Hacia arriba
This side up

Hacia arriba / This side up is a collection of Works built from the dislocation of icons and images taken from the packages of different products. Here Souto uses a symbol in thousands of products that avoid them getting damaged: an arrow pointing up. This group of works, made in 2017, was created to release the icon from its commonplace meaning, open it up to new languages, and break its unique message.

       From a post-industrial context and heir to various art styles that use waste and disposable goods, the artist appeals to this ready-made symbol and translates it into a poetic sense, transfigured into sculptures and engravings that could resemble toys and games that transform what is available. Souto uses cardboard, a material usually associated with poverty and what is cheap, to make this icon an open invitation to see past what we commonly perceive in a playful transformation. The semantic twist is reached when he decontextualizes cardboard from a commonly perceived disposable material. The series is built with box fragments and plays with the idea of “this side up” and its possible connotations: up is the sky, the stock market goes up, we are up high in our mood when we are in a community, and everything light may float up. Hacia arriba becomes an image that the viewer can build with its own story to take us to an encouraging environment that invites us to leave behind the heaviness of the day thus far.

 

Yunuén Sariego