Claudia López Ortega – The Three Corners of the Ocean

dienacht 2021

“This project is about love and the touch of madness in my experience of motherhood. In my family, there are things that are impossible to talk about – although you have been able to sense them since you were a child. There are secrets and looks. There are questions about our female lineage that are never addressed. The silence speaks louder than words. Victoria, my daughter, dared to take a risk and accompanied me into this travesty to express, in her own way, all the feelings rooted deep inside generations of our family. She let me know how sad, lonely and distant she felt from me, just as I felt as a child with my mother and as she felt in turn with my grandmother. These are the three corners of the ocean.”

The book is split in two parts. The first part, bound to the front cover & wrapped in a sunny yellow foil, is a trouble-less view of the family, its front and bright side, as it were, yet with a melancholic touch. The second part, bound to the back cover & featuring many more images, including some of those in the first part, is a much more comprehensive view deep down. Something that is hardly ever seen to the outsider’s eye. Black lists of wounds, drawings, archival pictures, ironic cut outs from retro magazines – all give a broader context to the relationship of the three women in one family and help re-contextualize familiar scenes in a different way.