Alex Reynolds’s exhibition “¡Porque tengo lágrimas!” (Because I Have Tears!) is an essay on portraiture, intimacy, and intimidation. It offers a reflection on the gaze in two types of relationships: one close and affective, the other hierarchical, legal, and oppressive.
The two main films of the exhibition produce tension between these dual registers. Segunda persona, tercera persona (parte 1) (Second Person, Third Person [Part 1], 2023) opens a window onto the bureaucratic universe of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons by isolating the questions posed by an interviewer to determine whether a refugee will receive asylum. In contrast, the short and intimate shots of La mano que canta (The Singing Hand, 2021) portray choreographer Alma Söderberg’s hand as it moves in time with her voice. The film ends with a close-up as she playfully makes fireworks by striking a match against the skin of an orange. This same fruit reappears in the video Peel, 2022, which shows two people attempting to pare its rind simultaneously, with each using only one hand in a relational game of coordination and (dis)encounter. One Left, Two Rights, 2022, distributes small clay sculptures of hands throughout the room. Reynolds shaped them by feeling the model with her fingers instead of observing it with her eyes. In this way, the exhibition maintains a constant oscillation between touch and sound in framing affectionate relationships that often elude the camera.
Translated from Spanish by Michele Faguet.
