Diffractions – An exhibition by Avelina Crespo
- Date: 02.12 – 18.12.2022, 7:00 – 19:00 daily
- Opening: 18:00, 02.12.2022
- Artist talk: 15:00 – 17:00, 03.12.2022
- Location: Matca Space for Photography, 48 Ngoc Ha, Ba Dinh, Hanoi
Diffractions is a new body of work by Ecuadorian photographer Avelina Crespo. This work emerges while she wanders around Hanoi, a city she has recently moved to.
Drawn to their many layers of paint, Avelina starts photographing walls. Then, she begins to photograph objects. She imagines these walls and objects symbolize a history that does not belong to her. The images presented in this series are thus metaphorical expressions and allude to an effort to understand reality from another perspective.
Avelina photographs and prints these images, which are then subjected to multiple cuts in order to be reconstructed using collage techniques. She re-photographs the results to produce the final image. The intention behind cutting the image apart is to then put it together, creating forms where the space between the parts evidences the difficulty of creating a new narrative. This draws attention to the materiality of the photographic image. It is a process that deliberately alters, interrupts, and recreates a photograph in order to generate a new way of seeing.
Avelina Crespo is an Ecuadorian photographer with extensive international experience, having lived and practiced in Ecuador, France, Peru, Brazil, Chile, the United States, Canada, and Vietnam. She received her B.A. in History from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. where she studied photography at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, and a Diploma in Art History from the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Her most recent exhibits took place at Carlos Caamaño Proyecto Fotográfico in Lima, Perú (2017), the MAVI Museum in Santiago de Chile (2012), the MAC in Niteroi, Brazil (2012), Back Gallery Project in Vancouver, Canada (2015), Red Ex Gallery in Quito, Ecuador (2002). Avelina has lived in Hanoi, Vietnam since 2018.
