FERIA MATERIAL 2025
Feria Material, Vol. 11
Expo Reforma, CDMX
6–9 febrero, 2025

RODRIGO RED SANDOVAL: A Grammar of Forgotten Things

JO-HS Gallery is delighted to showcase a solo presentation by Rodrigo Red Sandoval at Booth A16 during Material Art Fair 2025.

The artist Rodrigo Red Sandoval continues his exploration of the infrastructures with which we weave our contemporary environments. This time, he works with metal profiles—hidden skeletons of our constructed reality. These industrial materials, typically embedded within walls and frameworks, are part of the silent forces that hold up the spaces we inhabit and the networks that connect us. Yet beneath these surfaces, which we are directly in contact with, lies a grammar—a quiet language of materials shapeshifting behind the scenes of the world we take for granted. The booth becomes a kind of ritual or theater play, where overlooked materials awaken into states of transformation.

"Objects are never passive; they are mediators that transform, translate, distort, and modify meaning and relationships." —Bruno Latour

In the booth, these metal profiles are presented in suspension, caught between rest and function, an intermezzo between life and death. At first glance, their cold, gray surfaces appear standardized, their purpose clear and unremarkable. However, in a Kafkaesque turn, electric sparks seem to run within the metal vessels—somewhere between industrial ignition and a heartbeat. Subtle details emerge from the cold skin of the beams, as if the materials were turning into a body, dreaming of transformation.

Within the space live oil paintings—portraits of the metal profiles themselves. Framed in aluminum, the paintings capture their surfaces and textures with hyperreal precision, transforming these industrial materials into subjects of intense scrutiny. There is something dry and serious in their execution, yet an underlying humor in the act of rendering such unassuming objects with care. The portraits seem to breathe life into the profiles, inviting viewers to see not only their physicality but also their hidden narratives or a form of interiority.

A third element deepens the scene: a hole cuts through the wall, framing a curtain inscribed with the words The End in cinematic font. This theatrical gesture, reminiscent of old film closings, suggests both a conclusion and a new beginning. The hole opens a portal into the unseen, hinting at what lies behind the walls, beneath the surfaces, and beyond the stories we tell ourselves. It echoes a tradition in the history of art of exploring what is hidden behind facades.

Through this installation, the artist makes us aware of the space in which we find ourselves—literally opening, digging, and cutting into materials in search of unsuspected meanings. He sheds light on the surreal grammars with which we build the world around us, the way we dream the world, and how the world dreams us.