The equation of matter = skin = psyche.

Pedro Alberto Cruz Sánchez

COMISARIO

2023

¨In 1974, the French psychoanalyst Didier Anzieu coined the conceptof the "Skin-ego" ("Le Moi-peau"). In this concept, Anzieusynthesized the results of research that led him to conclude that theego and the skin functioned similarly as surfaces that limit, contain,and organize. The point of bringing up this idea is explained by thestunning work of the artist Brenda R. Ferná ndez, which is marked bythe equation of matter = skin = psyche. This conceptual matrix isenriched through its overlap with two other discursive lines taskedwith conveying its production: the tireless exploration of the marginof possibilities open to gestural abstraction; and the growing need toquestion the bi-dimensionality of modernist painting in order toadvance first toward tri- dimensionality and finally towardsculpturality.

 Indeed, Ferná ndez's work represents one of the mostinteresting expressions of the trans- modern category called "paintingin the expanded field."

In structuring this journey painting takes from flatness toward its expansion ofthe sculptural, three stages can be established: the wound; bi-frontality; and thebody. Beginning with the slash that "wounds" the canvas, we must say that skinonly speaks and becomes language when it is open or when its quiet continuity isinterrupted ...¨