About

Erick Morales Scholz, born in Cartago, Costa Rica, 1986.

B.F.A., in Sculpture, University of Costa Rica, 2012.

M.F.A., in Visual Arts, University of Kansas, 2017.

My perception relies in noticing subtle interrelations within the layers of human networks. This is the way evolution has primed our brain to seek out patterns for simple categorization and effective survival. I take pleasure in the study of the disruptive nature of the otherness in relation to the notion of selfhood.  My multilingual nature facilitates a plasticity in my pattern making when I commit to the process of translating these connections that I draw. The product is a form of visual fiction, a studio discipline that I have been developing based on science, anthropology and science fiction. The main driving force is speculation in terms or ourselves, our environment and our futures. 

Our body, when refocused as a communication node which is part of a global network, reveals a disturbing ambiguity in its established borders. This exposes an unforeseen spectrum of possibilities of being like an open nerve. The first time I explored this was in a series of thesis works titled La muerte secuestrada (sequestered death, 2011). These dealt with the notion of institutionalized death and the challenge of mourning. The abstract animalistic forms of twisted and rusted metal combined with cow bones served as a monstrous fabrication of confused mythologies due a lack of a ‘defined’ image of the otherness of death. In my most recent thesis, altPersona: clusterTeratoma activeHomunculus reAnimation (2017), I endeavored in the science fiction premise of creating a sentient artificial organism made from a cluster of teratoma tumor growths that responds in real time to stimulus. Provocation of the piece leads to a projection of stress though increased teratoma vibration and display of more gruesome video layers.

My studio practice seeks to find intersections in other disciplines to elaborate new forms of translation. In a culture that seeks simplistic answers, I like to craft visual questions that throw people off their mental balance and evoke a more primal visceral response. This is what I enjoy to observe in my audience, a look of horror out of lack of definitions and perhaps the possibility of drawing out a deep dark fascination towards the spectacle of the abject.