technology but never about it.