Purgatorio: La belleza va por dentro [Purgatory: Beauty Comes from Within]

Purgatory: Beauty Comes From Within is a series of x-rays of five plaster sculptures that Rivera intended to be hung in the waiting room of a hospital. These x-rays set up a tension between the familiar (x-rays of the body) and the unknown (x-rays of plaster sculpture). Moreover, the photographs in the light boxes play with the idea of a spiritual seduction, as if there was an undefined essence in these sculptures, invisible even to an x-ray. This work is part of a larger project called “Purgatory” in which these five plaster sculptures are recycled as the artist resizes them, recreates them in different materials (wicker, glass, copper), and adjusts their scale to new locations and arrangements. As in purgatory, the objects seem to be waiting for a use or a place in the world