Nature, sculpture, and photography come together in the Needles project by Barcelona-based Txema Yeste. Elevating the everyday and the banal—and even the trampled—to an art object, the author plays with the pine needles from the tree next to his house and transforms them into a surprising creative process.
Who would have thought? Who would have imagined that up there, in the pine branches, or down below, under our feet, poetic art objects in the form of dried leaves lie waiting? For Barcelona-based photographer Txema Yeste, much more accustomed to the noise of meticulously studied and programmed fashion productions than to the silence of a creative and minimalist search, his Needles project is proof that a banal organ of nature can be much more than that. With a childlike gaze and from an angle reminiscent of Mediterranean and Japanese influences, Yeste transforms the pine needles near his house into ephemeral sculptures that he then captures with his camera. And so, suddenly (so to speak, as the project dates back four years), all these prickly leaves seem to become dancers, athletes, soldiers of an army, or bird nests.
"It's a return to calm, to contemplation, to dimensioning on another scale," explains the author. "Through minimalist compositions and captivating visual narratives, Yeste manages to elevate everyday elements to the category of poetic symbols, creating a delicate balance between the ephemeral and the eternal," states writer and curator David Campany in the text of the book Needles (RM Editorial).
The exhibition "Needles" by Txema Yeste will be on view at Galería Alta (Andorra) from February 14 to May 2025. A booh with the same titlehas been published by RM to coincide with the exhibition.
