"Previously my research has led me to produce several defining bodies of works. They can be summarised within the following categories: the Everyday Paintings (paintings interacting with other paintings to become an object-painting); the Site-specific Paintings (abandoning the traditional vertical plane and the modernist presentation of paintings); the Commodity Paintings (addressing the concepts of seriality and repetition); the Recycled Paintings (reusing the stretcher or the canvas endlessly to make painting- after- painting from other paintings); and the Still-life Paintings (incorporating an object).
The ‘Still-life Paintings' and the ‘Recycled Paintings' have been the initial parameters of the development of a new language. The paintings have a language of appropriation: the works are self-referential and aware of the history of painting. Objects and paintings, and their physical expansion, have been a source of exploration. The paintings and objects are distorted, inserted into each other or activated towards other works.
In my recent work ‘Clutter', I reintroduced the use of aluminium and metal objects into my work, and metal frames became containers for other paintings; canvases became like body bags.
For my new works in MARCO, I am reusing two concepts from past works, ‘Larger Than Life' (first presented in 1998) and ‘Stuck', 2001. In recent years, my work has reflected on excess of production, and on ‘accumulations' of paintings that used as single works become a different one. ‘Larger than Life' (2004) and ‘Stuck' (2004) share conceptual similarities to this, yet are concerned more with singularity and gesture than seriality and accumulation.
Both works refer to space and are site-specific. One exceeds the Annex space and is collapsed within it, the other is stuck in a doorway, blocking it and allowing no way in or out. Both works are an obstruction to the space; ‘Larger than Life' can only be viewed from an outside street- level window. ‘Stuck' also refuses access; both cancel out the traditional space of painting.
The Annex is a square space on the side of the Museum (formerly a prison), one might say an ‘attachment'. The idea of it being a ‘container' of work is relevant to themes associated with my paintings, such as ‘Parasite' (1998) and ‘Clutter' (2003); the idea of a painting being a container for others. Therefore architecture and painting will fuse into a unique work. The end result will be painting-space transformed into an object- space of parasitical nature, with both canceling their traditional roles.
Colour and scale will also be used to represent painting tradition and architecture. Colour is an important element of these works, as it refers to historical Spanish painting, and the colour of the Annex itself."
Angela de la Cruz, 2004