Carola Bravo presents herself, spinning, in Moving Identity Canon reminiscent of the Golden Mean. In philosophy, Aristotle’s Golden Mean was said to have the three ingredients of beauty—symmetry, proportion, and harmony... the desirable middle between two extremes. Bravo gives us the middle in Inhabited Geometries.
Carola Bravo, a Venezuelan-born artist, now lives in Florida, and like many artists her work projects a personal journey. Formally trained as an architect, this body of video art continues the theme of the immigrant experience. She inhabits da Vinci’s drawing, Vitruvian Man (1490), which depicts a man super-imposed proportions with his arms and legs parted, inscribed in a circle and a square. The notes that accompany the drawing by da Vinci describe the ancient Roman architect, Vitruvius and his comments in his treatise of architecture in which he determined the ideal body is based in the classical order of architecture.
Intrinsic to this body of work is a mix of memories and although she adapts herself rather quickly to her new country, she is (as well as we are) grounded in geometry. She adopts the philosophy of deficiencies and extremes in one’s life, and always she is hopeful. Always, there is nesting in the geometry of home.
Bravo, like Velázquez in Las Meninas, creates a constant dialogue about the nature of creation and its relationship to reality. Continuous projection of her body in space extends the illusory in real space. She eliminates time and opens the door to a present and a larger future. The viewers are forced to understand her needs and perhaps our own need to have our own memories and share in space our new homes in terms of geometry.
Bernice Steinbaum, Director