Manuscript Found in a Book of Joseph Conrad

In the shimmering countries that exude the summer,
the day is blanched in white light. The day
is a harsh slit across the window shutter,
dazzle along the coast, and on the plain, fever.

But the ancient night is bottomless, like a jar
of brimming water. The water reveals limitless wakes,
and in the drifting canoes, face inclined to the stars,
a man marks the limp time with a cigar.

The smoke blurs gray across the constellations
afar. The present sheds past, name, and plan.
The world is a few vague tepid observations.
The river is the original river. The man, the first man.

— Jorge Luis Borges

NO ERES TÚ, SOY YO (IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME), by Rodolfo Díaz Cervantes, brings together a series of recent pop-style pieces that explore graphic composition and the search for the pictorial through the use of decals, referencing cigarettes and the act of smoking. The artist focuses on the relationship between the cigarette and the movement of the hands, encoding certain universal gestures as a form of language.

— Alma Saladín

Images courtesy of guadalajara90210 and the artist, photo Agustín Arce Figueroa.