Huéspedes

(Metepec, México, 2021)

[14 oil paintings, 8 drawings, 3 installations]

 

2021. Mexico: The meeting point for a commemoration. A series composed from historical erosion that delves into the evidence of the experimental processes of medicine. Events that built the foundations of progress. Sacrifices that attacked the recognition and human values. ¨huéspedes¨ opens from its Latin ¨hospitale¨ root, a room: A space that recovers the already blurred identities of those who were the empirical witnesses for the evolution of medical knowledge; A scrupulous narrative approach based on a multitude of presences, minimal personal information and the dehumanization of those test subjects. Gabriel O'Shea composes a vindication of identity. A visual textuality of those forgotten by history and its opaque transparency of merit. Delving into the captive gazes of anonymity he creates a series that focuses attention on a single purpose, the timely recognition of them, of whom books, history and contemporary computer science do not pronounce any names. Only a number, a date.
The vestiges eaten away by time are the only proof of the existence of these human entities, photographic revelations that archive information of the tests performed, some codes that indicate the patient and in some cases the date and data of the procedure. Without the value of identity. The otherness that is reflected in the rawness. Guests grants a moment to reflection and active recognition, the visual economy has a primary interest, almost to the rhythm of a minute of silence. This commemoration not only transcends the timeline of the past but gives validity to all those who continue to sustain the development of knowledge in the flesh but muted by anonymity.
- Alfredo Graalh