ADRIAN CORNEJO

Bio (provided by artist): Adrian Cornejo, born in Cumpas, Sonora, Mexico, lives and works in Tucson, AZ. They earned both their BFA and MFA from the Southwest University of Visual Art in Tucson. Adrian’s artwork revolves around causality in relationships and regularly incorporates themes of racism, queerness, and Othering and manifests in myriad of mediums from drawing to photography and installation.

Patreon, Twitter: @Viscous_Air, Instagram: @appropriate_appropriate

ARTIST STATEMENT

“Carbon Bodies (Human Lapidary) ” mesquite charcoal, 2020

Entire group and individual pieces available. For information on purchasing this piece, please email adrianrcornejo@hotmail.com.

Carbon Bodies is a work in progress installation of chunks of wood charcoal cleaned and faceted to resemble crystals and cut gemstones. The work is an exploration of the way in which people "shape" themselves, physically and psychologically. Carbon, representing humans as organic creatures, is whittled away and made to resemble something beautiful, conventionally attractive. This process of shaping raw chunks of charcoal borrows from the process of cutting gems to produce “perfect” and highly valued stones in a specific way, the amount of raw material that is removed before something of value is produced can be substantial. It beckons the question: What do we lose when we change ourselves? Remove parts of ourselves that we feel are wrong, bad, improper? And by whose insistence?