RASTROGRAFÍAS

A collection of artworks co-created by the passage of time, the action of natural elements, and Carlos Herraiz.

As a child, I searched for fossils with my father. I was obsessed with splitting rocks open with a hammer and chisel to uncover ancient ferns trapped inside them, or petrified seashells in the middle of the mountains. I was always fascinated by how the action of the elements and time could transform matter in such a beautiful way. From there, my passion for archaeology was born.

As a young artist, my work is to create Rastrografías. To do so, I first become an archaeologist of everyday objects abandoned to the forces of erosion, wind, rain, heat, sea salt, dampness, and the relentless passage of time. My treasures, when I venture into scrapyards or when the sea returns what I throw into it, are canvases painted with lichens, photographs from other times developed by mud, wood weathered in the open air, mirrors that no longer reflect anything… Once these elements have left their trace upon these surfaces, it is my turn to continue working on them. Like an archaeologist with a brush, I recover from the past the imprint left by a silence, the void of a forgetting, broken fragments of a memory. Ultimately, it is teamwork. These are Rastrografías: works of art co-created by natural forces and by myself.

When I am older, I will let the salt of the sea, the soaking rain, the sand carried by the wind, and the dampness of winter embed themselves into my wrinkled skin. And then, naked, I will rub my battered body against a large canvas and create my finest Rastrografía.