




Concha azul / Blue shell
2022
Suspended in space like a caught breath, "Concha azul / Blue shell" presents a luminous hand-blown and painted glass form cradled within a tinted artisan cast net weighted by lead sinkers, the whole composition stretching an impressive 320 centimeters in length. The net, a tool historically bound to labor, subsistence, and the politics of water access, here becomes a sculptural language, transforming a functional object of extraction into something tender and protective. The deep blue of both the glass and the dyed netting creates a chromatic unity that evokes depth, immersion, and the tonal registers of rivers and coastal waters that run throughout Caycedo's sustained practice. Carolina Caycedo is among the most consequential voices addressing ecological and social justice concerns in contemporary art, and this work sits at the center of her longstanding investigation into bodies of water, fishing communities, and the ways in which indigenous and artisanal knowledge systems are threatened by extractivist economies. The cast net anchoring this piece is not incidental material but a direct invocation of the communities whose livelihoods depend on waterways increasingly subject to damming, privatization, and industrial contamination. By encasing a fragile, biomorphic glass form within that net, Caycedo proposes a reversal of roles, where the net no longer catches but instead holds, shelters, and bears witness. For the collector, "Concha azul / Blue shell" offers both aesthetic immediacy and discursive depth. Its scale commands architectural presence, while its materiality, glass, hand-dyed net, and lead weights, rewards close attention with the specificity of craft embedded in each element. Signed by the artist and offered through Instituto de Visión, this work represents a mature and resonant statement within a body of practice that continues to gain critical and institutional recognition internationally.
- Medium
- Hand-blown and painted glass, tinted artisan cast net and lead weigths.
- Overall
- Signed
- Yes
- Spotted At
- Gallery · Instituto de Visión
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