In #15, La Piedra Sustituta Series, 2020, Sierra intensifies the relational tension between organic flesh and mineral solidity. Rather than depicting domination, the image reads as confrontation—two materials in silent exchange. The stone stands for institutional permanence; the body for mutable identity. Their contact produces ambiguity: is the body absorbed, supported, or resisted? By staging this material dialogue, Sierra transforms nudity into philosophical inquiry, questioning how structures define belonging and exclusion within contemporary culture.
Showing a body that is hidden is the aesthetic apology for the insane judgment that the artist himself has taken as an excuse for not being 'pointed at' or rather as self-pointing. The stone is taken by the body that is unprotected as a metaphor for the weakness that seeks protection, and the body is taken by the stone as a consequence of an insecure state, how can a stone take a body? If this is the one that "institutionally" does it.
A conceptual nude photography staging the confrontation between flesh and institutional stone. Jose Sierra, 2020. Available at The Art Design Project, Miami Beach.
