ARGENTINA
Ernesto Aragón
Wound in the Country 1998
acrylic on canvas with thread 59.7 x 63.5 cm

Ernesto Aragón was born in 1959 and studied at various art schools, including the National School of Ceramics and the Ernesto De La Cárcova Superior School for Art. As well as exhibiting his work regularly in Buenos Aires, he also teaches painting, drawing, and sculpture. The painting is from the artist’s Wounds series about man’s lack of respect for, and ill-treatment of, the earth through the proliferation of pesticides, fertilizers, indiscriminate deforestation, and nuclear residues. The glowing orange canvas has been ripped with a knife and then stitched back together. The artist comments: ‘The idea of mending the canvas symbolises that of sewing a wound. The scar, a sign of health and recuperation, is nevertheless a continual reminder to us of the initial wound (for example, the Bikini Islands)’.