Analogia I

By the time he made Analogia I, Victor Grippo had emerged as one of Latin America’s most influential conceptual artists, employing everyday materials and encouraging the viewer to carefully study — and occasionally touch — his sculptures. This work embodies concerns that were central to the artist: forty potatoes are carefully placed like specimens in a gridded container, and all are connected to electrodes that emit charges registered by the meter at the center. At once humorous and melancholy, the work reflects Grippo’s interest in alchemy as well as his lifelong concern with energy — its potential and measurement. The lowly potato, indigenous to Latin America, here serves as a source of nutritional or electrical energy, and symbolizes the people whose collective power is controlled by the authoritarian state.