In this work, I explore the relationship between material, time, and territory through the intervention of a reclaimed polyethylene tarp, an industrial material of interwoven plastic fibers functioning as an urban fabric. In Mexico, these tarps are part of the everyday landscape, covering patios, workshops, or markets to mediate between domestic space and the urban environment. The drawing emerges through the wear of the plastic layer. Rather than adding pigment, I gradually erode the surface, replicating the natural deterioration caused by the sun and time. This gesture reveals an image: the urban landscape visible from the patio where the tarp was originally installed. By working through the material’s deterioration, I reveal the structure of its weave. The tarp appears as a surface where memory and experience intertwine, while the emerging image allows a glimpse of a hostile architecture that participates in dynamics of separation, control, and the regulation of bodies in urban space inherited from colonial logics.

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Daniel C. Fernández is a visual artist whose practice unfolds through installation, sculpture, drawing, and painting, with a particular interest in the material, plastic, and poetic qualities of objects. His work explores processes of urbanization and the transformation of the urban landscape, attending to the narratives that emerge from dwelling, movement, and the act of traversing the city.