The Illusion of a Floor of One’s Own explores the fragility of the home as a concept through woodwork and the study of geometric form. Inspired by a painting by Bridget Riley—whose optical compositions transform static patterns into perceptual events—the piece reinterprets one of her designs, reminiscent of traditional parquet flooring, to construct a fragment of floor. The surface is assembled using tropical woods, materials commonly foreign to European domestic spaces. Their arrangement generates a geometric illusion that unsettles perception, challenging both the visual and symbolic stability of what we stand on.
The title itself carries a layered play on meaning: in Spain, 'piso' refers to an apartment; in Latin America, it means 'floor.' This ambiguity reinforces the tension between the desire to inhabit and the physicality of space. At the same time, 'illusion' refers both to the optical effect produced by the pattern and to the emotional or social expectation of achieving a place of one’s own. Thus, more than a formal reference, the work becomes a metaphor for the contemporary challenges of inhabiting, materially and emotionally. The floor, a symbol of grounding and belonging, appears here as an unstable surface, composed of elements displaced from their original context, just as tropical woods reconstruct a European pattern. Within that gesture lies the experience of the immigrant artist: arriving from the tropics, assembling unfamiliar fragments in an effort to build a place within European art. The piece reflects on housing, dislocation, and the economic uncertainty that shapes artistic practice, exposing the tensions between what is one's own, what is adopted, and what remains an illusion.
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