Untitled 

Arturo Rivera’s haunting painting presents us with a figure manipulating string, a motif that carries echoes through art history. Here, the string frames a second figure, seemingly an extension of the first, yet separate, bound. This recalls the ancient Greek concept of "pharmakos," the scapegoat, tied and cast out. Consider too, the string's parallel to the thread of fate, spun by the Moirai. The puppetry of fate. Rivera twists this. Here, it’s not the gods but perhaps the self that manipulates. Throughout the ages, we see such symbols resurface—in tarot’s "The Hanged Man," or Botticelli’s Venus, hair binding her nakedness. These reappearances aren't linear but cyclical, each iteration layering new cultural residues. Rivera, like those before him, taps into our collective unconscious. We see the echo, the primal fear of being bound, manipulated. This image, steeped in the weight of history, touches us on a visceral level, revealing the enduring power of symbols to evoke profound emotional truths.