The Vancouver Biennale has announced the installation of “Cabeza Vainilla, Cabeza Cordoba, Cabeza Chiapas” by internationally renown Mexican artist Javier Marin, located at No. 3 Road, Landsdown Station in Richmond. The three sculptures, depicting three giant heads in Spanish Baroque style, present a powerful and unexpected statement in the hub of the city as if they were left there from an ancient time.
Javier Marin’s sculptures make a profound impression whenever they are exhibited. The gigantic heads are made of polyester resin and iron but appear as if rendered in clay. They are the color of terra cotta, the red clay of the earth, a material with special significance to many cultures. They suggest remnants or fragments of some ancient monument to unknown heroes. The forms look like they are from a distant time, powerful yet anguished, left to decay and be mused upon.
The realistically rendered heads retain their dignity and emit as sense of history, suggesting both strength and fragility. They rest precariously on edges, as if about to roll. They wear the mantle and dress of another time – maybe Conquistadores, Aztecs or Mayas or the faces of Marin’s native Mexico – yet all are shaped in the style of Spanish Baroque sculpture. A set of these sculptures in bronze has been exhibited in Milan and the Hague Holland, then will be exhibited in Brussles this summer before moving to Luxembourg and Barcelona.