The mouth of Krishna

OPENING THIS MONTH AT IN THE PINK, THE ALGARVE ’ S PREMIER SPECIALIST IN FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY, IS AN INSPIRED EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY BARCELONA-BASED ALBARRÁN CABRERA, THE CREATIVE DUO THAT EXPLORES EMOTIONS OF THE PAST, THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

Words: SUSI ROGOL-GOODKIND

WORKING collaboratively for close to 30 years, Angel Albarrán and Anna Cabrera create dreamlike photographs designed to trigger subjective associations correlating to the cultural background and past experiences of the viewer who will often relate images to their own personal pathways, dreams, and reminiscences.

“We are our memories,” Angel and Anna say. “They define what we are and help us to understand our reality.”

The duo’s artistic practice stems from multiple cultural references in literature, painting, film, science, and philosophy, bringing together both occidental and oriental perspectives of seeing and understanding the world around us.

Through their works, they strive to visually represent complex subjects such as time and space that written language frequently complicates and obscures.

Albarrán Cabrera regard their photographs not just as images but as objects in their own right: they personally handcraft their prints using a diverse range of traditional and experimental printing techniques, including platinotype, cyanotype, and gelatin silver print processes, as well as pigment printing on metallic gold leaf and smooth, satin-like Japanese gampi paper. They achieve their rich chromatic effects by toning their prints with selenium, sepia, and tea. This array of materials and methods widens the parameters of image-making and takes advantage of the expressive possibilities of photography.

The Mouth of Krishna is Albarrán Cabrera’s first solo exhibition in Portugal. The artworks selected present a subtle and yet striking range of visual poetics that transport viewers to a universe of enchanting places and timeless moments.

The title of the exhibition, and of the series presented in it, was extracted from a traditional tale of Hindu culture in which young Krishna, the supreme god of protection, compassion, and love, gets his mouth examined by his mother, only to reveal in it the complete endless universe. All the stars and planets; all the lands and seas; all ideas and all emotions; all pity and all hope, along with the ultimate realisation that in any part of the universe there is a whole universe.

The work of Albarrán Cabrera has been shown in galleries and photo fairs in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United States, and is held in private collections and institutions such as Hermès, Goetz Collection, Banco de Santander, Fundación de Ferrocarriles Españoles among others. They have also produced work for several institutions like Fundació La Pedrera in Barcelona, Fundació Toni Catany in Mallorca, Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and Barcelona Photographic Archive.

TWO BY TWO

How much forward planning goes into each work and what is the starting point? The reality we inhabit makes us wonder. This curiosity about knowing has created an urge in us to learn and to spend time thinking and reflecting. This learning period is the starting point of any work we have done so far.

Are there impromptu situations when you come across something unexpected that captures your minds and imagination? Yes, but these situations usually take place before shooting. In fact, it is when something attracts our attention and triggers our imagination that we start the process of acquiring a deeper knowledge about it.

Do you have a favourite time of day to work and what makes it special? Same for seasons of the year? For us, photography is a tool to understand reality, and what we do – what can be considered our work – is learning; the process is continuous. In that sense, our lives and our photographic activity are inextricably interlinked.

If you could choose any country or region to spend time and adventure, where would it be? Any country or region in the planet can be special, but it is true that the more different from our culture a place can be, the better for us, because different points of view and different ways of experiencing reality is what can enrich you the most.

What is the longest time you have spent on a single project? Our series are part of on-going projects. We do not close our series and we work in a continuous cycle of activities: investigation, learning, shooting, selecting, experimenting in the darkroom, printing and starting again. In each cycle we learn and change, so we see it as a natural evolution.

How much time do you spend travelling? In general terms, we barely travel. In our photographic practice we first study, read and feed ourselves with ideas, concepts and knowledge from different sources. Then, we go out to photograph. We think that our brains change whenever we learn new things. Photography is not only a craft or an art but a tool to help us better know and understand our reality. So for us, photography goes far beyond the capture of an image; it has become our way of life. That means we no longer travel for sheer pleasure, but rather for the sheer joy of our work.

Which artists – living or not – do you most admire and why? We admire many of them, from writers to painters, from philosophers to mathematicians. To name a few, the photographic work of Luigi Guirri; the paintings of Giorgio Morandi or Lee Ufan; the work of theoretical physicists as Richard Feynman or Carlo Rovelli; the mathematical work of geniuses like Bernhard Riemann; the cinematic world of Stanley Kubrick, Wong Kar-Wai or Christopher Nolan; the literary work of James Joyce, Joseph Conrad or Juan Rulfo; the Japanese graphic design of the 60s and 70s; the world of comic, manga and anime artists such as Matsumoto, Satoshi Kon or Moebius… it is a very long list because in any discipline you can find ideas that can be an inspiration.

What are you most looking forward to about the forthcoming show at In The Pink? As with any show, we would love to connect with the people who visit it. Hopefully our work will encourage them to raise questions about their reality.