Carmen Mariscal
Chez Nous

Carmen Mariscal - Chez Nous

Visual artist Carmen Mariscal’s work is concerned with human fragility, confinement, and memory. Tensions rise in Mariscal’s work through the familiarity in situation, the colloquially of referent, and the intimacy of tone. Her investigations root in personal and shared stories.

In Chez Nous, the California-born Mexican Artist, Carmen Mariscal questions the symbolism of the padlock and a contemporary ritual they are associated with. We have all noticed them before- the padlocks lovers leave chained to place. These are literal markers we see or perhaps have ourselves left behind. Mariscal’s padlocks are a “symbolic materialization of domestic traps,” writes Christine Frérot of the related Chez Nous (installation) that exhibited in Paris at the Place du Palais Royal as the city coincidentally closed-down for Covid 19 | (video-link below). This “Prision House” of Mariscal’s is composed of padlock panels recovered from the gates of two of the City’s famous bridges, the Pont des Arts and the Pont de l‘Archevêché.

Carmen Mariscal is currently pursuing her PhD Royal College of Art in London. Mariscal earned a master’s degree in Visual Arts from the Winchester School of Art in England. Prior to that she studied at the graduate diploma program Advanced Painting, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, United Kingdom, and earned a BA in Art History from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She is the author of the installation El pueblo creador for the Mexican Pavilion at the Universal Exposition in Hannover 2000. Mariscal was awarded first place in the 4th National Installation Competition in Mexico and has been selected for the Monterrey Biennial among other accomplishments. Carmen Mariscal's work has exhibited internationally in Mexico, the United States, Spain, France, England, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malaysia and Russia.

Carmen Mariscal

Chez nous ( Lock-House), 2018
Steel, brass, aluminum
31 x 31 x 31 cm | (12 x 12 x 12 in. approx.) | $8,000

Contigo (With you), 2018
Padlocks made in ceramics
Dimensions vary; shown: 8,5 x 6 x 1,5 cm and 11,5 x 5 x 1,5 cm
(3.3 x 2.3 x 0.6 in. and 4.5 x 1.9 x .6 in. approx.)
$250 single padlock | $500 linked-couple padlocks
Recommended: groups of 6 or more

Images © DupifPhoto, Paris

Carmen Mariscal was recommended for inclusion in You and Yours by Tatiana Parcero.