From dust we are, and to dust we shall return

From 27/10/2022 To 16/12/2022

El cuarto de máquinas will open their next exhibition on Friday October 28th 2022 with an exhibition by female artist Alma Berrow. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return will showcase nine hand sculptures along with Berrow’s well-known ashtrays.

Alma Berrow’s work discusses common scenes of underground society. The previous Cantina el bar La Rambla located at Chapultepec 79 provides the perfect setting for the exhibition. At first entry the feeling is of a debaucherous party - of gesticulating hands mid conversation, of ashtrays filled with cigarettes, of scattered beer tops. The hand arising from the central ashtray titled 'For dust you are, and to dust you shall' return references God’s words to Adam and Eve, the apple core referencing the earliest debauchery.

The new series of shadow hands uses optical methods of illusion seen for the first time in Berrow’s work. The composition of the hands and the positions in which they hold for example the cigarettes, matches and bottle openers, along with the way in which they are illuminated with spotlights against the white walls, create animal shadow puppets in the shapes of the Snake, the Dog and the Goose, amongst others.

The exhibition will be open until December 16th 2022.