Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma presents “Tractor Buddy”, an exhibition by Bel Fullana in which she shows, for the first time in her career, a cute-terrorist sculpture in which she transfers her singular female characters to a new dimension.
Curated by Nuria Gómez Gabriel, in this exhibition, the artist has worked on the transformation of her figurative painting into the creation of a sculpture that exists in the zone known as Monster Girl Fan, maintaining a humanoid form, yet in which monstrosity occurs when placed somewhere between that which is childish and adult, masculine and feminine, non-human and human, known and unknown, impotent and powerful, spontaneous and deliberate
The artist presents a creature with a cute-terrorist aesthetic, as defined by the curator, sexualised, carefree, with distorted forms that are at once naïve and striking.
Del universo de Bel Fullana se desprende una feminidad alienígena en la que confluyen la oscuridad del techno y la cultura rave, junto con los estilos de vida en la periferia y el extrarradio urbano que en la actualidad han estado fagocitados por movimientos musicales asociados a la droga, la violencia, el sexo, la amistad y el amor, como el trap o el reggaetón.
From Bel Fullana’s universe exudes an alien femininity in which the darkness of techno and rave culture converge, come together with the lifestyles of the periphery and the urban outskirts, now totally engulfed by musical movements linked to drugs, violence, sex, friendship and love, such as trap and reggaeton.
The artist’s work, in turn, is inscribed in a visual genealogy that oscillates between mainstream culture and the margins of the underground. In her visual world we can sense how certain references to characters from comics, series and films from the 1990s, including Barb Wire, Biker Mice From Mars, Showgirls and Mad Max, engage with the voices and visuals of the current art and music scene, such as Hofmannita, Grimes, La Zowi, Zheani and María Forqué aka Virgen María.
Núria Gómez Gabriel, curator of the exhibition, explains that “The idea of the Monster Girl – the young woman who shares visual traits with a monster – has been represented through multiple figurations throughout the history of art.
Historically, we have seen it in various incarnations that escape the norm of femininity: from the Medusa and Scylla of ancient Greek mythology to the horror films of the 1970s such as Carrie, the film character based on Stephen King’s novel; or even in comic book characters such as Marvel’s She-Hulk.
In “Tractor Buddy”, the visual artist Bel Fullana offers us a contemporary revision of figuration, linked to the lifestyles of the urban outskirts. Her sculpture brings us closer to a version of the monstrous-feminine that speaks to us of the commodified spirit of our time where everything is forged by and through appearance”.
Bel Fullana, artist, adds that “the opportunity to be exhibiting for the first time in a museum has been the reason why I decided to make the move from painting to sculpture, as it was a desire I had been feeling for a long time. The process has been a lot of fun and different from what I have been doing so far, a real revelation that has opened up a new field for me to continue exploring.
I had been feeling for some time like a painting machine, a robot that reproduces the same images and figures over and over again, and this made me consider making an industrial production as if it were the product that I felt my work was becoming.
I am very happy with the result and with the presentation we have made in the exhibition hall. I hope that the visitors enjoy it as much as I have and that they like to meet this creature that is so special to me”.
The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday 21 March 2024 at 7 p.m. and will be open to the public from 22 March in Space D until 9 June 2024.