Emil Alzamora’s “Waymaker” is like journeying through a series of time warps. Cement, steel and wood figures loom in various states of decay like Greco-Roman relics in a museum. Yet a modern sensibility invites the sculptures into a surrealist dream conjuring a restrained body, mangled by metal. His sculptural figures are caught in a violent tempest of industrial materials that weave in and out of linear time.
Emil Alzamora, Wormhole at Cladh Hallan, 2021
Wormhole at Cladh Hallan (2021) gives us a clue as to how Alzamora considers the body’s narrative history. Cladh Hallan is reportedly the only place in Great Britain where prehistoric mummies have been excavated. By alluding to a wormhole, Alzamora plays with the limits of time. He casts a dramatic resurrection by reconstructing forms out of rubble. His inventions are kin to Mesopotamian lamassu, a divine hybrid of human and animal. In Alzamora’s case, he unites the materials most commonly used in construction to introduce the human/industrial hybrid. He leans into the construction process through additive and subtractive techniques to highlight the procedure of the build.
Emil Alzamora, Hone Redux, 2018
Surrealist psyche unshackled, Alzamora’s sculptures stand among the fluid and powerfully charged sculptures of Umberto Boccioni. In fact, his provocative and alluring forms far outweigh any conceptual fodder. A practicing sculptor since the late ‘90s, Alzamora is a master craftsman when it comes to design. From the aquiline arms of the figure in Star Suit (2018), to the pocketed seams along Hone Redux’s (2018) ribs, Alzamora captures the ambition and drama of Henry Moore’s work while maintaining sensitivity to subtle expression. The arched back and exaggerated neck of Waymaker (2021) imitates Persipine’s deserpate clamor for freedom in the Baroque marble sculpture The Rape of Proserpina. Likewise, Hone Redux bears striking resemblance to the ancient Crouching Aphrodite and Crouching Venus sculptures. No doubt Alzamora was stuck with inspiration from the ancient world and his industrial time warps tunnel us into a futuristic dystopia studded with impeccable design.
Emil Alzamora “Waymaker”
May 8 – June 19, 2021
All photographs courtesy of the artist and Lowell Ryan Projects.
Alzamora’s deftly crafted sculptures, both apocalyptic and hopeful, speak to the human condition as it struggles from century to century.
His command of myriad materials broaden the scope and power of these timeless creations.