Carlos Arias embroiders immaculate designs with tiny stitches, creating a visual repertoire of images related to the body. The intimacy of the medium itself, with its suggestion of repetitive touch, lends a peculiar poignancy to these bodily associations. Traditional folk decorations are also referenced, and one is inevitably reminded of the traditional labour of peasant women who can be seen today on the streets of Mexico City embroidering cloth for the tourist trade. Like these women - whose motifs are emblematic of Mexico's indigenous cultures - Arias uses his medium as a kind of writing. As objects, his designs translate the silences of history into the language of embroidery.


In his earlier embroideries Arias represented the human body more directly, often using an x-ray view to 'see inside' his subject. Reminiscent of the imagery of Frida Kahlo, this device has its origins in Mexican surrealism. In more recent works like Autorretrato de Uso (Wearing Self-portrait) Arias represents the body at one remove by making detailed replicas of fragments of his own clothing. The present work includes a set of 80 small, framed embroideries that hang in a tight grid 780 cm long. Flanking these are two larger, relatively abstract enlargements of the fabric textures. The result is a composite self-portrait imaged through Arias's personal effects: an intimate and ambiguous trace of the artist's presence.

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Carlos Arias embroiders immaculate designs with tiny stitches, creating a visual repertoire of images related to the body. The intimacy of the medium itself, with its suggestion of repetitive touch, lends a peculiar poignancy to these bodily associations. Traditional folk decorations are also referenced, and one is inevitably reminded of the traditional labour of peasant women who can be seen today on the streets of Mexico City embroidering cloth for the tourist trade. Like these women - whose motifs are emblematic of Mexico's indigenous cultures - Arias uses his medium as a kind of writing. As objects, his designs translate the silences of history into the language of embroidery.


In his earlier embroideries Arias represented the human body more directly, often using an x-ray view to 'see inside' his subject. Reminiscent of the imagery of Frida Kahlo, this device has its origins in Mexican surrealism. In more recent works like Autorretrato de Uso (Wearing Self-portrait) Arias represents the body at one remove by making detailed replicas of fragments of his own clothing. The present work includes a set of 80 small, framed embroideries that hang in a tight grid 780 cm long. Flanking these are two larger, relatively abstract enlargements of the fabric textures. The result is a composite self-portrait imaged through Arias's personal effects: an intimate and ambiguous trace of the artist's presence.