Object Romantiek: Entrevista con Santiago Evans Canales

As part of his solo exhibition Object Romantiek at CAM Galería, we interviewed Santiago Evans Canales about his artistic training and the significance of the concept of “object permanence” in understanding the origins of his most recent paintings.

“SEC: The title comes from some psychology classes where I learned about a concept in child development called object permanence. The idea that an object or a person continues to exist even when out of sight. When a parent covers their face with their hands, their baby doesn’t understand that they’re still there, hidden behind those fingers. This is something we come to understand little by little as we grow up, which is why the baby laughs with a big smile when you open your hands. I’ve always connected this to what it means to move so many times—thinking of the different places I’ve lived as if they were unchanging, as if, when I left, I left them exactly the same. Especially as a child, you carry that almost magical certainty that places and people persist even when you’re not there to see them…