Chema López

Chema López / Los años de plomo, 2012 (blanco y negro)

Los años de plomo, 2012 (The leaden years,2012) (black and white)

The defining signs of identity are personal name and face. Classifying, cataloguing, and distinguishing names and faces has been and is a priority objective of power. Los años de plomo (The leaden Years) by Chema López is a series of paintings – two of them are part of the IVAM collection – that start from the resignification of police documents. Photographic images with crossed out, split and torn faces, in an operation that challenges the obstinacy of our society to fix and control the “subjects” that define it. The result, a visual oxymoron, paradoxical portraits where anonymity shows more of the human than identification.

Chema López