Vegetable Metaphor

Urzúa obtains the leaves from the plantations and, to use them, she must select them, wash them, boil them, dye them or let them dry, then she must iron them, fold them and sew them. The result achieved, those small rectangles of tied and dyed corn leaves, embodied the brushstrokes of her oil paintings and with them she began to assemble her works. Urzúa warned that corn was not only anchored in the history of Latin America but, in addition, its grains that nourish and its leaves that are discarded were a metaphor for the marginalization of women and, especially, their invisible dedication. For this reason, she decided to include the participation of more than seventy women in her work. As if she were looking for the same thing as the Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui – another of her references – who, to make her formidable fabrics made with bottle caps (another waste), works with numerous assistants, because she hopes that the presence of many hands. Always thinking about how to make the hidden visible, Urzúa considered that part of those hands must have belonged to imprisoned women. Inside the prison, she sat next to them at a table and they folded and sewed corn husks. Urzúa asked them for a type of closure, she suggested colors, but they improvised, leaving their record, seeking to manifest themselves through the page. What is not productive for society – the corn leaves, the imprisoned women – gain notoriety in the works in this exhibition, they are rescued from abandonment by transforming the creative process into a collective experience. Once Urzúa has gathered all her small sewn rectangles, she arranges them by color and with the fabric on the ground he composes a collage, bending down, replicating the movement of those who plant corn, sowing her work, which she only knows when it acquires verticality.