If you look up the meaning of the work “cuirass” in the dictionary you will see that the main entries are related to the military. The function of the cuirass is to protect the body and minimise the chance of injury and, indeed, death. Cuirass is also a synonym for an animal’s protective shell. It is a place of refuge. The cuirass protects against eternal aggressions but at the same time it limits sensations and movements, filters emotions, enforces rigidity. Without the possibility of expansion, life is hard and sad, very sad. Designed to protect us, the cuirass can actually work against us. There are many different types; so many that some are invisible. But the cuirass is something that all humans have. It may be soft or pervious. It may be selective: causing us to fall, making us stronger or closing up before certain people or situations. Or, it can be inexpungable.

Art often serves to make visible what our eyes refuse to see. In one of her latest series, the sculptor Teresa Riba always shows the same girl—very young, naked and always poised in the same position. With her arms across her chest and her hands on her shoulders, head bowed, this seems like it could be a normal position and yet it could also have so many messages: reflection, cold, melancholy, fear, a silent cry for help or a moment of tenderness. Teresa Riba has called this medium format series of female figures Enclosure, because in the girl’s self-embrace there is a movement of occlusion, an inward journey. She places the invisible cuirass on view.

These figures are made of bronze but also have additions of different materials, with each work alluding to some element that makes the full life of a woman more difficult. The young girl is covered with a golden patina as if she were nothing but a decorative object.