Alvaro Barrington Streets is watching, IM, Miami, 2022, 2022
Streets is watching, IM, Miami, 2022 belongs to a group of cement portraits created by Alvaro Barrington in 2022. Inspiration for these works lies in the paintings made by Picasso in the years following the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the First World War when he began to depict heavy, rounded female bodies modelled after sculptures. Barrington identifies parallels between the conditions in which Picasso created these works and the challenges faced today, including the threat of war, the pandemic and the opioid crisis silently wreaking devastation in many contemporary societies.
Created by applying cement directly to plush, red carpet, the head and shoulders of a body dominate the pictorial plane. The figure’s hands are joined by a gold chain, signifying a state of imprisonment and gesturing to Barrington’s frequent incorporation of sculptural elements in his paintings. The carpet is enclosed in a cardboard and steel frame, evoking both the strength of industrial production and the fragility of ephemeral packaging material using substances commonly found in the urban environment.
