OBJECTIONS TO THE OBJECT'S SUPREMACY
A.K.A. MARCEL JE T'AIME
In «Objections to the object’s supremacy, a.k.a. Marcel Je t’aime» I reflect on Conceptual Arts ́ ideas and foundations in themselves, while investigating the way in which these manifest through different means and materials. This search is based on the conviction that the empirical aspect of the object that is presented as a work of art has no value - or rather no meaning - in itself, and only gains validity and legitimacy when the idea that the work is seeking to communicate is understood.
Interwoven by communicational and biological axes, and from a self-referential point of view, this artistic proposal presents different ways of approaching thoughts, which go from their physical representation within the brain, to their most abstract essence, in the form of an amorphous and intangible idea.
This research arises from a personal inquisitiveness, unleashed by confirming the idea ́s fundamentality in the artistic process, and the secondary role given to the explanation within the artistic institution, in comparison to the object’s supremacy. The aim of the series is to invert these roles, conferring its real value to concepts and their communication, by combining research and adjudication processes that culminate in the formalization of artistic objects.
The text that accompanies the work describes a pen in a certain state of melting, but the image presented shows a perfectly solid pen. It is necessary to use a social network filter in order to see the pen melting.
This work is related to today ́s ways of communication, and how they have the power to modify reality. A reflection on what reality really is emerges: is it what we perceive at first sight, what we see through social networks, or an elaboration that combines both aspects? At the same time, a parallelism is drawn with certain events that take place within social networks, in which one depends on one’s own virtual activity to reaffirm one’s existence. The individual being is pierced by the use of virtuality as a legitimizing factor, both in reality and in the artwork.
This piece has a certain performative character, it goes beyond the art gallery and takes place on each viewer’s mobile device. It requires the public’s action: if spectators do not follow the instructions, they cannot understand the meaning of the work, or the reasons behind the image. The network and the connections that arise from the proposed interaction are also considered part of the artwork.
ALMOST A MINGITORY
What seems to be a brand ́s representative performing a marketing action stands in the corner of the gallery handing out free pens; this apparently is not related to the exhibition. It is expected that some people will accept and take the pen offered to them, and that others will reject it, since at that time the pen lacks any symbolic value of interest. Upon entering the gallery, it is explained to the public that the pen they received as a sample is actually part of one of the works of art on display. The same object, which in another context had no value, is then transformed into a work of art. When leaving the exhibition, those in possession of these pen-artworks are given a certificate of authenticity that declares that their pen is a work of art.
This art piece highlights the great importance of the context in which the object is located, the power of the artistic institution, and the elevation of the object to art piece, since its meaning, its values, and the perception of it, are transformed.
THE PRICELESS VALUE OF A GOOD IDEA
76 X 25 cm
Gold plated metal
This artwork is born from the exaltation of the importance of the idea, and the reflection on the ideas themselves in their most physical dimension, which is materialized as brain waves. There is a translation of the intellectual aspect of a concept that happens in the mind to its real material aspect.
Our brain is composed of billions of brain cells called neurons, which use electricity to communicate with each other. The combination of countless neurons sending signals at the same time produces an enormous amount of electrical activity in the brain, which can be detected in an electroencephalogram. The combination of electrical activity in the brain is usually seen as a brain wave pattern, due to its cyclical, “wave-like” nature. Electrical activity in the brain varies depending on what the person is doing. For example, the brain waves of a person who is sleeping are very different from the brain waves of someone who is fully awake, and different even from someone who is performing a cognitive activity, reasoning, solving a problem.
For the realization of this piece, the artist had an encephalogram done, at the same time that she reflected and deepened on the concepts of this exhibition. The form of the brain wave is the physical translation of the Beta wave, a brain wave of more than 40 Hz. that is related to tasks of a high cognitive processing. It is the formal materialization of the reasoning and ideas that gave rise to all these works of art.
On the other hand, the gold plating is what expresses the great value of these ideas, giving them a meaning commonly associated with preciousness. The idea becomes an object of value, coveted, protected and exalted.
