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Aeroplanes are peculiar locations. You sit next to strangers for hours, have to stand up whenever they want to use the toilet, and get to enjoy the view above the clouds. Plenty of material to inspire art, or at least to Karin Iturralde Nurnberg (1992). During her many flights from her hometown, Guayaquil (Ecuador), to Amsterdam, she used the plane as her studio. She coloured stacks of napkins with felt-tip pens and, by way of performance art, attempted to rent out her shoulder to fellow passengers.
Over the course of time, in Iturralde Nurnberg’s mind the plane transformed from a physical workplace to a fictional space. From this location she tells stories, for instance about fictional passengers. But also about her own experiences with flying. High up in the air we can look down on the earth, and also look at our lives from a different perspective. The routines and social relationships structuring our daily lives are temporary suspended. Space is created in this tight cabin.
Iturralde Nurnberg’s artistic practice is eclectic. Much of her work explores how we are constantly facing limitations in real life, both physically and in the sense of social conventions. By organizing things like city walks, performances in waiting rooms, and video encounters with strangers, she playfully tries to break through expectations and create more space to move. This subject matter is also reflected in the sculpture Iturralde Nurnberg is showing at Prospects. Its shape resembles the nose of an aeroplane, although in this case it is open. The material Iturralde Nurnberg chose to work with, bamboo, is both flexible and strong; bending easily, but able to offer resistance.
Text: Sarah van Binsbergen
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)