Lot 39: Could God be a woman

GABRIEL BARREDO (b. The Philippines 1957)
Could God be a woman
mixed media
height: 35 1/2 in. (90 cm.)

Gabriel Barredo's work could be easily seen as metaphors of romance, mystery and history. Nothing unfolds in lineal progression; "events" are memoralised, obscured and forgotten in equal measure as the sculptural piece moves continuously when switched on. Gabriel's repertoire of visual vocabulary: non-sequiturs of alternatively legible, incoherent but always elegant patterning of foliages - dissolve, sink and emerge an elegiac sculptural acknowledgement to the passage of time.

Could God be a woman distills the impulsive spontaneity of Gabriel's raw imageries in his own mind and more importantly reveals a human being that is eager to break free from the conventions and the stereotypes. Being raised as a catholic, the artist is strong in his faith but remains open-minded about the universe. It is therefore not difficult for him to imagine the creator in a softer and feminine form.
A curious sensation always emerges from oneself as one reads the sculptural work of Gabriel Barredo. Magical as it could be evocative of the pumpkin carriage in Cinderella , mysterious as it could be reminiscent of the creaks of the door as Hansel and Gretel walked into the house that is made of chocolate and candy and unabashedly romantic as it is redolent of the enchanted forest where Princess Aurora slumbers for a hundred years, Gabriel Barredo always manages to entice, to hint and above all to tantalize one's imagination beyond words.