Dreams from the earth
Roberto Rodríguez (Mexico, 1959) is a sculptor from Veracruz who works with terrestrial materials: trees, plants and seeds. His sculptures are examples of a will that dreams and that by doing so provides a future to the action of dreaming. Rodríguez studied sculpture at the University of Veracruz. His usually works with wood using mixed techniques and a few years ago he began working in ceramics. At present he lives in Xalapa, Veracruz.
Rodríguez began his artistic research into landscapes and memory in 1992 when he produced the sculpture “La Cosecha” (“The Harvest”) 1992. This was soon after he completed his studies at the University, but he had already laid the foundation for his style. This piece made from carved wood and later assembled, suggests forms of vegetation in contrast to a rigid geometric frame.
Based on this piece, the artist initiates a long and creative journey towards the origins of life and back again to contemporary times going back and then returning between the two poles as described by Wilhelm Worringer: “a sentimental projection and abstraction”. A dialogue between the two notions takes on the form of formal mixtures and displacements between cultural tradition itself and contemporary language and concepts.
This gesture between abstraction and organic forms can be seen in his sculpture “Sedución” (“Seduction”) 1993. The straight form of this piece follows the principle of “abstraction”. While the new shoots that spring from it reveal “organic will”. An attitude inclined towards sensuality and complacency in both senses with a wink in the direction of the erotic can also be observed. This piece could also be interpreted as an androgynous object, in as much as it contains forms related to the masculine and the feminine. This ambiguity is produced by the erect structure of the piece, a phallic element, and the concave structures stemming from the small pieces (with a round shaped body and an appendage resembling a flower) representing the feminine element.
It is within this dialogue of forms that Rodríguez’s sculpture assumes two of his conceptual receptacles: landscape and memory. His work can be perceived in two directions: as landscapes that fix memories and those that generate works or memories which give a meaning to the sculpture through a landscape. In my opinion, a landscape is constructed in Rodríguez’s work based on memory, where the “landscape” not only has a geographical position but a meaning built through time. Rodríguez does not pretend to reproduce specific existing landscapes, but rather looks towards creating sculptures which permit him to recall them.
The artist completed his sculpture “Tierra abierta” (“Open land”) 1996 in Quebec, Canada whilst investigating the flora and materials present in the region. Rodríguez constructed “Tierra abierta” based on memory, but at the same time as a dialogue with the place. He considers landscapes to be a product of reflection, that simultaneously provide an answer to ones senses; they are closely linked to his conceptual proposals as well as to outside or physical spaces. Rodríguez constructed this piece on a hill, his intention being not only to make use of the view from below to the top which allows the piece to assume monumental proportions, but also to employ the wind providing movement to the small pieces that hang down. Both the setting of the sculpture and the effect of movement provoke both physical and visual paths which allow the spectator to interiorize the concepts of time and place present in the artists discourse.
“Tierra abierta” is articulated as a sculpture that places art within its surroundings. The intention of the artist is to create the landscape rather than represent it. This work establishes a multiple dialogue (formal, aesthetic social) with the setting; its form visually reacts with the changes of light and some pieces move with the air currents. It also suggests a temporal dimension, since the place concedes a certain duration for the sculpture and is therefore ephemeral. In this way, the artist suggests other forms of relating art to territorial space. On one hand, his sculpture is based on the representation of a landscape and on the other, the landscape is modified by its presence. Thus, Rodríguez privileges the process of integration and symbiosis of his work with the place itself, based on a wider significance referring strictly to the supports and materials involved, incorporating the morphology of the terrain into his creative discourse, and recalling symbolic prehistoric forms with the idea of establishing an association between the present technological civilization and the magic of the past. From here, an appellation to the ritual which attempts to call attention to the significance of primal roots.
Works such as “ Urnas funerarias” (Funeral Urns”) 2005 belongs to this intention. While referring to the ritual, it searches to challenge and question the idea of lineal time. The age of the work and the materials do not appear to coincide. The technique used here add historical dates to the piece. The incorporation of the temporal indetermination and its presentation suggests a process of change in which the material distorts our appreciation where real and fictitious times exist hand in hand.
In this way, Rodríguez appears to follow the ways of a tribal tradition when he includes in his work simple and common place objects together with objects which are often forgotten or ignored (sticks, fibres, threads) combined with cloth, wood, ceramic elements and materials from different origins. These materials, together with the use of graphics and ornaments, inspired by distant cultural settings can be observed in his sculpture “Transicón” (“Transition”) where the scraped motive encloses the object it decorates.
In this manner, using simple and traditional resources, Rodríguez has gradually elaborated a poetic language, full of mysteries, ambiguities and symbolic references. In his work, the material and techniques are intimately related, as we can see in “Mudanza” (“Change”) 2007. It could be said that the artist brings passive material and makes it active. The process used in producing his sculpture finds its definition thanks to the material and techniques used which occupy a fundamental place. That is, that his technical media and the way he employs them define the work as part of an integral process of relationships.
Manuel Veláquez
Xalapa, Veracruz, June 2010
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario