Positions: Alejandra López

3 September - 9 October 2022
Location: Stroom, Hogewal 1-9, The Hague

Open: Wednesday - Sunday: 12:00-17:00

For Positions, Alejandra López shows recent and developing work as part of a broader and longer running research project on ecology and storytelling. The presentation is an attempt to "construct" a myth of the silverfish - an ancient creature without a human story. Wondering how to tell a story that does not care for being told, López attempts to think through the figure of the silverfish, and aims to construct a myth about the lack of a myth.

As such, the work examines one of the broader lines of her research project: how to understand the way we process daily experience and the construction of an identity, about how this relates to the arbitrariness in our human encounters and its meaning, and how we involve non-humans into this. Considering the fact that a subject/object can be viewed and interpreted in a million ways, the artist wonders how to construct a narrative, and how to choose which mark to leave when there's no ultimate truth.

In her practice, the artist proposes methods to question how we can learn to coexist with non-humanness or with alternative humanities, when our world and our understanding of it is so profoundly paved by human rationality, by binary ideas of fiction and truth. Through her constructions, López explores how systems and networks are pasted onto the spaces that surround us to create a simplified sense of order.

López' work starts with the creation of spatial installations/ sites/ sets with a mixture of objects. These spatial compositions are then translated into drawings, and - from those drawings - new installations are built, which often are then drawn again, from which further installations are made. This process of relocation and re-iteration can go on for a long time, and often continues from work to work. Therefore it is very much a process of translation between mediums, meanings and dimensions that help untangle and digest references, ideas and feelings.

Positions
Stroom Den Haag started a new program line this year under the title Positions. Positions features artists based in The Hague and showcases both new work and work in progress, offering an insight into the great diversity of their practice. During the year, next to exhibitions, Stroom provides a platform for additional events like experimental presentations, lectures and performances.

In 2022 Alejandra López received a PRO Onderzoek grant for her research project.

The program Positions is realised by the support of The City of The Hague.

Earlier editions of Positions
Positions: Time-Based - 5 February - 3 April 2022
Positions: Leonie Brandner - 7 May - 12 June 2022
Positions: Ellen Yiu Kwan Kit - 25 June - 31 July 2022

LINKS
>> Profile Alejandra López on thehagueartists.nl
>> alelooma.com
>> niceflaps.hotglue.me

Alejandra López, 'The Myth of the Silverfish', 2022
photo: Myung Feyen, courtesy Stroom Den Haag
Alejandra López, 'The Myth of the Silverfish', 2022
photo: Myung Feyen, courtesy Stroom Den Haag
Alejandra López, 'The Myth of the Silverfish', 2022
photo: Myung Feyen, courtesy Stroom Den Haag
Alejandra López, 'The Myth of the Silverfish', 2022
photo: Myung Feyen, courtesy Stroom Den Haag