Senescence Exhibition

"Senescence” solo exhibition featured works by David Cuesta created by the artist over four years. The show revolved around the screening of a video created in collaboration with the musical artist UAH. The film explores the concept of senescence, which is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms, commonly referred to as “ageing”. Cells possess the ability to divide, but their DNA holds a limit on the number of divisions, known as the Hayflick limit. As we age, cells become less stable, leading to random or uncontrollable divisions, or they stop dividing altogether. The Senescence pieces are juxtaposed with several other works that began just before the pandemic and have been continued during lockdown and beyond. This series, titled “Transformation,” centres on David’s personal physical and spiritual meditation practice. Following an hour-long session of physical exercises, breathwork, and meditation, David created a series of large paper drawings based on shapes and images that he envisioned during the practice whilst his eyes were closed. These drawings were refined into formal constructions using layered acrylic. For these pieces David uses proportional mathematical scales, with each shape being precisely calculated in relation to every other shape. The shapes were then transformed into 3D models to visualise their construction before laser cutting the acrylic into layered wall hangings. Within this series, “Headstand” explores inversion practice, “As above, so below” delves into transcendence and reincarnation, and “Sliced tetrahedron” dissects a perfect Euclidean form into sixths. A limited edition print complements the sliced tetrahedron piece, displaying the exploded plan view of the three-dimensional object, printed on blue paper using direct-to-media white inks. The exhibition also includes two collages from the larger series “Seeking Searching,” which explores our motivations for connecting with nature and what we discover in the process. These pieces reflect on the exotification of colonial lands and are contrasted with a video entitled ”Irminsul.” This piece depicts the construction of a wooden column in a wild landscape, reminiscent of the sacred tree or column built by pagan groups in Medieval Northern Europe.