Tronco N.2

In 1971 Gego initiated a series of works entitled Chorros (Streams) made of metal rods connected by flexible articulations cascading towards the floor in absolute disarray. Along with her reticulárea of 1969, an environment made of irregular nets and meshes of metal assembled on a triangular grid, these works produced between 1969 and 1972 were the epitome of a period of radical experimentation with the legacy of geometric abstraction that had taken a hold of the Venezuelan artistic imaginary since the fifties. The Troncos (Trunks) produced after 1974, tend towards a clear structural organization and therefore produce the exact opposite effect of the Chorros. Curiously, both bodies of work allude to nature but if the Chorros, as the liquid itself that they evoke can not be visually and physically contained, the Troncos, with their upward thrust and rhythmic development in which its constitutive segments can be clearly discerned, display a conventional organicism that we identify with the philosophical metaphor of the tree (its association with balance, harmony, knowledge). Still, when approached, the work attests to the inconsistencies of the connections and the positions of the triangular modules, as well as the aerial effect of the transparent net. Gego might have found an analogy between these works and the tree trunks, but she could not avoid, after the drastic attack on structure operative in previous works, to provide them with the fluidity of liquids.

Mónica Amor
New York, 2002