Gill Hersom

Gaga presents the first solo show of the artist Gill Hersom at the gallery.

Titled Letual, the works denote his connection to fashion, where each piece is constructed as a three-dimensional object, offering multiple perspectives and angles of approach. The exhibition explores the conception of the star from various perspectives. Letual, is an adaptation to Spanish of the French word ‘étoile’ (star) and is inspired by the duality that stars represent: hope and the inevitable condition that all the stars we see are destined to extinguish.

We are living through a paradigm shift in our spirituality. After decades of a growing movement towards atheism, we now find ourselves in search of spirituality. As helpless victims of some universal error, we recognize that more traditional religions, such as Christianity, have disappointed us. We then seek refuge in more contemporary trends, in what is today considered a (misunderstood) New Age spirituality. At the same time, we are also rediscovering what was once considered profane - horoscopes, tarot cards, crystals, and metaphysics. It’s not that these practices didn’t exist before, but in past generations, they were immersed in a spirituality more bound by religious rules and less focused on personal development, both for oneself and for others. Today, however, we experience a spirituality that, while connecting with a community, is centered on the individual. We believe that with new technologies, we can move towards the best version of ourselves. This exhibition finds its inspiration in the stars, in the hope that, through their reading, we can understand our spiritual quest.

In this context, we find ourselves in front of a mythical character, a kind of spiritual guide who interprets the stars and reveals profound truths to us. The pieces arranged in this exhibition, in the form of an anthropological museum from a future post-apocalyptic era, revolve around this being who comes to teach us. We discover this spiritual guide wearing a turban made of French terry, a direct influence from streetwear. A plush toy that transforms into a staff, an object that has ancestrally represented the connection between the divine and the earth and often plays the role of a spiritual and protective guide on the journey. The necklaces here act as amulets to attract good luck, while animal teeth, deliberately modified for ornamental purposes, seek to transcend time. In this way, Hersom’s pieces become part of a museum that documents the presence of this being.

On the other hand, throughout the exhibition, we are constantly confronted with the figure of the star in the tarot, a symbol of those who are open to the enlightenment of the spirit. A symbol that inspires others and, therefore, serves a higher cause. In the book “The Way of Tarot,” Jodorowsky argues that reading the cards constitutes a bridge between two extremes, intuition and reason. It is intuition but structured to the maximum.

Starting from this premise, the various pieces that conformLetual can be seen as instruments that guide us towards the truth, amulets that are related to knowledge linked to emotions, perceptions, and hunches. In his text “Profanations,” Agamben argues that “sacrilegious” was any act that violated or infringed upon a special unavailability, reserved exclusively for celestial gods (in which case they were called “sacred”) or infernal (simply “religious”). Profaning, on the other hand, meant returning things to the free use of humans. Gill profanes and thus provides us with tools for everyone’s use. Combining music, textiles, and his own beliefs, the artist seeks to help us cope with a reality filled with overwhelming complexities of the present. In this way, the titles of each work provide a musical narrative that shapes this universe that encompasses reality, the present, and the future. With an informal style, characterized by its rough and smooth edges simultaneously, Gill moves in the shadows and emerges at night, finding in the stars a constant reminder of our inevitable mortality.

— Luisa Hernández