Untitled XXXIII. From the Series Chiromorphose

Untitled XXXIII (nc-12-S4-0010) 2010 by Nico Baixas
From the Series Chiromorphose
Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemuhle fine art paper
Unframed
Black & White photography

"Chiromorphose" 2010
Nico Baixas / Gos-com-fuig
(Photographies by Mara Sanchez-Renero)

This work explores the sculptural capacities of the hands. Stripping them from their symbolism or the functions for which they are normally used, I explored them like someone examining a foreign body, searching for their limits and pushing them in different directions. To do this, I used opposed sculptural concepts like straight-curved, and simple-complex; searched for the interconnection between fingers, and the balance between distances, and tried to generate geometric shapes and textures. At times, I would find shapes that were like doors opening onto a myriad of new possibilities. Throughout the process, I discovered a world of fingers that transformed reality taking it to another level.
It is an abstract development, I didn't try to make the forms resemble known things. Despite this, the results are very suggestive, sometimes they look like architectural constructions or industrial designs, shells, corals, branches, flowers, masks... This effect is produced because many of these real objects are made with the same proportions or mathematical patterns inherent in nature. This is a question that interested me a lot. The fact that the distance of the finger bones coincides with the Fibonacci numbers, related to the golden ratio, which the Greeks and Renaissance considered the ideal of beauty, gives these shapes a special balance and perhaps a divine dimension.

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Nico Baixas / Gos-com-fuig is a creative interdisciplinary artist from Barcelona. He started performing in theater at three years of age with his parent's company La Claca whose most important work was a collaboration with the famous painter Joan Miró. Surrounded by an ambient of artistic freedom, Nico spent most of his childhood in art museums and theaters of the five continents when he resolves to pursue an artístic career, studying music, working in cinema and acting. On his mother's side, his grandparents were deaf and spoke sign language, Nico inherited a special talent with his hands creating a unique style of virtuoso hand puppet performances. After joining Cirque du Soleil his work is acclaimed by audiences and critics of major cities like New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Rome... Aside from his career as an actor and hand puppeteer, Nico develops a more personal line of work which he signs as Gos-com-fuig. With this alter ego he uses his hands and body to paint and create abstract and figurative photographs, videos, sculptures, and multimedia performances which give the viewer lots of freedom of interpretation. This body of work started with a collection of all the shapes that can be created with two hands which are formed by one thousand shapes organized in order. The project received the grant GENERACIONES 07 and was presented at the art fair ARCO (Madrid). Afterward, continued with a photographic exhibition, the publication of a book, and the development of a multimedia system composed of a computer program and video cameras which allowed him to paint using his hands and body.