Tarantula: Authors And Arts Featured Artist of May
The Queen of archetypes, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Witnessing Sandra Vásquez de la Horra’s pencil drawings on what looks like aged paper reminds of Darwin’s notebooks in which he jotted his thoughts, conversations, illustrated nature and shared ideas on natural selection. However, in case of this artist, we are exposed to the evolution of her most secret inner dreams.
Sandra’s approach to art is a mix of her early Jungian education that introduced her to the world of universal archetypes, and the influence of world religions, especially Buddhism. Heavily influenced by literature, she, herself, doesn’t shy away from using words in her drawings, thus turning her art into visual poetry. Each exhibition contains installations filled with magical, disturbed and funny creatures. She invites women of all kinds from prostitutes, mothers, shamans, goddesses out and onto the page, and starts a conversation. They become case studies for the roles of dreams in human behavioural development.
As an artist, Sandra can easily be boxed in as political, immigrant or Latin American, but all these labels seem to be just a byproduct of being serendipitously born in Pinochet’s Chile and of the reality of of her life’s journey, rather than a conscious desire to address these subjects. Actually, there is very little in Sandra’s art decided by consciousness.
But my work is not centered in the dictatorship of Pinochet, it is more like a diary of my own life and sometimes in my dreams, nightmares come up. For example, being kidnapped by the police and put into a chair naked. (Emily Jensen, Apr 5, 2019, Latin American Artists Speak On Misconceptions About The Region)
After studying visual communication from 1989 to 1994 at the Viña del Mar School of Design, she moved to Germany to study at the Düsseldorf Art Academy before attending the Cologne Media Art School from 2001-2003. She currently lives and works in Berlin.
After many months of scheming, Tarantula: Authors and Art is delighted that Sandra Vásquez de la Horra will be our featured artist in May. She is taking part in the 59th Venice Biennale, where she is one of the women artists predominating over this year’s exhibition. We couldn’t be more proud of her and would like to thank Sandra for finding a moment in her busy schedule to collaborate with us.
Make sure not to miss any of her fantastical drawings by following us on Instagram @tarantula_authors_and_art. We are now also on Twitter: @Tarantu71306068