Diango HernándezTouched
The 10th Liverpool Biennial18.09. - 28.11.2010
Tate Liverpool

Hernández once stated that ‘the first chair we have ever touched may contain all the possible happiness in the universe’. In his works Hernández explores ideas of the quotidian, and everyday objects are imbued with symbolic value and transformative potential. His multipart commission for Touched focused on the notion of ‘home’ and the sickness we experience in its absence.

In the gallery the audience encountered physical structures and patterns made out of dispersed and deconstructed furniture elements, solitary objects rotated on stages as if touched by a ghostly hand, theatre curtains and a suspended stairway, all of which apparently connected in a dreamlike and surreal setting. As opposed to a mere mimetic representation, Hernández’s work constituted an exploration into the psyche of what we regard as home. He invited the viewer to travel to an imaginative realm to discover a miraculous scene that was informed and heightened by memory and personal history.