The word… written, said, imagined. Literature is always present in the work of Rosana Ricalde. In his recent works, he promotes the encounter between two characters that figure in the collective imagination of the West, Scheherazade and Penelope. Two women who incorporate patience to create their plots and make their memories keep their memories alive day and night, are not antagonists, but accomplices in the process of building their narratives and in the prodigious development of their stories. Incomplete fragments that build a great fabric with precise and delicate contributions, which constitute a network drawn with meticulous care and attention on the part of the artist.

 

Penélope, in an eternal sewing, and Scheherazade, in an eternal counting, present themselves through lines, curves and shapes created by Rosana Ricalde. The artist draws her plot and captures us all, but by leaving free spaces in the images she creates, the viewer is invited to also create their own narratives, to relive their experiences and to establish relationships between times and places often never visited. Thus, the one who sees is no longer just another spectator and becomes the protagonist of the story himself. He gazes at the story created by Ricalde and completes it with his imagination and his experiences.

 

In the artist's works, incompleteness is deliberately left open for the participation of the other. The one who looks also contributes to the plot and in the silence of contemplation, gets involved and participates in the work. Ricalde makes his work stimulate what we can call  a new look, which is open and available to the other. The stories of Scheherazade and Penelope speak of time, an imprecise and almost infinite time, where power resides in resisting and persevering, telling and keeping quiet, believing and opening up to others.

 

In the exhausting anxiety of the 21st century, Ricalde updates two mythical figures of the collective imagination. Through her art, so delicate and subtle, the artist reminds us that good stories persist over time and from them we can understand ourselves and everything that surrounds us. And nothing more urgent today than dedicating oneself to enjoying relaxed, imprecise time; of the breadth of present time. The patient time of Scheherazade and Penelope find a strong representation in Ricalde's poetics.

 

The artist plays with our gaze. See and not see What the eyes are capable of seeing often shows us the fine surface of a much denser and more complex fabric. Strong, determined women with genuine delicacy who, in troubled times, of intrigue, violence, mistrust and pain, make us believe in the good face of humanity. Rosana's works make us think that persevering, in an intelligent, subtle and creative way, can be the way out of the barbarism that accompanies the human being in his trajectory. Looking back, looking in the past for references to think about the present and project the future. A more tender, welcoming and serene future. Patience in the face of the urgency to make a small contribution every day to history that we don't know when or how it ends, but that one day it will end.