Mariana Varela

ABOUT

WORK

Hopessly Devoted – Good Mother Studio, Oakland

2023

Time is a problematic concept, our reason and logical way of thinking are not enough for us to understand it. Everyone knows what it is about, but it’s difficult to articulate and explain it, cause it runs through our existence, it is inside and outside of us, we don’t just exist within time; we are time itself.

The nature of time is changing, and contradictory, it is always in motion, and it does not stop, it devours itself and drags us with it.



With this installation, I wanted to represent linear time, divided into past, present, and future. Everything has a beginning and an end. 



The past is represented by the match, the catalyst of fire. A relic of the past that we can approach through individual and collective memory.

The present by the upright candle (candle of life) convergence point of what was and what is coming. Scenes of everyday life appear, such as a dinner with friends, a flower growing, a starry night, a kiss, scenes that suggest the beauty of living and celebrate the mundane.

And the future with the candle that is running out (candle of death), like everything and everyone, we have a finite time and it is with death that what we did during our lives makes sense.