ISSUES

ISSUES is honored to present Militza Monteverde Burrau’s first solo exhibition. The show, titled Liquid Garden, consists of mouth-blown glass sculptures hung from wooden pegs on the walls and paintings installed in a wooden structure positioned in the center of the gallery. The typically white gallery walls are now flesh colored, signaling the sculptures’ connection to the body. The nine glass sculptures resemble liquids such as tears, sperm, mother’s milk and saliva.

The Pollinators’ House is a wooden construction, filled with oil paintings depicting liquid droplets or bubbles. Again, the liquids have a biological origin but in the production of life in nature.

Similar to Louise Bourgeois, Militza creates objects that exist in relation to her body and uses art as a tool to alleviate something or in catharsis. While Bourgeois used art to come to terms with her fear of abandonment, Militza addresses her anxiety around separation. Both artists reference body parts or bodily fluid in such a way that can be both enticing and revolting.

Liquid Garden deals with themes of separation. The separation of a child from a mother after birth or the separation of bodily fluid from the body. The moments that exist in between separation are also referenced, such as the transfer of a mother’s milk to a child or a playful string of saliva from mouth to ground. One is intimate and meaningful while the other is just disgusting.

The exhibition is accompanied by a text written by critic and author Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen.

MILITZA MONTEVERDE BURRAU

b. 1986 in Cuenca, Ecuador, lives and works in Stockholm.

She received her MFA from the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm in 2017. Her work has been included in various exhibitions including Downtown Issues at ISSUES, Stockholm (2021); Dead Angle at Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York City(2019); Warmth is not simple, Rehearsing Hospitalities at FRAME Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2019); Mozart’s Ghost at Göteborgs Konsthall, Gothenburg (2018); GIBCA International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg (2017) and Gone Fishing at Gävle Konstcentrum, Gävle (2017).

Militza wishes to thank Rasmus Nossbring, Karoon Khosravi and Simon Klenell at Sthlm Glas, Jesper Edvinsson, Lars-Erik Hjertström Lappalainen and Oscar Holmgren.