THE ATELIER

By Alfredo Roces
From the Castrillo Paris Biennale brochure, 1971

Castrillo’s studio is a busy hub, teaming with people hammering and scurrying about and heavy with the pungent smell polymers catalysts and oxidizing acids. Through the various sections of the workshop, Castrillo dashes about directing the shape of a gold ring one minute, calling out directions to helpers moving a large metal piece in the yard next minute, supervising the cutting and welding of a metal relief for a brief spell, and then running up to a cubicle to answer a telephone call from a prospective client, or else, Castrillo is astride some wooden scaffolding welding a section of metal, or standing over a large copper sheet hammering with staccato precision at a delicate form emerging out of the flat metal, then again he is riding off in his I.H. pick-up to supervise the installation of his latest commissioned piece in a building, or he sits alone in his studio-office, amidst Castrillo created metal and glass furniture, brooding over designs. His clothes, cuff-links and belts, the doors of his house, his car, bear metal imprint of his creativity.