Nicolás Lamas, Collective memory, 2023

2023

Medium

Bronze, metal and glass

Dimensions

77 × 50 cm

Status

In Gallery Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-155808

Nicolas Lamas' sculptures, composed of organic elements, precisely produced structures, and used everyday objects, resemble hybrid artifacts that connect different timelines. They reflect the artist’s interest in archaeology and the development of technological achievements over millennia. “Technology continues to advance and looks toward the future, while archaeology is a discipline that, by definition, constantly gathers data from the past through the material traces left by our ancestors. However, we sometimes forget that both the past and the future are in constant evolution.” The assemblages thus open dialogues about transience, hybridity, and the separation of culture and nature. At first glance, the different materials appear to be in opposition to each other, but upon closer examination, they reveal formal and thematic similarities. For the artist, the individual elements possess their own power, making the distinction between man-made and organically grown irrelevant. Through these encounters, Lamas seeks to relativize the function and value of objects, opening up new ways to redefine their existence. In "Collective Memory" (2023), the fossil skull of "Kenyanthropus platyops," a hominid species that went extinct around 3.5 million years ago, is combined with a wasp nest. The skull, a testament to human evolutionary history, enters into a dialogue with the wasp nest—an artifact of the social intelligence and evolutionary adaptation of a highly developed insect collective. This juxtaposition highlights the contrast between human evolution and the ongoing swarm intelligence of social insects.