In order to understand the implications of the industrialization in her country, Catalina González, decided to dwell in the deserts of Chile while exploring the relation between these rural landscapes and industrial sites. In her multidisciplinary practice she chooses residual materials connected with the local context in order to give them new meaning by showing their fragility through certain actions. For instance, her temporary drawings, made with lightened sulfur, about memories of locals in Alto Hospicio.
The project Infiltration, born upon González´s arrival in the Netherlands, digs into the history of water in Dutch culture and daily life. Similar to her take on the sandy plains of her home country, she considers her studio like her territory and the water as the material. Water is an unpredictable, absorbent and shape-shifting element - and a tool by which to remember traces time´s traces. Literally opening up her studio and turning it into a temporary collection spot for rainwater, González has created a new space where a mixture of natural and industrial matter comes to life under her direction.