Natalia Urnia

Statement

My visual work is characterized by establishing a reflexive relationship between everyday textile objects, time and space. Detailed observation of the object, that is, the material from which it is made, the fibers and the technique with which it was constructed, and the object itself – these are the principal guides that I analyze to create my works. Detailed investigation of the principal characteristics that I find in an object allows me to manipulate it, so that later it generates a point of strangeness that will capture the viewer. For most this is no different than what one already knows, neither in technical terms nor materials, but equally it will feel that it is changing the look of something that one thought they knew. Throughout my career I have specialized in learning different textiles techniques with the intent of translating this knowledge and technical details to contemporary art issues, to give these made by hand actions a new feeling.

GlogauAIR Project

My project will consist of the space available in a set of garments (approximately 10 to 15), which will be taken over by the unraveling technique described above. These items will be installed at the height and in a place where they will be perceived as representing a human body in space. Then, I look through the fray, creating transparencies, veils that allow observing behind the same garment, which is possible since, as noted above, the outcome of unraveling, only vertical threads that form the fabric of the garment are present. The selection of these will involve choosing fabrics that are constructed, and they must be black and white, specifically warp (vertical threads that form the fabric) white and weft (horizontal threads that form the fabric) black. This interest in monochrome will first intend to generate a marked change in color between what is frayed garment and what not, that is what transpired and what is not translucent, respectively. Second, it will place an emphasis on the fabric of the fabric — specifically in the pixel, a minimum square that is present in any fabric warp and weft. And third, it will achieve a direct link between the garment in space and the horizontal line present between the floor and wall, which exists in any room. In this way I seek to relate geometry drawing up a garment, in relation to the geometry that is present in the space it inhabits, that is, where it is present. The garment from a minimum, meaning the fabric, is generated from a set of vertical and horizontal lines, as in the architecture occurs between floor and walls. It is in this way I will generate a cross from the minimum and basic expression, to achieve a point where a representative dialogue can be formally established between body and space, between the present and the absent, achieving a cross between the functional and the poetic, to rethink and redirect the sense of what surrounds us – to re-perceive that we thought we already know.

CV Summary

Education

• 2014 obtained first place in the installation category, of Santiago, Chile’s Municipal Awards for Youth Visual Art Talent Master’s in Visual Arts (Beca Conicyt) and Titled Textile Artist from the University of Chile
• 2011 Sixth Biennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Recycled Salon, held in Oaxaca, Mexico, winning second place of the call.

Group exhibitions

• 2015 Posada del Corregidor, CLAC and Ch.ACO Gallery, Contemporary Art Fair
• 2014 Museum of Contemporary Art in Valdivia
• 2013 D21 Gallery
• 2012 Balmaceda Young Art, Local Contemporary Art

International exhibitions

• 2015 ZK / U – Zentrum fuer Kunst und Urbanistik, Berlin, Germany
• 2011 Sixth Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art
• 2010 “Reconstructed” in the First Meeting of the Iberoamerican Textile Network, San Jose, Costa Rica
• 2008 Fifth International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Gallery