Gallery Entry

Facing the storm

By Santiago Cuen Hernandez · MX

Facing the Storm began when I saw the possibility of a wave and a ship in the marks of a drip painting. I had explored the image of a pirate ship riding a tsunami before, but this time the scene had to emerge from colors, stains and movements that were already on the surface. I did not want to erase that accident in order to illustrate an idea. I wanted to find out where the two could meet. The ship interests me because of its contradictions. It suggests freedom and rebellion, but crossing an ocean also demands discipline, cooperation and someone willing to choose a direction. The wave is something too powerful to stop. In the scene I am developing, the ship cannot control it; it must change its relationship to that force. A second vessel, further away, faces the same storm differently. I began exploring the composition through drawing, paint and AI-assisted references. Some generated images were beautiful but took the wave or the ship in a direction that no longer expressed my idea. I returned to drawing and to the painted surface, then used the digital results again as material to question and develop. As the painting progressed, I also began working on its moving-image counterpart. I was interested in what happens when a scene held in a painting becomes a sequence of decisions through time. The physical painting and the audiovisual piece are not, for me, an original and its illustration. They are two developing forms of the same work. One asks what paint, color and gesture can do; the other introduces movement, duration, sound and the problems of continuity. What connects them is the idea I am pursuing and the way I direct it as it changes.

Category

CONCEPTS MIXED MEDIA

Approved

14 October 2026