Pablo Dávila

Kasmin presents the first New York solo exhibition of Mexico City-based artist Pablo Davila. Pablo Davila: Why Did You Take My Watch? features new works that iterate Davila's research-based process in various media. Employing a visual language to encapsulate complex systems, theories, and ideas, Davila's works offer poetic reflections on the perception of time and space.

Pulling from the first line of Andrei Tarkovsky's film Stalker (1979) for the exhibition title, Pablo Davila: Why Did You Take My Watch? reflects Davila's interest in the construction of time and space through art. The film, recognized for its otherworldly setting, analogues Davila's capacity to collate distinct moments in the works on view. Inspired by the words of American science fiction writer William Gibson, "Time moves in one direction, memory in another," Davila's works consider the natural force of memory as a guide to explore the progression of time.

Included in the exhibition are several new Phase paintings series (2019-ongoing), Davila's celebrated series of meticulously perforated canvases that translate weather data into striking patterns and abstract compositions. Culled from different geographic locations at various points in time, Davila's works document the unrepeatable, spontaneous conditions of wind activity in the earth's atmosphere. Nearby, a ten-foot-tall site-specific mural, composed of thousands of iron studs hammered directly in the gallery wall, emerges from a similar conceptual approach to the Phase paintings.

Davila's new experimental Weather painting conjures storm cloud formations by digitally collating wind activity data. Simulating an atmosphere that would produce thunder or form precipitation, Davila creates unexpected textures and gradients across the screen. The work offers a digital interpretation of the natural world, blending imagery across time and space.

The audio installation "A friendly reminder" revisits themes of the loop and cultural memory, which Davila explored in a related installation at the Aichi Triennale 2022 in Japan. Played across multiple analog speakers, Davila stitches together 2-second segments of the popular Mexican bolero song El Reloj, covered countless times since its first release in 1957. Overlaying recordings by different artists, each segment plays the phrase "Reloj, no marques las horas" (Clock, don't mark the time) at slightly varying intervals.

Inspired by physicist Lee Smolin's writings on the principle of the identity of the indiscernibles, "A seemingly simple request" presents two spherical sculptures sourced from the same rock of obsidian. Despite their common origin and near-perfect symmetry, each work is unique as two objects occupying different physical spaces can never actually be identical, just as two moments in time cannot be identical. The universe is then greatly shaped by the seemingly simple request that it not contain two identical objects.

Pablo Davila (b. 1983, Mexico City) explores the perception of time and space with his singular multidisciplinary practice. Drawing on a minimalist approach, his work is shaped by influences from science, music, poetry, cognitive science, and physical phenomena, exploring themes of perception, the transience of time, and historical interpretation. He has exhibited at the Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; the Aichi Triennial, Aichi Museum of Art, Japan; Museum of History in Geneva, Switzerland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey; OMR, Mexico City; Kasmin, New York; The Pill, Istanbul and Paris; Jose Garcia, Mexico City and Merida. Pablo Davila lives and works in Mexico City.