For the second iteration of Carbon Copy, we decided to do a one-day show at a private alley (in Pilsen, a Mexican-Latino neighborhood in Chicago) where about ten apartments intersect. The shape of this place was the one of a p, or a b, or a d, or a q, depending on the rotation of each letter. My contribution to the exhibition was 4 printed images depicting 4 French words: detour –a deviation from the original course–; parcours –a route or direction without obstructions–; boucle –a loop (which is also the name given to Chicago’s Downtown)–; and quiproquo -word game, funny misunderstanding or replacement of one subject for another (mainly in the theater)–. The intention was to reinforce the strange structure of the architectural space and, at the same time, enlist 4 possible ways of thinking. In that same spirit, the fluorescent green extension cable that serves to power on the lightbox where the prints are hanging also follows an absurd parcours, boucle, and detour from the interior of the basement to the exterior, emphasizing the proposed word game but maintaining its main function –conduct electricity–.
þ, Carbon Copy 2
þ, Carbon Copy 2
For the MFA show at SAIC (2019), we decided with 6 other students* (under the name of Carbon Copy, an ongoing collective) to break with the individualism of this kind of exhibition and propose a collective approach to it. We did collaborations, documented the process, had continuous meetings and constantly nurtured the conversation beyond the institutional request. As a result, we did a hybrid installation where the authorship became diffuse and unclear. As to myself, I decided to show just two works that were almost invisible and faded in the middle of this room, as well as the whole space.
First, in one of the arcs of the provisional walls of Sullivan Galleries, I hanged a painted sign that instead of saying Stairs says Stars and that was connected to the second work, which is a video projection showing a sunrise that slowly disappeared into a pink and white rectangle subtly painted in one of the columns in between two windows. The Stars named in the sign where, somehow, like the other works, orbiting around the big red dot that structure our solar system in the universe: the sun. Each one of these videos frame was showing a different landscape painting. So, I showed 1 and 21.600 paintings.
* Brigette Borders, Danny Bredar, Nathan Everett Engel, Ed Oh, WooJin Shin, Leah Zheng
MFA Show (SAIC), Carbon Copy 1
First, in one of the arcs of the provisional walls of Sullivan Galleries, I hanged a painted sign that instead of saying Stairs says Stars and that was connected to the second work, which is a video projection showing a sunrise that slowly disappeared into a pink and white rectangle subtly painted in one of the columns in between two windows. The Stars named in the sign where, somehow, like the other works, orbiting around the big red dot that structure our solar system in the universe: the sun. Each one of these videos frame was showing a different landscape painting. So, I showed 1 and 21.600 paintings.
* Brigette Borders, Danny Bredar, Nathan Everett Engel, Ed Oh, WooJin Shin, Leah Zheng
MFA Show (SAIC), Carbon Copy 1
This video object installation made with a light stand and tablets, reminding a direction pole, is a compilation of 6 videos previously done as part of other projects. The idea was to show how my artistic process is not linear but more like a rhizomatic network that connects ideas through time. It includes the following works: 1. Sand Clock (hourglass); 10:29 mins; 2018; Animated still image; From the project: Uyuni’s Dilemma / 2. Jamais Vu; 4:58 mins; 2018; HD | Travel Personal footage; From the project: Uyuni’s Dilemma / 3. 52 Week; 24:00 mins; 2017; HD | Domestic footage and subtitles; From the project: Aquel que observa la hora; 4. Al otro lado de la ventana. Al otro lado de la línea; Duration: 12:42; 2013; HD | Exterior shots; From the project: Ver un día pasar / 5. Savoir faire; 8:29 mins; 2013; 720p | Youtube footage; From the project: “To light, and/ then return —” / 6. Temor a flotar; 8:29 min; 2013; HD | Personal footage; From the project: La piscina vacía. The number 6 has to do with the six degrees of separation.
Fractured Topographies, Lithium Gallery
Fractured Topographies, Lithium Gallery
Based on the homonym short poem of Emily Dickinson, from the book The Gorgeous Nothings: Envelope Poems, this project is a visual version on behalf of silence or the aura of everydayness. It is also a look at a 90's color palette, an awkward look at middle-class interiors, the journey of an artist in a small space, a metaphor for cooking, a timeline, the invisible presence of a body, a light experiment and, mainly, a state of mind, a push and pulls between the materiality and the immateriality of thought.
SAIC
SAIC
This project takes its title from a personal anecdote around a travel to Uyuni, a small town in south Bolivia, which is the point of entrance to a natural park that includes the largest salt desert of the world, as well as other particular landscape sights: red lagoons, an island of cactuses, sand dunes, gigantic plains and rocks in form of trees. The dilemma, or thought experiment, in this case, has to do with the impossibility to recreate a specific moment from that trip, let’s call it a sublime moment, and try to record the whole experience in my brain. Now I wonder, is it possible to address a memory just by thinking of it, or by thinking in similar memories? Can that memory can be as powerful as the original experience? Can it be better, different, worst, more unique? Can those questions be transformed into visual problems for an audience that doesn’t have anything to do with that story or context?
Within Receding Horizons, Sullivan galleries (SAIC)
Within Receding Horizons, Sullivan galleries (SAIC)