The motif of grids, bars and barriers appears repeatedly in various forms in the large-format installations, sculptures and drawings by Eduardo Basualdo.

His site-specific work Incisive consists of a vast drawing that forms a room within a room by covering the walls of the exhibition space. The paper on which the drawing is made is wafer-thin and depicts a grid structure which is reminiscent of a cage or prison. The drawing is created using the frottage technique in which the paper is placed on a large piece of metal work and impressions of its pattern are taken with charcoal.

Incisive is an installation that refers both to the interior of the museum and the motif of the white cube as well as to areas in the urban space or in a prison that are blocked and closed off by metal grids. The fragility of the drawing on the extremely thin paper, which sways slightly as you walk past, contrasts with the motif of the fence. In everyday life, metal barriers serve to limit and control the possibility of movement by enclosing and excluding. As a wall-encompassing drawing, the grid structure evokes in the viewer the impression of being entrapped while at the same time they are confronted with the almost complete emptiness of the exhibition space. Here, as in other works, the artist uses simple means to create tension between physical and mental space, between a controlling structure and its suspension.

–gk