oeil-de-boeuf. diacritic marks [oeil-de-boeuf. Diacritic Marks] (2025)
Collage of photographic paper fragments on paper, red acrylic paint, and inkjet print
70 × 50 cm each (4 units) / 75 × 55 cm (4 units, framed)
BA Collection
Inventory No.: 2025.621.4
The artist works with drawings and collages made out of photo fragments, where the text and word merge with the images. Crespo is interested in the dichotomy of opposites and the tensions they cause (rational-irrational, order-chaos, linear-curve, order-disorder, universal-ubiquitous, revealed-concealed, etc.). Her process involves constructing and deconstructing the image to transform it into fragments. In these pieces, she works with demolition images, focusing not only on the final image of the building collapsing, but also on the images resulting from the post-demolition effects, particularly the clouds of dust and the debris generated, the material scattered at many points, a type of destruction confetti, which the artist calls ‘œil-de-bœuf’ or ox-eye, a term from Baroque architecture, but also, more literally, the eye of the animal.
Almudena Crespo Massieu (Madrid, 1957) studies Law in Madrid during the final years of Franco’s dictatorship, a period when she is deeply involved in far-left politics. In the late 1980s, she settles in London to study Fine Arts at the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College London. She dedicates the next 16 years entirely to painting. In the late 1990s, she moves to Belgium and specializes in photography and video at the Anderlecht Kunst Academy. In 2014, she completes a Master’s in Fine Arts at Sint Lukas, LUCA School of Arts and Design, Brussels – KU Leuven.