Nacho Carbonell, Contain Nature Cabinet (TC 13/2022), 2022, Metal Body, Sand, Paverpol, Wooden Sticks, Metal Mesh, Spray Varnish Finish , 215 x 155 x 63 cm, 84 5/8 x 61 1/8 x 24 3/4 in, Edition Unique, (NC00219)

Nacho Carbonell presents his debut United States solo exhibition at the new Los Angeles expansion of Carpenters Workshop Gallery. With locations in New York, London, and Paris, the gallery embarks on a new journey in Los Angeles with the Spanish artist.

In a departure from his Cocoon works, the artist presents an array of new sculptures: tables, chairs, wardrobes, and more, inviting us inside of the Cocoons he has become known for. Playing with ideas of memory and place, the arid surfaces of cracked and warbled earth recall not only the artists home in Spain, but also the climate of Southern California.

We talked with Carbonell on the occasion of his debut solo exhibition at Carpenters Workshop Gallery about the elements, memory, place, and more.

Nacho Carbonell, Pink Wooden Stick Buffet (TB 21/2022), 2022, Wood Structure, Sand, Paverpol, Wooden Sticks, Spray Varnish Finish, 81 x 266 x 53 cm, 31 7/8 x 104 3/4 x 20 7/8 in, Edition Unique, (NC00228)

We’re gonna talk about your show at Carpenters Workshop Gallery. How does it feel to be opening this new space with your debut U.S. solo show?

I have to say, amazing. It’s a wonderful experience. After being locked down for such a long time, not being able to do a show and share it with people with so many things online so many things for clients. Everything was so disconnected. Now finally to be able to do a show, to do such a symbolic show as well in a new gallery, a new place. I feel like it was a bit of vertigo at the beginning, but…  The energy was so good. I just have good memories. 

I feel like it’s a nice space to be able to have that experience.

I feel like the space is so good and so proper for really creating… personal setups and the layout. Some exhibitions and galleries can be more difficult in terms of the space, maybe they have a more specific setup, but this one being so white cube style, it makes things interesting for the artist. 

Nacho Carbonell, Line of Drought (TC 27/2022), 2022, Wooden Frame, Yuta, Paverpol and Marmol Sand, Clay, Spray Varnish Finsh, COMPOSED OF 5 ELEMENTS, EACH :, 15 x 66 x 94 cm, 5 7/8 x 26 x 37 1/8 in, Edition Unique, (NC00208)

This is the first time you’ve introduced water. Is there a desire to incorporate more elements or all of the natural elements into your work? Or is the water a symptom of what you’ve been thinking about with this work? 

I feel like my desires were always to play with as many materials as possible and as many emotions as possible. In this exhibition I allow myself to go out of my comfort zone as well with what we have been doing in the last few years. Again, begin to become more playful with the approach to the work and I think it works. I have been always playing with water, sand, and concrete. It’s part of me so again… I thought it was a proper moment to do it. 

It’s this refreshing thing too. These very dry, arid-looking pieces, and then you walk in and you hear this trickling of the water. It’s really transportative in this nice way. 

It’s playing with the senses, no? It’s not anymore just a visual experience, it explores beyond that with the tactility, the sound, and even the idea of the smell there… Like before, we had this natural, earthy smell. Trying to transport you somewhere or to your own memories. They are my memories, but again we are talking about a very universal language. We all have our own relationship with nature, with the trees, with water… Again it brings me somewhere in a specific timeframe context, but I’m sure when you experience it will bring you to your own timeframe context experience and I think that that’s the beauty of art and creativity that can really have this power. 

Nacho Carbonell, Gravity Spring (TC 20/2022), 2022, Metal Structure, Sand, Paverpol, Plaster, Glass Container, Motor Fountain, Spray Varnish Finish, 210 x 116 x 44 cm, 82 5/8 x 45 5/8 x 17 3/8 in, Edition Unique, (NC00231)

The way that you’ve worked the material, to some of the pieces, there’s hairlike quality to them that makes these pieces feel very alive and almost animalistic. Is that intentional or were you just working with the natural grain, working as the material required or asked?

