ALEX RISPAL
TUNING IN

"Memory of a plant" 2024
Unique gelatin silver chemigram, acrylic and photogram.
112x106 cm
Driven by a desire to experiment and an unending attempt to answer the question, "In what reality do we find ourselves?" Alex Rispal invites us to inhabit the liminal spaces he constructs through the appropriation of the marvelous technique of the chemigram. This question materializes in a unique and very particular visual narrative, not only in its finish but also in its process of creation.
The chemigram is a technique introduced by Pierre Cordier that merges photography and painting without fully belonging to either discipline.
For these pieces, the artist employs silver gelatin paper, chemicals, and resist materials along with light exposure to create them. In this way, he re-signifies the analog photographic development process to give it a pictorial sense.
In his work, plants and televisions coexist in spaces that constantly challenge the boundaries of reality. Through a combination of chemical precision and chance, Rispal creates a universe that reflects the duality between the natural and the artificial, framed in an environment we could define as ethereal, a dimension between different phases, a parallel existence, or a state of mind.
This space acts as a threshold between two realities and becomes an ambiguous terrain that the artist manipulates and transforms through the interaction of materials and the influence of light.
The techniques used by Rispal include printing distorted photographic images on acetate paper and transferring them onto glass, using real plants placed in contact with the photosensitive paper, varnished, and exposed to sunlight to generate areas of color.
The televisions, on the other hand, are designed with artificial intelligence from images created by the artist himself and printed on paper. In this way, the photosensitization of the silver allows the artist to work with inks, paint, and gelatin, using varnish, wax, and adhesive tape as resist materials to construct his compositions. These techniques not only allow him to explore and combine different elements but also to build a dialogue between the digital and the organic.
Thus, traversing a tonal range from browns, grays, and blacks to purple, we immerse ourselves in intimate and imaginary landscapes that arise from the artist's insatiable desire to explore the reaches of photographic technique.
The relationship between the living and artificial elements that appear is experienced in his works as if in constant tension, yet there is something symbiotic between them. So much so that the artist confronts us with this situation, which becomes a mirror of our everyday life: the progressive disconnection of our authentic existence in a technologized world.
The contrast between the illusory and the real is perhaps one of the fundamental concepts that build the body of work chosen for this exhibition. When we approach and observe every detail and texture in the works, we also notice the presence of an inhospitable silence. It seems as if we are facing a post-apocalyptic event, a world that is no longer inhabited by human beings, where the battle between light and darkness has resulted in a multiverse where wild plants predominate and still relate to the remnants of a society influenced by technological and communicational demands.
It is at this intersection of dialectics, where the subtle and the tangible, the vital and the dead, the clear and the dark coexist, that Rispal puts us face to face with the very essence of our human condition.
TUNING IN is probably an invitation to reflect on the place we occupy, the speed of the moment, and the system we are part of. Could it be that the only way to treasure a fraction of time is by returning to the beginning of all things?
Eugenia Amodio.

“Negative space” 2024
-Unique gelatin silver chemigram
-30x40 cm

"Echo of a plant I” 2024
-Unique gelatin silver chemigram
-30x40 cm

“Echo of a plant II” 2024
-Unique gelatin silver chemigram
-30x40 cm

“Tuning in with the body” 2024
Unique gelatin silver IA photogram and chemigram
50x60 cm


“The Pillars of Society and Filtered Nature” 2024
Unique gelatin silver IA photogram and chemigram
50x60 cm

“Aura on TV” 2024
Unique gelatin silver photogram and chemigram
30x40 cm