THE CHISEL AN THE SINKHOLE |2018
The chisel and sinkhole is a sound sculpture made from the mechanism of European music boxes and used chisels and hammers. The melody it plays is a version of "Aunque mi amo me mate, a esa mina no voy", one of the first protest songs of Latin America, sung in Colombia at the end of XVIII C. during the first rebellion of slave miners. Armed only with chisels and hammers, they were slaughtered by their masters. The musical phrasing of the song was the same as that of funeral marches.
In the same decade, Antoine Fabre - a Swiss watchmaker -invented the music box. Mechanically, the work consists of a rotating cylinder with chisels that, while in motion, push and release already used and worn-out hammers, delicately reproducing the notes of the melody. These tools were collected and investigated by José Antonio Vega Silva - the artist's father -, who starting from the concept of "Potentia" by Spinoza, says that tools are not adequately worn out but sculpted throughout their use until they reach their maximum poetic and formal state.
In this sense, the nature of the work is processual and will not be complete until the tools no longer fulfill a function - exist only as sculptures and traces - and the song is silent.
The chisel and the sinkhole refer not only to colonialism but metaphorically point out to a utopian reality, free of abuse. The piece links - conceptually, historically, and formally - the Colony and the "colonized" by its mechanics when the music sounds as the handle is turned. As part of the piece, a series of 13 drawings were made as perforated paper, replicating the process of transferring notes of the tune to the music box cylinder. This is to stress the song's relevance, historically and as a critical component of the artwork.
In the same decade, Antoine Fabre - a Swiss watchmaker -invented the music box. Mechanically, the work consists of a rotating cylinder with chisels that, while in motion, push and release already used and worn-out hammers, delicately reproducing the notes of the melody. These tools were collected and investigated by José Antonio Vega Silva - the artist's father -, who starting from the concept of "Potentia" by Spinoza, says that tools are not adequately worn out but sculpted throughout their use until they reach their maximum poetic and formal state.
In this sense, the nature of the work is processual and will not be complete until the tools no longer fulfill a function - exist only as sculptures and traces - and the song is silent.
The chisel and the sinkhole refer not only to colonialism but metaphorically point out to a utopian reality, free of abuse. The piece links - conceptually, historically, and formally - the Colony and the "colonized" by its mechanics when the music sounds as the handle is turned. As part of the piece, a series of 13 drawings were made as perforated paper, replicating the process of transferring notes of the tune to the music box cylinder. This is to stress the song's relevance, historically and as a critical component of the artwork.