Flying II 2018

Teddy Cobeña’s "Flying II" is a sculpture, and from what I can see, the texture has these kind of rough and ready surfaces. You know, the kind that let you know you're looking at something made by hand. The figures aren’t so much carved, as built up, kind of like a painter builds up layers on a canvas. It’s not about some perfect surface, but about the touch of the maker. Look at the way the light catches the folds of the male figure’s shirt, and then jumps to the smooth, almost abstract plane of the female figure’s side. This piece has got a powerful energy, and it reminds me of some of Gaston Lachaise’s fleshy nudes, you know? But Cobeña’s piece is looser, like the whole thing is on the verge of falling apart, or maybe flying apart, which seems totally right for a sculpture called ‘Flying II’. It’s this tension between holding together and falling apart that makes it feel so alive and so present. It’s a reminder that art is always a conversation, an ongoing exploration, never a fixed answer.