Voluspa Jarpa looks back at her art career in this review of her works and exhibitions. Over the course of a decade, she constructed seven “images” that identify particular exhibitions and the subjects she addressed in her artworks. Her “untilled land” seeks to explain that the human figure could not be represented at that time. A second subject was the idea of “hysteria” according to Freudian principles. Another image was “the monument” as expressed via the untilled concept mentioned above. The fourth one was “inside and outside the frame,” expanded to include non-pictorial techniques used to achieve a large-scale “complex visual narrative.” Another was “the house” that focused on the so-called mediagua, a makeshift shack built with scrap materials and used as an emergency dwelling. In the sixth one she set out to paint Chile’s uninhabitable landscapes. Finally, Jarpa explored figuration through representations of “the kiss” painted on Chilean flags. 

The artist Voluspa Jarpa (b. 1971) wrote this essay for the catalogue for Histeria Privada, Historia Pública, the exhibition held at the Galería Gabriela Mistral (Santiago, 2002). The text was retrospective but also mentioned new works, looking back at her production over the years in a review that was neither linear nor univocal. Her work includes many references to art history; she begins her essay by mentioning Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and the idea of a “coefficient of art,” providing reasons and the scope of writing about her work. In addition to the exhibition, there was also a roundtable discussion featuring the artist, the cultural critic Raquel Olea (b. 1944) and the visual artist Pablo Langlois (b. 1964). Jarpa and Langlois are both members of the 1990s generation.  

In 2019, Jarpa represented Chile—in the exhibition curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio (b. 1972)—at the Venice Biennale. Her contribution, Miradas alteradas/Altered Views, addressed the subject of decolonization and confirmed the international presence she has had since her early days in 1996 during the Primer Encuentro Cultural Chile-Brasil held at the Museu de Arte Moderna de Salvador (Bahía). One of her most notable exhibitions was Nuestra pequeña región de por acá, her solo show at the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) in 2016.