Here, Miriam Isasi presents Plomada inversa (Inverse Plumb Line), a work that takes as its point of departure one of the most traditional tools in construction: the plumb line, a weight suspended from a cord that builders use to establish perfectly vertical lines and which, through the force of gravity, always points towards the centre of the Earth.
Inverse Plumb Line reverses both the physical and conceptual logic of this instrument. Instead of a weight pulled downwards, a copper wire attached to a large helium balloon exerts an upward force. Through this subtle transformation of a measuring device, the work challenges gravity and creates a tension between opposing forces: weight and lightness, the desire to remain grounded and the impulse to ascend towards the sky. By stripping the tool of its original measuring function, the work becomes a visual metaphor for uncertainty, displacement and the fragile equilibrium of the landscape.
Inscribed onto the surface of the circular platform is a poem that extends and deepens the meaning of the installation, while a subtle sound element proposes a different way of measuring and experiencing the meadow:
Plumb line level, inverse gravity.
Verticals marking the perpendicular of a landscape.
Your diagonal horizon and my shifting tension
reshape the sound of a string.
Helium in the air,
camouflage in the sky.
Miriam Isasi (Vitoria, 1981) is a professor at the University of La Laguna. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the UPV/EHU (University of the Basque Country) and UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico). She has taken part in residency programs at the Spanish Academy in Rome (Italy), Artista x Artista (Cuba), BilbaoArte Foundation, Kunsthaus Bregenz (Austria), EAS-EZE Bitamine Faktoria (Irun–Buenos Aires), MA Studio in Beijing, Nekatoenea in Hendaye (France), Centre d’Art i Natura in Farrera (Spain), and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
From a contemporary standpoint, she develops a discourse built through references to anthropology, history, activism, alchemy, landscape, and memory.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions at ARTIUM, the Spanish Academy in Rome, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum, Sala Rekalde, MUSAC, HUARTE, CAB, BilbaoArte Foundation, Azkuna Zentroa Alhóndiga in Bilbao, San Telmo Museum, Tabakalera, Montehermoso, and the Centro de Arte La Panera in Lleida, among others. She is currently working with La Taller and Talka Gallery on the production and presentation of some of her latest projects.
