art

Paperwork

Throughout 2023, Caballero performed her poetry in numerous venues across the world, inviting audience members to write down one-word responses to her verse on sheets of paper. The words they inscribed represent the multivalent emotional reactions that poetry elicits. One audience member left an origami swan.

She gathered these slips of paper—these distilled, private moments of connection to performed poetry—and used each word to actuate Paperwork’s compositions, connecting the personal to the universal via the database of our collective unconscious that is AI.

She was so moved by the small pieces of paper and by the swan that she focused her image creation on origami to honor paper’s eloquence, its haptic, sculptural qualities—presenting paper as the message in and of itself, not solely as messenger.

The 100 digital paper sculptures that conform Paperwork capture performances at NFT Show Europe in Valencia, at Bright Moments Gallery and at NeueHouse Hollywood in Los Angeles and at Casas Riegner Gallery in Bogotá.

Caballero created separate long-form generative AI sub-series to honor each city, rooting the works in the architectural elements of each place. For the Valencia works, Caballero referenced the structures of Maestro Santiago Calatrava, who created this location’s Ciudad de las Artes y de las Ciencias. For the Bogotá series, she invoked the forms of Colombia’s legendary Rogelio Salmona. The sculptures grounded in Los Angeles evoke elements of California Modernism.

"duda," 2023. Bogotá
"futuro hoy," 2023. Bogotá
"comedor," 2023. Bogotá
"eterna," 2023. Bogotá
"interesante," 2023. Bogotá
"despoblado," 2023. Bogotá
"mística," 2023. Bogotá
"apocalipsis," 2023. Bogotá
"inspirador," 2023. Bogotá
"soledad," 2023. Bogotá
"vulnerable," 2023. Bogotá

Paperwork’s final performance took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on November 2023, during a special presentation hosted by Bright Moments. Caballero took 100 handwritten words and printed them on high quality paper, then hung them in a room in Palacio Guerrico. This ephemeral paper installation was a sculpture that lived and died in a day.

That same evening, she then delivered the performance recorded below. At the end, she invited all the attendees to select the word with which they most resonated—triangulating them, a stranger and her verse in a moment of shared connection to poetry.

The word that each attendee selected then unlocked the unique digital paper sculpture that they received, closing Paperwork’s system of performed, generative verse.

In 2024, Caballero introduced an expansion of the series, presenting the creation of six physical sculptures, each created from an artist-owned edition. The sculptures are meticulously crafted metal pieces that pay respect to the permanence of that which is written on paper.
"ciclo"
"duda"

The first two sculptures from this series, “transmute” and “momento” were first presented at Fine Print, an exhibition at Load Gallery in Barcelona. Designed by Caballero and produced by a highly specialized shop in in Bogotá, Colombia, these sculptures were also included in Material Poetry, an exhibition at HEK Basel curated by Giorgio Vitale.

"momento"
"transmute"

“transmute” was acquired by the Arab Bank of Switzerland and “momento” entered a private Swiss collection. A third sculpture, “ciclo” was presented as part of Caballero’s solo show Echo Graph at Office Impart in Berlin. These works further affirm Caballero’s belief in the materiality of poetry.

Paperwork fuses the personal to the public and the public to the collective, calling forth the materiality of poetry and the tangible power of the digital. This collection also conveys poetry’s ability to store and transfer memory. Nothing is more meaningful than the ephemeral experiences that linger within us, bringing flashes of significance and connection to our lives.

When we transact, we share, we give, we receive–we assign value. Paperwork celebrates the significance of moments shared with others and the renewed cultural currency afforded to poetry via digital transactability. 

Explore the entire collection

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