WEAVING THE LINE, Solo Show / Taller República / Santiago, Chile / 2017

The line is one of the fundamental elements of what is commonly considered a drawing. The line, as such, lies along the path of the stroke—a stroke that is sometimes rigid and static, and other times curved, sinuous, and in motion.

To delve into the work of María Valenzuela is to engage in an equation, where deciphering balance—almost like solving a mathematical operation—includes a series of unknowns and variables. These are elements the artist subtly suggests, timidly sewing the line onto paper.

Just as the origin of abstraction is sometimes attributed to the accidental act of viewing a painting turned upside down, María Valenzuela’s embroideries invite observation of compositions made of strokes without a fixed meaning—beyond that of observation itself—where the viewer determines the path to follow.

This path, in the case of the artist, is marked by her own experience: the connection to nature through contemplation, drawing its shadows in ink, an interest in what is hidden, and the transference of intimate spaces through embroidery as a method of creation. A silent three-dimensionality.

Halfway through the journey appear the imagined shadows of trees, which were once representations of willows, pines, and shrubs. Once rendered in contrasts of light and dark with Indian ink, they now present themselves as opaque and material, made of colored thread strokes that pierce and traverse the paper. She discards figuration in favor of abstraction—forms that acquire volume and presence through consistency and repetition—where the origin returns to nature, and the dot once again becomes the beginning of the line.

Miquel García.