TEXT INCLUDED IN THE EXHIBITION, EMA MOLINA GALLERY, MONTERREY, MEXICO, 1998

The work of Marianna Dellekamp (Mexico City, 1968) evokes what at first glance refers us to some mystery of procreation; the fluids she portrays are specifically from the human body and are identified as vital signs: liquids flow, condense, filter, spill, or emerge from a living, permeable body.

The photographs that make up an “organic mosaic” are not committed to external reality, as has been attributed to research on the human body in recent years, giving it a political character (issues of race, gender, or disease). Rather, as the artist articulates, "it is a recognition of internal space... of the construction of the body from liquid.

Fluids do have matter, but they do not have their own form; rather, they take on the form of the container that holds them. Furthermore, fluids are difficult to dispose of; any separation we force upon them cannot be 100% accurate, whereas we can detach ourselves or distance ourselves from a solid. This reality reveals a certain justification for the revulsion we feel towards internal fluids: if we discard them, it is because they are dirty, they are waste; or simply, we witness them as something that causes us disgust due to our innate horror of the unknown.

A somewhat disconcerting aspect lies beneath Marianna's work: while the images are extremely attractive to the eye, both in their color and texture, the narrative into which we are thrown is full of unflattering or even sinister associations. Such is the case with the portraits of bronchial, spinal, and amniotic fluids, or urine, while other fluids are “clean”: saliva, semen, breast milk, or blood. Unintentionally, a hierarchy is established in which certain fluids, such as tears, purify, while others, such as vomit, pus, or menstrual blood, dirty. In Marianna's photographs, there are no signs that reveal that these fluids, everyday attributes of existence, are directly involved in the functions of digestion or decomposition. They are presented before our eyes in an extremely seductive way, and hence the little fear we accept when we identify with these fluids as an integral part of our vital architecture.

Luz Maria Sepulveda.