1967 Vina del Mar/Chile – lives in Berlin

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, born in 1967 in Viña del Mar, Chile, grew up under the authoritarian regime of Augusto Pinochet. Drawing on history, folklore, mythology, sexuality and her own experiences under the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, Vásquez de la Horra explores themes of femininity, social hierarchy, oppression, politics and religion. Working mainly with the technique of drawing – either on blank sheets or on reused paper – she invents a fantastic universe populated by a multitude of creatures and symbols. She then dips her mysterious, erotic but also merciless drawings in melted beeswax, giving them a timeless patina and an almost corporeal materiality. The unframed drawings are often nailed next to each other on the wall in a cloud-like form or transformed into leporellos and model-house-like paper sculptures, which in turn evoke diverse associations and endless stories.