Cesar Cueva
Artist Statement
Saudades Grip is a series of contemplative digital photographs of miniature compositions of colour and space distorted and morphed through the lens of an uncut gemstone.
These compositions are no larger than 50mm x 50mm and made up of 5mm diameter coloured dimples or dots. Making these studies of colour is how I reconcile with the analytical part of my personality and like the discipline of a chefs Mise En Place, they’re a collection of perfectly sequenced ingredients.
The colours are carefully grouped to at once emote a feeling of melancholic nostalgia and to conjure a memory of joyous sensations.
To break the grid and inject a note of humanity, I photograph these tiny artworks through the unpredictable filter of conchoidal fractures inherent in mineral Quartz.
By using the focus stacking technique, I set my scene, compose and shift the plane of focus of my Macro lens as many as 200 times. Using stacking software, the series of in focus photographs are merged into a single high fidelity image.
I like that there are certain words that have no direct translation into the English language. Saudade is one of these elusive words that is a common fixture in the literature and music of Brazil and Portugal.The concept of Saudade includes a melancholy nostalgia for something that perhaps has not even happened. It has implications that this thing you feel nostalgic for may never happen again.
Its has been defined as a pleasure you suffer… an ailment you enjoy.
Bio.
Cesar Cueva (b. April 18, 1976) is an Illawarra based multidisciplinary artist and designer born in Lima, Peru and raised in Western Sydney, Australia.
Cueva’s practice is rooted in craft and the pursuit of mastery with a focus on the beauty of imperfection.
Through breaking the grid of process and rationale, Cueva explores abstractions of colour, space and scale in his work.
He investigates themes of identity, liminality and sense of place with his polychromatic abstractions in photographic and sculptural forms.
In recent works, Cueva begins to explore the philosophies of Wabi-Sabi through the pairing of Digital Cameras and “unconventional filters' to distort his precise colour compositions.
Cueva earned a BA (Hons) in Gold and Silversmithing at the Australian National University in 2004.
He is co-founder and Creative Director of Courtesy of the Artist, Sydney and a founding member of SEVENMARKS Gallery in Kiama, NSW.
