Eduardo Terranova’s series of paintings and inspiration emanate from his rich Colombian culture. Most particularly goldworks and shamanism for their light, ancestral, magical and cultural factors. He remembers as an eight-year-old boy, his grandfather taking him by the hand to the Gold Museum in Bogotá, Colombia. It was the most incredible thing he had ever seen. How he remembers the sparks, the glitter and reflection. How magical! A shamanic spark that follows and gives him the impetus to his artistic career.
Excerpt from his artistic statement:
“I am inspired by materials--items that seem to have lost their purpose and identity. In fact, I believe that materials have their own journeys, moving from one place to another. At each step, they lose something in their passage as they seem to be falling apart, then gaining as I sit at the back of a church or a synagogue, hand stitching many of the rips and “sores” in the material into a canvas for my work.
For me, this is especially true for jute sacks, and the memory of what was “inside” and “outside.” They speak to me, forcing me to question renewal, value, migration, globalization, and economic exchange. The sacks that I gather from farmers markets and take new life as part of my artwork conjure many memories and become the signifiers of exploitation and abuse as well as beauty and the creative force.”
One of his series involves the process of hand stitching canvas which he destroys with sculpting tools and metal brushes. The process of destroying the canvas takes weeks but the process of construction, which he calls "hand stitching" takes months -some artworks take up to six months! Analogous, and his fountain of inspiration, is the process of filigree in Colombia, particularly the art of filigree jewelry.
Filigree is the art of delicate, lacelike ornamental metalsmithing composed of intertwined threads of gold or silver. Filigree is also known as “the art of patience” which for Terranova when an artwork takes three, four or even six months, one must possess such virtue. This millenary technique in Colombia dates back to the conquest time when the Spanish brought it with them from Andalusia, Spain. Moreover, with the arrival of the Spaniards, Sevillian artisans also arrived and were recognized for having inherited different Arab and Jewish traditions.
This is the reason his process involves heavy hand stitching, not to mimic the filigree technique at a grand scale but to capture the ancestral energy and magic of the gold or silver threads on a surface. For Eduardo the thread is also the link of his grandfather’s hand and his.
Terranova employs a plating technique using copper, zinc, chrome and gold or silver as metallic layers creating amazing light scintillations and great textures. Born in Cali, Colombia. Master of Architecture and design at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Bachelor of Architecture at New York Institute of Technology. Eduardo Terranova lives and keeps his studio practice in New York City.
