Albano Hernández, ‘The Shadow’, 2024
Part of this year’s free display in The Regent’s Park, this subtle work illustrates loss and finite ecological time
Part of this year’s free display in The Regent’s Park, this subtle work illustrates loss and finite ecological time
Albano Hernández, The Shadow, 2024
Water-based grass paint. Presented by Pi Artworks
About the Work
Albano Hernandez’s sculpture, The Shadow is created using water-based paint. The life-size tree silhouette is painted directly on the grass itself, appearing as a real, physical, shadow. Dubbed a ‘living painting’ that will move and grow with its environment, Hernandez plays into his ongoing interest in the manipulation of materiality, creating a cerebral reflection of The Regent’s Park that speaks to a wider ecological issue.
Despite appearing as a genuine silhouette of one of the trees in The Regent’s Park, Hernandez’s work is a universal ‘shadow’ cast by the impact of global deforestation. Inspired by the allegory of Plato’s Cave – in which prisoners in a cave believe the shadows they see cast on the walls constitute all of reality – Hernandez uses shadow to reflect a ‘non-tree’. This seemingly immaterial ‘non-tree’ embodies a fragment of the environmental devastation caused by humanity’s irresponsible use of natural resources.
Hernandez’s practice often looks towards Axis Mundi and the connection between different realms, thus, we see industrial materials combining with nature in The Shadow. His wider work incorporates waste and reflects a sustainable cycle of art-making, so, as the artist’s largest work to date, The Shadow sees his aim through to fruition: the work is ultimately transient, reliant on the natural materials it is made from, and as the grass grows, so does this ‘non-tree’.
About the Artist
Albano Hernández (b.1988, Avila; lives and works in Cambridge, UK) is strongly informed by his life philosophy of zero waste and awareness of his ecological imprint. In his studio, he upcycles everything: canvas offcuts and paint chips become new artworks. He was the recipient of the Hine Painting Prize 2022, and won the BMW Painting Prize and the Obra Abierta Award in 2012 and 2015 respectively.
Albano’s most recent exhibitions have taken place at Pi Artworks (London), Pippy Houldsworth Gallery (London), Museo Salvador Victoria (Teruel), Collège d’Espagne (Paris), Fundación Iturria (Montevideo) and the University of Cambridge.
Frieze Sculpture is in The Regent’s Park, 18 September – 27 October 2024. No booking required, free to all.
Further Information
Frieze Sculpture runs alongside Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October.
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Main Image: Albano Hernández, The Shadow, 2024. Courtesy: Pi Artworks
