And then he said: “Stop imagining a romanticized version of me“

2024
Transparent paper, charcoal, feathers, magnets, lace

In this work Lara Rocho explores the melancholy of Romantic. Delicate pencil and charcoal drawings emerge on highly transparent paper, unfolding across three translucent paper strips of different lengths, subtly offset and attached only by magnets.The drawings process the aftermath of a relationship, or of something that never fully became one—a situationship marked by uncertainty, projection, and unspoken expectations. The overlapping layers of paper partially obscure the images, keeping the view clouded. In the end, the paper works appear
ragile and tentative, yet draped like an altar. The work is driven by the intention to depict the ambivalence of emotions and the phenomenon of imagining another person or a particular situation, which can lead to glorification.

Alongside the attempt to translate melancholy onto paper, the work engages with surfaces, layers, and structures. It seeks to deliberately blur the viewer’s gaze, revealing that our perception—no matter how much we strive to view a situation rationally—cannot escape being clouded
and veiled by external forces beyond our control.