Paloma Izquierdo produces copies of standardized architectural elements that use contradiction as a method of critiquing dominant structures.
Contradiction is a dialectical methodology of critique that allows for proximity to an opposing position through interdependence. It occurs when a system follows its own logic to the point of undoing. Contradiction undermines a position from within; rather than presenting an irreconcilable impasse, it generates new forms.
Example: A centralized government depends on a subjected population to define itself. It requires the deployment of tools of organization, control, and standardization to enforce state regulations. Such as: fencing for the protection of property, centralized energy distribution for heating and cooling, hand railings compliant with accessibility regulations, and climate efficient windows. The public engages with standardized architectural elements daily— structures that hold the latent potential to become tools of circumvention and resistance.
Standardization and MimicryStructures from Izquierdo’s index of objects: jalousie windows, chain link fences, heating and cooling elements, and handrails are familiar and accessible to the masses as part of the built environment. Her sculptures are as close as possible to the original without total sameness; the difference lies in reproducing the objects while inverting their materiality and use. Every form of governance produces uniform architectural and media components that are multiplied and distributed. By subverting from within, Izquierdo’s practice builds off the vernacular tradition of reappropriating these components, presenting a methodology capable of critiquing dominant structures that centralize political, economic, and social decision-making amongst a small few. These bureaucratic apparatuses are determined by abstract laws and regulations that homogenize the subjected population. Through doubling and mimicry, Izquierdo's facsimiles produce a tension between reality and illusion, where the dividing line of the fourth wall becomes complicated and contradictory.
Paranoia and TransparencyA desire for transparency is a systemic compulsion to “operationalize and accelerate” societal processes1. Izquierdo considers the authoritarian use of transparency, exposing how it functions not as a liberatory gesture but as a tool of control, one that reinforces surveillance and regulation under the guise of openness.
If transparency is the insistence that everything can and should be made visible, then paranoia is its counter: a vigilance that assumes concealment, a refusal to let structures recede unnoticed. As Eve Sedgwick writes, paranoia doesn’t simply indicate suspicion—it is a theory of knowledge. It treats the presented as suspect, scrutinizing its legitimacy.
Izquierdo explores this insistence. By doubling and copying standardized architectural elements meant to disappear into the built environment, her work enacts a paranoid logic. Here, paranoia is not pathological but epistemological: a mode of critical attention that sees through standardization, foregrounding how infrastructure quietly enforces systems of control. These sculptures become apparatuses which suggest that the paranoid position may be one of strategic tact.
“A tactic is the art of the weak”
Example: In case of emergency, break glass. Typically associated with accessing vital tools, such as fire extinguishers, in critical situations. These sculptures suggest that paranoia is a dialectic epistemology that organizes knowledge through
- terrible alertness
- reflexivity
- mimesis
- overexposure
- negative affect
A position depends on what negates it.2 Cannibalism and jealousy overlap in their acts of emulation and rivalry. Just as the wartime ritual of cannibalizing one’s enemy is an act of jealousy.3
