Existiendo Excesivamente is an installtion piece based on the phenomenon of maximalist covers for appliances, toilets, and aprons that become everyday cultural objects in El Salvador but are rejected and looked down upon. Questioning the idea of aesthetic taste, perception, and how it relates to other social aspects, including queerness, Indigenous culture, colorism, classism, and the effects of imperialism and colonialism, and the quickly moving gentrification, focusing on El Salvador, but also seen in other cultures.
This aesthetic of excess and mismatched elements comes from a mixed culture colonialized and with the influence of many, especially the US, that leads to an aesthetic and social perception where deviations of these specific elements are rejected. As this research and project were being developed, street sellers were displaced more than ever; historical community areas were eliminated, and art and freedom of speech were censored. Gentrifying the main commercial area of San Salvador, removing elements that seem unattractive to international investors, creating uncomfortable cleanliness that is disconnected from the locals, and creating a more significant social divide, demolishing buildings in the area to create white and metal structures.
Through time, more of these elements of electro-domestic coverings, as well as the vernacular and popular elements they represent, that make up this mixed culture are seen less as the places are lost and the aesthetic is lost. The project aims to amplify these maximalist aesthetics, creating volumes with fabrics used in mercados in coverings, all materials bought in the areas that still make and sell these elements and materials to fabricate them, the fabric elements fabricated in collaboration in San Salvador to put together with the New Media parts put together in Berlin. The volumes are abstract shapes creating a color scheme with mismatched printed fabric; from a personal standpoint, the shapes are based on the region’s flowers, fruits, and mixed traditions. They create a composition that inflates, deflates, and dims lights brighter as the shapes take up space that isn’t given to marginalized communities.
Exhibition in Kates-Ferri Projects New York City, USA
Exhibition in Prachstaal Berlin, Germany
The three volumes created in the composition are abstractions of elements of El Salvador. Working with organic shapes, it aims to enhance the contrast between technology and nature. The organic shapes are based on the country's three organic and vegetation elements. The first one is the tradition of Las Palmas, which is by itself a mixed tradition. Semana Santa, the holy week of the Catholic religion, is mixed with indigenous elements and the region's fauna. Locals make decorations by drying palm leaves and making them into shapes for the celebrations. The first volume has an interpretation of that growing from a blender covering. Although this is an explanation of the shapes, it’s not intended for the audience to understand as a direct reference or recognize the starting point, but more blending the organic shapes in this composition made out of printed bright fabrics, used for the phenomena, bought in place.
The three volumes combine this bricolage of fabric and mixed textures while joining them together through color and patterns and creating maximalist but thought-out pieces combining different elements of the research, what they represent, and thought-out volume design and design anthropology.
The second shape is a playful interpretation of an Anthurium that is often seen in tropical countries. The scales are more playful, and the number of elements doesn’t match; it becomes an abstraction that ultimately is viewed more into the bigger shape, bigger composition, and focusing on the bold fabrics, every element becoming a part of this world-building.
The third shape comes directly from papayas, how they grow on trees in groups, and how many round fruits are sold by street sellers and in the markets, like carrots, oranges, and tomatoes, often joined together by plastic; this can be seen In the documentation of the beginning research. This repetition of elements is made out of two-sized modules that join in shape and become part of the greater world.
The project sought to enhance these fabrics and give a different perspective on electro-domestic appliance coverings without being too literal, designing my own shapes for them and ultimately them being amplified and at the same time covering the fans, most of the technology again being coverings and uncovering the maximalism of these.
The three shapes, the Semana Santa Palmas, The Anthurium, and the Papaya repetition, were made in El Salvador in December 2024 and then tested with ventilators, movement, and scales for composition in Berlin.
Testing different fans, materials, and how the materials interact and respond to air from ventilators. Different experiments were made with different fans, seeing the power it would need and what materials could close off to air. With these different plastics, fabric textures were tested, and fan sizes and power to get to the appropriate materials and equipment for the installation.
Amplifying variations
With testing different materials, the fabric volumes stayed constant for the project. Still, static by filling them with a synthetic padding, the same type of material used to protect appliances in the phenomena, and through a learning curve, plastic had to be used. Different experiments were conducted to create the final shapes that would inflate and deflate through DMX and touch designer, as well as the lighting accompanying this movement.
With these adaptions, the key elements were kept: the fabric, uplifting, amplification, and bricolage that covers, the ventilators that create the movement, and the lightbulbs—ultimately becoming my own interpretation of designed and fabricated technology coverings. The project went through different phases of trial and error, even in the plastic stage, to have different inflations, some more controlled, some more expanding, and keeping with the color palette of the fabric volumes of the phenomena, creating three cohesive sculptures that become a moving spatial installation.
Installation Documentation
