Eduardo Terrazas | 1.1.585, 2022 | Serie 1: Posibilidades de una estructura (Serie 1: Possibilities of a Structure), Subseries 1: Cosmos | Private Collection
Since the early 1970s, Terrazas sought a synthetic and iconic design to develop a series of works titled Posibilidades de una estructura (Possibilities of a Structure). Through a play of diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines, along with a pair of circles and a square, he established this diagram. From this, he generated five subseries that offer variations of its elements: Nueve círculos (Nine Circles), Retícula (Grid), Diagonales (Diagonals), Código de barras (Barcode), and Cosmos. The latter is the most extensive subseries, starting in the 1970s and continuing to the present, demonstrating the endless variations that a single structure can give rise to. Although the first works of Cosmos were paintings, he soon began using wool thread. In these works, there is a logic of repetition and difference that can operate at various levels: in the lines (multiplication, repetition, subtraction, expansion, blurring, cutting, widening, color change, etc.) or in the spaces between them (shading, emptiness, segmentation, coloring, filling). In this way, the structure multiplies, is intervened upon, or divided into variations or fragments. The viewer’s attention moves between the details of these changes.
Cosmos contains a set of meanings beneath its apparent synthetic and direct design. The horizontal and vertical lines represent the X and Y coordinates. The circle encompassing these lines is a symbol of the universe, while a smaller circle represents planet Earth. A square rotated 45 degrees located within the larger circle represents the structural framework of the universe, while the diagonals crossing the image represent, and unfold to infinity. The diagram can suggest other references, such as the study of ideal proportions of the human body. Thus, the design can refer to different spaces, realms of experience, and symbolic references. Terrazas offers a particular view of the cosmos in which a balance operates in multiple dimensions and simultaneously exists in a state of constant change and transformation. Once again, the multiple modifications present in this series indicate that no structure must be permanent, and that reality has the potential to be a field of endless possibilities.
