Johanna Calle
Casas Riegner. Bogota
It would be tautological to say that Johanna Calle is one of the Colombian contemporary artists with the greatest projection. Her impeccable and thorough work has revolved around themes like rootlessness (for example in “Territorios indele- bles”), the situation of children (in the exhibition “Nombre propio” [1999] she embroidered with thread drawings of lost chil- dren), the country’s social and political situation (let ́s recall her participation in the Bogotá Art Biennale with the series “Letargia”, where placid sleeping faces –made with wire alluded to the local lethargy) and the language (as has happened with the series “Progenie”, “Laconia” and “Endemia”).
In her traditional drawings made with ink, wire and thread, language has been one of the central themes, specifically, the condition of written language as drawing. In the exhibition “Variaciones”, currently in the Casas Riegner Gallery of Bogotá, Calle presents a significant part of her recent production (2008-2010).
Within the selection there is a series of works elaborated on the basis of an initiative from the Luis Ángel Arango Library and the BAT known as “Cartas de la persistencia”, by which people sent letters narrating how they had succeeded in overcoming a difficult situation. In this case, the artist makes use to convey her proposal of the written language employed by the authors of some of the letters (this appropriation of language by the artist happens in many senses). In the same way, in other spaces of the Gallery, there are several works allusive to the Greg stenography method, to informal constructions and to the apparently organic (in the sense of living organism) urban growth to the south of Bogotá city.
