Argentinian, b. 1945
Lleno de Sonrisas serias (Full of Serious Smiles)
and Lustrabotas (Shoeshine), from the series
Cascaras (Shells)
1963
Orthopedic casts, metal, wood, and mixed media
Courtesy the artist and Rolf Art, Buenos Aires
Dalila Puzzovio emerged as a young artist in Buenos Aires in the early 1960s, before Jual Carlos Ongania’s repressive military regime (1966-70). The plaster casts were given to her by a friend who worked at a hospital. Each cast holds a story of a fracture that is unknown to the viewer, yet offers a precise outline of an individual body. Puzzovio regards them as “astral peels” that contain the ghostly vibrations of bodies they once covered, mended, and protected. They also recall fragmented and broken bodies — a reference to the wounds of the repressive regimes soon to come.
