Since I met Antonio, his work has made me curious. I couldn’t understand why a young artist with so much talent was devoted to a story that seemed foreign to him. I spent a lot of time mentally writing about his work and trying to understand the discourse that these ladies were hiding behind their bags, accessories, and dresses. It was relatively recently that Antonio told me, with great enthusiasm, what drove him to portray images with such a kitsch aesthetic, whose protagonists were Paca, Conchita, Fernanda, and so many other ladies whom he had encountered and whose lives he admired.
The detail with which he described the sound of heels clicking, conversations, and scents introduced me into the scene in such a way that it seemed to pass through the imagination and transform into reality. Antonio manages to generate a temporary journey through his works, entering controversial themes loaded with emotion, moving from longing to a goal imposed by society and endorsed by the women who compose it.
The ostentation and overwhelming boldness with which these jewels, shoes, and prints are presented are striking. There is an imposed choice to show the best as a goal, without admitting anything that can be understood as inferior to it, transforming it into a faithful representation of empowerment and affirmation that ensures the goal has been achieved. Social conventions play an extremely important role in the discourse hidden within the artist’s works, positioning themselves alongside very clear images that construct everyday life: putting on heels to go shopping, sitting on a plastic chair wearing your best jewellery, and so many other gestures that time and our own experience have witnessed.
The external gaze of which Antonio spoke to me now moves towards the viewer, who analyses the work in search of details and inevitably finds themselves devoted to criticising or, alternatively, praising what they see. One can see how ostentation floods the room, hiding the stories and longings of our grandmothers and of those who will come after them.
The same ostentation that allows us to move forward without leaving behind the memory of what was, but instead using it consciously in our everyday lives. What we observe in these works is the result of the sum of many things. It is an embrace of the sacrifice of so many women, the culmination of their prolonged effort; it is a deep breath.
- Agustina Bornhoffer