This exhibition at the Modern Art Oxford lasts till the 26th of May, showcasing an array of the Mexican artist Freida Toranzo Jaeger; whose art explores possibilities of the future, with innovative uses of indigenous techniques. I do recommend taking a look at this exhibition, while you still have the time!

Torenzo Jaeger is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Mexico City. Her work often features automobile figures, appearing along with spaceships and queer love. 

The very first piece that you will see after taking the stairs up to the gallery is a colossal painted heart, with intricate details imbued into it; this piece is composed of many small canvases creating a heart, on the backside of this piece is a similar heart in a saturated green. \

These adjoined canvases weirdly enchant me, as if they are asking for more than just admirement.  I quite enjoyed this piece, especially with the eye-capturing colours that flew out to me. 

Oxford Mail: Open your heart because everything will change, 2023Open your heart because everything will change, 2023 (Image: Kiki Tsoi)

Throughout this exhibition, you will see an excessive amount of thread, but done with such attentiveness that they are hardly noticeable if you don't take steps near it; this feature I find beautiful, she carefully combines the traditional Mexican embroidery techniques with oil paintings that come in and out in a piece. 

I admire such innovations. In the image below, the woman's tangerine hair falls out of the painting, almost as if she is detaching from the painting to invite us into it. 

Oxford Mail:

The heart, recurringly appearing in the exhibition is a persistent motif that Torenzo Jueger uses. She explains:

I like the symbol of the heart because it talks about our desires not our needs"

In two pieces of this exhibition, there are uses of the heart shape panels, they are dropped onto the floor; folding over one another but never closed. Symbolising our broken "capitalist desire". 

In a lot of her work, she employs foldable panels, which were used to introduce Christianity in Central and South America by 15th-century European colonists. She repurposes these religious devices in a new light.

These historical features are her way of encouraging us to think about colonial oppression that stamps our understanding of the past, and solutions to an alternate future.