Life as a Ritual Stage

The title TABLAS (Stage Boards) directly references the theater: the stage boards where human dramas are performed. The paintings transform this space into a symbolic threshold, where archetypal characters embody the tension between play, mourning, magic, and memory. Each figure is a ritual actor moving in an empty environment, illuminated by chiaroscuro that accentuates theatricality and introspection. Together, they form a visual dramaturgy where the psyche becomes a metaphor for human vulnerability and the search for transcendence. In this series, Cuan invites us to contemplate childhood not as a biographical stage, but as a ceremonial state, a portal between different worlds. The central figures are not characters, but prototypes of transition, travelers between the visible and the invisible, between symbolic power and emotional fragility.

From a technical standpoint, the work is executed using dense oilpaint, applied in generous layers that create tactile textures and reliefs. These surfaces capture the light and enhance the chiaroscuro,giving the figures a three-dimensional quality and creating theatrical atmospheres imbued with melancholy and mystery. The wooden floor places the scene in an earthly dimension, while the neutral background allows the figure to stand out and be perceived as an icon suspended in time. The composition incorporates aesthetic references to retro-futurism and steampunk, visible in the vintage elements and clothing that suggest a poetic and alchemical technology. This intersection of temporalities between past and future introduces a nostalgic element that amplifies the symbolic weight of the work.