We are pleased to announce that the Tate Modern has acquired “Shape Memory alloys: FM” and “Shape Memory Alloys: Ñawi” by artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca.

In this series, Ximena Garrido-Lecca uses different forms of industrialized copper to create hand made patterned structures and textiles. By disassociating the material from its contemporary use as an electric conductor, the work attempts to return copper to the artisanal practices and cultural manifestations of earlier times.

The warmth that characterizes the handicraft work of the textiles clashes with the industrial nature of the material, projecting itself in the tense history of colonialism.The use of copper wire as raw material to discuss traditional forms of work suggests a reappropriation of natural resources, away from industrialization and acquiring a symbolic dimension. As the title suggests, the physical proper ties of copper, from its conductivity and malleability to its ability to form a “shape memory alloy” (a metal that returns to its original form when exposed to certain conditions) are poetically linked to cultural memory.