Truco, 2025.
Aluminum, copper, press-on nails, nail polish.
44.5 × 29.5 × 9.8 in / 113 x 75 x 25 cm.
Truco presents a polished aluminum figure frozen in a suspended gesture—arms raised as if in invocation, surrender, or flight. The body is rendered with a mirror-like finish and a simplified, mask-like head that shifts the figure from portraiture toward an icon. Behind it, a semicircular mantle fans outward like wings, constructed from layered press-on nails painted in gradients of orange and amber. The surface evokes the microscopic scales of butterfly wings, translating entomological texture into an ornamental, handmade skin. Developed through scaled drawings and material experiments, the work draws together bodily transformation, spectacle, and vulnerability, folding references to performance, cinematic costuming, and devotional imagery into a single hybrid form—at once radiant, armored, and exposed.
Photography © Felipe García