In Tania Perez Cordova's work, the materials are witnesses of events and participants of time; her sculptures are made using objects that form part of the everyday environment to create a pause in their narratives or in their functions. The new existence of these objects s for different moments: their past in the everyday environment, their present as an artistic object, and the imagined future that it sets off. Call Forwarding establishes these relationships from two materials in particular: a sculptural one (porcelain) and an everyday object (a cell phone SIM card).
To make the piece, Perez Cordova borrowed a cell phone SIM card from one of her friends and implanted it in a layer of white porcelain. To do this, she convinced him to change his phone number and set up a call forwarding service. The artist conceives these moments of suspension of the functionality of an everyday object as a pause that modifies some action in another place, in this case, the exchange of data from her friend's cell phone. This agreement suggests scenarios around the relationships, times, or places that are part of the useful life of objects. The apparent preservation of hardware points to three moments: the past of the SIM card as a communication device, its present as a sculpture, and its inevitable future in the face of programmed obsolescence.
Its new configuration as part of a bas-relief suggests the petrification of an object, the cancellation of its original function, and its provision solely for the purpose of contemplation. Thus, Perez Cordova's explorations of the different possibilities that objects allow for are part of the series, 'Things on Pause', in which the inert matter of the pieces recalls human presence and activity.
AC, November 2020.
Bibliography
Jose Esparaza Chong Cuy (ed.), Tania Perez Cordova. Smoke, nearby. Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 2017.
References
https://www.frieze.com/article/focus-tania-p%C3%A9rez-c%C3%B3rdova
https://elephant.art/tania-perez-cordova-girl-earring/
https://chicagotheaterandarts.com/2017/04/15/cordova-exhibit-makes-viewers-think/
In Tania Perez Cordova's work, the materials are witnesses of events and participants of time; her sculptures are made using objects that form part of the everyday environment to create a pause in their narratives or in their functions. The new existence of these objects s for different moments: their past in the everyday environment, their present as an artistic object, and the imagined future that it sets off. Call Forwarding establishes these relationships from two materials in particular: a sculptural one (porcelain) and an everyday object (a cell phone SIM card).
