Autopista del Sur, inspired by Julio Cortazar’s short story, belongs to a series of 7 canvases Rafael Trelles created during the years 2010-2011. The main figure of this series is a drifting shirt suspended in the air over different disasters provoked by human beings.

 

In this composition, a white shirt floating along a brown sky faces the viewer. The shirt is suspended over multiple rows of cars which are part of an endless traffic jam. The pleats on the shirt accentuates the feeling of drifting aimlessly, contrasting with motionless cars below.

Rafael Trelles uses the shirt as a metaphor of the contemporary man who does not control destiny and lives in an uncontrollable world. The solitude of men is transmitted through the emptiness of the shirt and by the figures trapped in their cars or standing outside without interacting or communicating. Is the shirt falling into the disaster or is it escaping and breaking free from it?  Each viewer will have a different interpretation, creating their own story, accomplishing the artist’s main goal as a creator of visual texts. 

 

 The year 2010 marks the beginning of a new style in the career of Rafael Trelles, moving away from a period characterized by the abundance of elements, figures interacting, vivid colors and the influence of the surrealist movement, especially by the figure of Max Ernst.

 

Trelles’ experimentation with photography during 2010 is one of the key elements for the development of a new period where large elements are depicted in a sober way, and the predominant colors are browns, grays and whites, stepping aside completely from his previous style.