Marisa Telleria’s multidisciplinary practice ranges from painting and sculpture to installation, using a mix of traditional as well as ephemeral materials to communicate a coded message to the viewer through a subtle yet powerful sensorial experience.
References of Telleria’s personal experiences seek to provide a context for questions of visual and formal understanding. Nevertheless is her practice fed by her autobiography and deals with themes of loss and repression, often alluding to the socio-political situation in her home country, Nicaragua.
Telleria has always had an interest in perception, in grasping how we relate to physical phenomena particularly within the quiet setting of minimal stimuli. Colour and materials have been central to her investigation as she explores the inherent connotations they carry as well as their sensorial aspects.
Many past works of Telleria were linked to Nicaragua through the use of specific “patriotic” colours such as the blue and white of the national flag, or colours associated with a specific political party (i.e black/red and hot pink for the party in power) to address and reveal the systems of control and manipulation used by the regime and the psychological impact these colours have on the population.
Freeing herself from the psychological weight these colours possess, Telleria developed a new series entitled Non-Flags as an attempt to dissociate the colours from its national identity, to use colours without charging them with meaning. As Telleria remarks: “A liberation from one’s own history, even if only briefly.”
Selected work
Non Flags #3 (1)
Felt, foam, yarn, canvas
50.8 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm
2022
Non Flags #3 (2)
Felt, foam
78.7 x 50.8 cm
2022
Non Flags #3 (3)
Felt, foam, yarn, canvas
50.8 x 40.6 x 3.8 cm
2022
Non Flags #4 (3)
Felt, foam
78.7 x 50.8 cm
2022