Arnold Schwarzenegger, 2018-2019

video projection on expanded PVC plate and steel
193 x 106 x 33 cm + projector 
[76 x 41 ¾ x 13 in]

A cutout adds four poses to Arnold Schwarzenegger. On the silhouette of these possibilities the poses are projected alternately, in slow fades from one to the other, mimicking the movement that the model could have in a bodybuilding exhibition. The looped sequence reiterates an idea of body superficiality. That is, as much as this body is endowed with extraordinary volumetry, it is often seen as an image, it was meant to be appreciated as an image, to some, of an ideal body. This bidimensionality is reinforced by the flatness of the cardboard that inhabits an intermediate space between painting (image) and sculpture (body).

The work thus is part of the research of the corporeity of the image and the imagery of sculpture (or body) that develops in other works more persistently from 2016 onwards. In this case, as in latex experiments, the body holds various possibilities of form, condensing them into a single space, so that the total silhouette looks more like a shapeless mass than a body.

They inhabit the imaginary of these totems of cardboard, often heroes, movie actors, politicians and public people, besides fitness figures and athletes. Somehow, Schwarzenegger incorporates all these roles, ranging from the memorable Terminator to his acting as Governor of the State of California and his title as Mr. Universe. In fact, it embodies the image of the cyborg, whether in its characters or in the actual construction of its body-machine.