Patas Arriba

Patas Arriba begins in distance; alone in a cold room in London, watching carnival in Ecuador through a screen. The images carried joy, community, and a rare moment where difference and mestizaje are openly celebrated; something that quickly disappears once the carnival ends.

At the same time, I was seeing ballet; a form I had always longed for; controlled, delicate, and distant from those scenes of excess and disorder. The work brings these two worlds together.

Through acrylic painting, traditional carnival characters are reimagined in ballet positions. Their bodies stretch, balance, and perform movements that don’t belong to them; creating a tension between celebration and discipline, visibility and erasure.

The series doesn’t resolve this contrast; it holds it. What appears playful also carries a question; what is allowed to be seen, and when does it disappear again.