Oscar Santillán: SOLARIS | Copperfield
I’ve never been a huge fan of artists who need to explain the concept behind their works in order for them to be enjoyed. I’ve mentally filed Ecuador-born Oscar Santillán, currently showing at Copperfield in south London, in that category. He’s in talented company, though: Cornelia Parker? Joseph Beuys?
Walking into the gallery, you’re confronted with a wall of photos of desert landscapes. Though they’re blurry, glitchy, a bit weird in a way that a poorly-shot photo isn’t. Many of them are beset with bursts of hexagonal white dots. In the centre of the photo grid, backlit, is a wonky, speckled glass object.
Read the press release and all becomes clear. The wonky glass object is the camera lens that took these photos. No wonder they’re so glitchy and odd!
The artist took sand from the Atacama Desert in Chile, and, with the help of experts, melted it down and turned to glass, then shaped it into a lens. In this way, the desert has depicted itself. A unique natural reciprocity; a miracle, really.
The work is called SOLARIS, a reference to a 60s sci-fi novel later adapted on film by Andrei Tarkovsky and Steven Soderbergh. In the book, a planet is covered with a black ocean, which is sentient. When scientists try to communicate with it, it drives them crazy. It’s a pity the photos didn’t turn out weirder with that in mind.
Oscar Santillán: SOLARIS is at Copperfield (London). 28 May - 1 August 2026