How this artist finds sci-fi inspiration in bamboo scaffolding

South China Morning Post

5 days ago

Freddy Carrasco is in the midst of an existential awakening when I arrive at his studio, tucked away in an unassuming walk-up building in Tsim Sha Tsui.
It's a scorching Hong Kong summer day. Inside, cool air blasts from air conditioning and high ceilings offer relief from the heat, while exposed red brick and dangling vintage 'Edison' light bulbs create an industrial feel. But it's the view outside – glimpses of Kowloon's dense skyline veiled by bamboo scaffolding and green mesh – that preoccupies Carrasco, a Canadian artist of Dominican heritage.
The titular sculpture in Freddy Carrasco's exhibition 'Return to Nothing'. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
'Do you know what a tesseract is?' he asks, before explaining its use in geometry and science fiction as a four-dimensional cube, a shape that represents space's three dimensions and time as the fourth. While human perception is limited to three dimensions, Carrasco sees the fourth as a kind of purgatory because it speaks to his interest in how we exist locally and universally.
'The
bamboo scaffolding and grids in this city constantly remind me of the tesseract,' he says. 'It's mostly what I see from my window.' This grid motif recurs in many of Carrasco's recent paintings, which hang throughout the studio in various stages of completion. Most of them feature figures – Carrasco typically paints black ones, in this case himself – abstractly suspended in these grids. Others feature hands folded in gestures of worship or empty forms that suggest portals between various dimensions, life and death.
Sculptures from the artist's Cocoon series. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Carrasco, 36, is preparing for his first Hong Kong exhibition, titled 'Return to Nothing', which is now running at WKM Gallery in Wong Chuk Hang until August 2. The Japan-based artist is in Hong Kong on a visiting artist residency with Side Space, supported by Matt Chung and Alex Chan, of art and lifestyle space The Shophouse, and
William Kayne Mukai, founder of WKM Gallery
His four months in Hong Kong have extended a spiritual and artistic journey that began when he first moved to Japan, in 2018, fuelling a practice rooted in the exploration of life, death, religion and transformation.