Man is a symbolic animal - said the German philosopher Ernst Cassirer - because his universe, in addition to being physical, is representational. In fact, what is the symbol if not a method of adaptation of man to his environment? This is how, consciously or unconsciously, the human spirit expresses itself through a multitude of forms, and art is one of them...
En el caso de Fernando Varela, la aproximación estética a su obra nos sumerge en un complejo entramado de signos y de símbolos, que no sólo son expresión, sino también respuesta a toda serie de estímulos, que en su caso, reconoce, conduce y expresa a través de sus obras. Complejidades semióticas y semánticas que han quedado evidenciadas en las diversas series de los últimos años. De repente un corazón, un cerebro o una lengua -presentadas en la superficie del soporte, o construidos formal y paulatinamente a partir de elementos mínimos que mutan hasta convertirse en el objeto referenciado- nos hablan de razón, sentidos y emociones; componiendo un corpus conceptual difícil de descifrar, pues su lenguaje está y va más allá del idioma de las palabras. Se trata de aquello que vemos y conocemos y de aquello que conocemos pero no vemos. ¿Tratado de semiótica o búsqueda espiritual?, ¿autorretrato o pintura especular?, ¿hermetismo o alquimia espiritual?…
In any case, there is an attitude of distancing oneself from reality, remaining only with oneself. Perhaps that is why we appreciate in his work an increasingly greater detachment from the material world, thus privileging the spiritual plane. Between the figurative and the conceptual, there is a constant investigation into the essential and inexhaustible meaning of life. Separated or facing each other, man and woman are represented as fragile and ethereal figures, reiterating with the spatial organization of the work, a search for balance between feminine and masculine forces, between the corporal and the spiritual, between the ritual and the mythological.
Fairy Melusina, Mother Goddess or simply Woman, the truth is that in this exquisite series, women appear, for the first time, as the protagonist in one of his works. Strange, different and emblematic, this is the whole of his production. With a virginal wing, like a goddess of waters, the woman appears as the giver of life. Blend of spirituality and wisdom. Bodies, fluids and nature are leitmotiv in this corpus of works that - with the subtlety and masterful display usual in his production, coupled with the delicacy of the paper support - collects his most recent reflections. Excessive introspection. Catharsis of symbols, concerns, emotions, feelings. Insatiable reference to the symbolic universe, perhaps to avoid confining its universe and its spirit, or perhaps to offer us, in the words of Gadamer,
