Elena Damiani’s ‘One Earth, After Another’ sculptures masterfully relate art and science

One Earth, After Another by Elena Damiani is on show at Revolver Galería’s new space in New York; her first showing in the space explores the realms of sculpture and collage to masterfully relate art and science. In the exhibition, Damiani delves into the geology of the earth and its relationship with stratigraphy, mineralogy, palaeontology, and sedimentology.

Based in Lima, Peru, Damiani explores natural processes through the use of inorganic material in order to understand the composition and functioning of natural structures. She brings together these inert fragments to highlight irregular and ragged processes and the intervening spaces of planetary history that seem insignificant at first encounter. In accordance with her earlier work, material plays a large role in bringing her vision to life. The choice of materials is deliberate and expertly conveys her study of the inner workings of the world.

Testigos III is a wall-hung piece, crafted by joining twenty-six hand-carved travertine rods. Resembling the core samples taken from the stone, the rods are cut to the vein and arranged in a careful sequence, thus recreating the pattern of the stone. The stratification sequence echoes a chronological narrative of the planet’s history.

Filter N12 and Filter N16 are fashioned out of marble and granite with brass inlays and a steel frame. The large stone sections against the small metal inlays allude to geological bodies and the expansive contexts in which these elements were produced. The texture within the stone is a testament to earth’s mechanics, framing the composition of the natural world.

The stone in Filter N12 and Filter N16 is balanced by The Erratic Marbles, which use coloured marble endpapers sourced from late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century travelogues, atlases, and other manuscripts. Damiani pastes photographs of boulders from geology image banks on these endpapers, thus narrating an erratic tale of irregular changes in the planet. The piece also talks about displacement as it refers to a boulder that varies from its surrounding rock and is hence believed to have arrived as a result of glacial movement. Damiani does well in selecting simple frames for visually dynamic pieces.

Echoing this simplicity is what may be considered the centrepiece of this exhibit. Blind II is a floor-based sculpture that is composed using copper tubes and marble. The tubes, with small pieces of marble arranged through them, are mounted in a single line on a marble base to create a semi-opaque partition. The pieces of marble are arranged to echo a rocky mountain, thus tying into Damiani’s interest in planetary history.

Elena Damiani’s ‘One Earth, After Another’ is a standout exhibition that seamlessly breeds science and art together. It finds a perfect home in Revolver Galería’s New York space. Revolver has a history of encouraging experimentation across different genres, materials, and media and serves as the perfect backdrop for Damiani’s material-rich portfolio.

One Earth, After Another’ will be on view till May 06, 2023, at Revolver Galería, 88 Eldridge Street, 5th Floor, NYC.