Alma Berrow

El cuarto de máquinas, the second project space of Galería Hilario Galguera that is currently in Mexico City, presents an exhibition by Alma Berrow For dust you are, and to dust you shall return will showcase nine hand sculptures along with Berrow’s well-known ashtrays.

Alma Berrow’s work discusses common scenes of underground society. The cantina La Rambla, previously located at Chapultepec 79, provides the perfect setting for the exhibition. At first entry the feeling is of a debaucherous party - of gesticulating hands mid conversation, of ashtrays filled with cigarettes, of scattered beer tops. The hand arising from the central ashtray titled “Dust you are, to dust you shall return” references God’s words to Adam and Eve, the apple core referencing the earliest debauchery.

The new series of shadow hands uses optical methods of illusion seen for the first time in Berrow’s work. The composition of the hands and the positions in which they hold for example the cigarettes, matches and bottle openers, along with the way in which they are illuminated with spotlights against the white walls, create animal shadow puppets in the shapes of the Snake, the Dog and the Goose, amongst others.

— El cuarto de máquinas