The Awake Volcanoes Exhibition Guide: Botanica

How can a growing human body look so much like an earlobe?

Since the 1980s, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra has explored the relationship between the human body and the visual imagery of different scientific fields, such as botany and anatomy. The artist morphs silhouettes of human heads, organs, and figures into recognizable and novel forms to connect the diversity of human bodies with the variety of plant life. Through these transformations, a fetus may become an earlobe and heads can sprout from chilies. In subverting the dichotomy between animals and plants, Vásquez de la Horra reminds us that drawing is essential not only to science and its desire for truth but also for the visual arts and their creation of fantasy.

An etching with white marks on a black background featuring sperm cells traveling to a central point in the top lefthand quadrant of the composition. — **Dias fertiles**
**Fertile Days**
1986
Drypoint and aquatint etchings on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

An etching with white marks on a black background featuring sperm cells. — **El viaje**
**The Voyage**
1986
Drypoint and aquatint etchings on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

An etching with white marks on a black background featuring a V-shaped form and sperm cells. — **El viaje**
**The Voyage**
1986
Drypoint and aquatint etchings on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

These etchings of spermatozoa on their journey to an ovum are some of Vásquez de la Horra’s first artworks. Her imagery evokes notions of fertilization and life. The intense scratches capture a scene full of movement, energy, and the fierce physical and psychological changes the human body goes through during pregnancy.

Painting of imagined human anatomy set in a white cage-like structure. The organ looks like corn on the cob with tentacles coming off either side. Seven brick-red blobs with pink tips run vertically down the piece. The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 run vertically down the right-hand side. — **Laberinto ascendente**
**Bottom-Up Labyrinth**
1997
Oil paint on canvas
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Imagined anatomy resembling the interior of a human chest, with two tracheas and two green kidneys. — **Anatomía**
**Anatomy**
1997
Oil paint on canvas
*© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good*

Imagined human anatomy that looks like a larger vertical trachea, with seven smaller air pipes running horizontally along each side. The ends of each have a teal-blue tip which take the shape of human heads. There are two gray oval shapes in the bottom half of the trachea. At the top, the letter “A”. Along the left side, the numbers “4, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7” run vertically from top to bottom. Along the right side, the numbers “8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14” run vertically from top to bottom. — **Evolución**
**Evolution**
1997
Oil paint on canvas
*© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good*

Imagined anatomy resembling a human torso. A reddish trachea runs vertically to the left of the core, with a lung on either side. — **Anatomy Studies**
**Estudios de anatomía**
1997
Oil paint on canvas
*© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good*

Imagined anatomy that resembles the insides of a human torso and tops of the thighs. A red trachea runs down the core, with two lungs on either side.

Árbol toráxico
Thoracic Tree
1997
Oil paint on canvas
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

In this series of paintings from 1997, Vásquez de la Horra presents human torsos like those in medical illustrations. She even points out different organs in cursive lettering in one of the works. However, these depictions are fictions of the human body, with invented arrangements, shapes, and colors. Always experimenting, the artist explores the relations between science and image-making.

Simbiosis 4
Symbiosis 4
1997
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Two skulls fused together at the top connected to another upside-down skull at the bottom by a thick, black neck. A line of black dashes runs horizontally through the center of the neck. — **Post Mortem 4**
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Seis simbiosis
Six Symbioses
1998
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Simbiosis
Symbiosis
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Symbiosis is a series of works Vásquez de la Horra produced in the mid-1990s. Her interests in anatomy and the depiction of violence in mass media are all present. In these images, she stacks, rotates, and surgically connects human skulls, heads, and torsos together—morphing some with technology.

The outline of four human heads each facing a cardinal direction. They are connected by a cross-like design. — **Puntos Cardinales**
**Cardinal Points**
1998
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Two human torsos fused together at the base. The top torso is upright, and the bottom one is upside-down so that they mirror each other. A line of black, vertical dashes runs down the center from the top neck down to the bottom neck. — **Simbiosis de torso**
**Symbiosis of the Torso**
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Simbiosis TV 6
Symbiosis TV 6
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Simbiosis en frascos
Symbiosis in Jars
1998
Graphite pencil and oil paint on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Simbiosis TV 2
Symbiosis TV 2
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Two human torsos fused together at the base. The top torso is upright, and the bottom one is upside-down so that they mirror each other. The arms and necks are shaded black, and the fused torso is white with horizontal black lines. — **Simbiosis torso 2**
**Symbiosis Torso 2**
1995
Graphite pencil and oil paint with sand on paper
© and courtesy of the artist. Photo: Trevor Good

Exhibition Guide Sections

Sandra Vásquez de la Horra: The Awake Volcanoes is organized by the Denver Art Museum. Support is provided by the donors to the Annual Fund Leadership Campaign and the residents who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). Promotional support is provided by 5280 Magazine and CBS Colorado.