No, I was more intentional about trying to express movement, like the piece almost moves. Nature is not static so I was trying to reproduce the trunk of a tree and how it grows organically and moves, even though very slowly. Somehow it has a movement and the bark of the tree shows you the passing of time. Many of the pieces I do try to bring this fluidity and movement even in the one of the dry earth. I was trying to bring you somewhere. 

Your work is very much about memory, you work with memory a lot. Do you feel the manipulation of these materials is some sort of manipulation of a memory or a reproduction of a memory? In reproduction, memories are manipulated.

I feel like all of our memories are distorted, no? We can remember very vividly something, but how it really happened we are subjective all the time. So we can’t be objective, so memory is a subjective thing. Whatever experience that made you feel so good as a kid, nowadays maybe leaves a different imprint… It’s about manipulating it and trying to recreate it. I was always playing with sand as a kid, but I never did it this way so somehow your previous you and your new persona come together.

Nacho Carbonell, Dried Cabinet (TC 11/2022), 2022, Metal Body, Sand, Paverpol, Plaster, Spray Varnish Finish, 173 x 133 x 40 cm, 68 1/8 x 52 3/8 x 15 3/4 in, Edition Unique, (NC00217)

Memory is interesting because memory can be lost and refound.  I think when I was walking through the show we were talking about this being a departure from the cocoons that you’ve been doing. To me, this does feel very much in that realm and it’s almost like we’ve entered it and we’re now walking through it and people are being invited into this cocoon. It has a very communal feel to it. Do you want to talk about that and about how you planned to make that departure and get into some new work? 

I feel like all my work is about personal experiences and how I feel sometimes, and what is needed in that moment or if I feel like talking, or if I’m ready to talk about something. Somehow the cocoon opens up even more and air goes through, light goes through. Here it goes even deeper, this introspective trip that I’ve had and you can have through the work. Suddenly you begin really arriving to the core of this idea—materials, shapes. I see it as a whole kind of narrative from where I started and I think I really like the first piece that I started. It’s this chair you sit down in and you give birth to animals as your companions. For me, it’s very symbolic because of these creatures, but it gave birth to my career as my first very successful piece. I was just graduating with this piece and it became my own icon. It’s my favorite piece, my masterpiece, a continuation of that journey. It becomes more mature, more complex. I become more mature and more complex in my techniques and my philosophy. That one is so pure that I will never be able to overcome that first piece. 

Nacho Carbonell, Metal Mesh Mushroom Lamp (221/2022), 2022, Metal Welded Lamp Shade and Structure, Concrete Base, Silicone Cable, Light Fittings, 105 x 76 x 42 cm, 41 3/8 x 29 7/8 x 16 1/2 in, Edition Unique, (NC00233)

Always reaching for something. I feel there’s always something that’s like a memory that you’re looking to or reaching for. 

You try to enrich it, but that journey is where you experience it. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you fail. My bar will never achieve the purity of this piece so let’s make our best… We will never become as good as that one, but we’ll try.

Where do you see this narrative going? Where do you see it progressing? 

I don’t know, I want to keep exploring it. I feel like I really enjoy the idea of making the pieces, how you start with an idea and then somehow this one fails and then you discover new things… It’s like building a sandcastle. You’re in a ditch, you have a plan, you make a tower. It collapses and you lift the remains to keep building. It’s not static. It’s kinda like it’s always flowing that’s what I like. I will always somehow reshape my own ideas until the piece is complete. I don’t stick to a clear plan, I let the process guide me. I don’t know, I would like to keep exploring the collection. I did that with other collections previously and it’s amazing when you start mastering and the ideas flow…you can always do more, you can always discover more. You can always keep digging and find things that are unexpected for you.  

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