IF WITH YOUR HANDS YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND, WITH YOUR EYES YOU MUST SENSE, IN ANY CASE THE TRACE MUST REMAIN
This artwork gives importance to the common codes or systems that allow us to communicate and understand each other. With a strong communicative character, it shows the inability to comprehend when one does not know the code that is being used to express an idea. Since it is made in Braille, not everyone can understand the work in its entirety, since there is a certain part of meaning that cannot be accessed to.
However, sighted people who cannot understand the meaning of what is written in a code that is foreign to them can be stimulated by the great retinal impact of the work in its visual aspect. In this way, it could be said that a certain interchange of roles is established between those who have the capacity to see and those who have the capacity to understand. The sighted viewers receive the visual stimulus, but cannot access the conceptual meaning of the explanation. Thus, they can sense the emotional character of the dialogue between the two parts of this diptych, contrasting on the one hand the use of black and the tight, breathless, hurried writing, and on the other, the white, diaphanous panel with spaced, rhythmic writing. The blind spectators do not have access to this visual aspect, but they do have access to the meaning of the discourse.
On another level of meaning, the work invites strongly to touch it. Regardless of the visual faculties of the audience, all viewers are invited to have a tactile experience with the artwork. Thus, the piece becomes a witness of those who are in its presence, capturing the passing by of people, accumulating the trace of the touch of their hands. The role of the work is active, as it is directly modified by the public as time passes, transforming and reflecting those who visit it.
A study of how blindness is treated in literature, has been carried out for the realization of this work. This theme was approached mainly from two different perspectives, tackling two authors with their own views on blindness. On the one hand, the first work - black, dark and confusing - deals with the impossibility of seeing from Saramago’s fiction book “Essay on Blindness”. This piece has a tense atmosphere, where the color and the tight characters confer a sensation of suffocation and uneasiness. The selected quotations from Saramago’s work produce a disturbing feeling that resonates closely with the present day, since, until one reads the end of the text, one might easily think that it is an excerpt from today’s pandemic news. On the other hand, the second work - white, clear and hopeful - captures the vision of Jorge Luis Borges, a writer who went blind at the age of fifty-five. Its starting point is a true fact, which is not considered as a condemnation, but rather as a possibility to see the world in a different way. His extracts of poems have an idyllic and romantic atmosphere, with spaces between the elements, which provide a light and ethereal character.
Detail
MAXIMUM ABSTRACTION IN ITS MINIMUM EXPRESSION
A succession of photographs of brain tissue seen through an optical microscope, combined with photographs of the artist’s own blood, and images of the ink of the Bic pen. Once again, the artwork is approached from a biological axis, to reflect on thought itself, based on its scientific foundation. The nearly abstract drawings that are generated out of the morphologies and colors of brain cells when observed through a microscope represent a material conceptualization of thought, which allows us to reflect on it in an abstract way. The work takes on an autobiographical dimension, and becomes an abstraction of the artist herself, exhibiting representations of her own blood. The pen appears once again, this time observed from its minimal units of composition, and merged with the brain images. A discourse is interwoven between the two types of images, in which thoughts about the pen are intertwined with the pen itself.
The photographs, printed on glass, successively reveal the images, constructing a three-dimensional imagery. The overexposure of the forms generates new imaginaries of the brain structures, combining characteristics of different areas of the brain, creating an abstraction of thought that combines the functions of all its parts.
In addition, in this succession of glass panels, asemic scripts constructed with systems developed by the artist are engraved. In some cases, drawings of the different types of neuronal cells constitute the minimal unit of meaning of this writing with no specific semantic content. In other cases, segments of neurotransmitter structures are used to generate a new code. In this type of writing, a void of meaning emerges, which the viewer himself must interpret and complete. Once again, the artist works on abstraction, based on the very abstraction of writing itself, in which the real importance lies on the system of codes and signifiers which refers to the biological aspect of thought.
The three-dimensional and successive structure of the work allows multiple points of view. Depending on where the viewer is positioned, a different perception will be achieved. The light coming from the lower part of the work generates a solemn aura and light effects, which vary with the movement of the public. This is a work that can be toured, to assimilate different meanings, depending on the point of view that is discovered through the movement of the viewer.
