There are three intended levels of interaction to my portraits. The first level is about the engagement of a juxtaposed “character” and “abstraction”. These images investigate relationships between signs and pictograms and how we perceive abstractions. There are no other objects, or narrative outside of these two elements on my canvases to generate meaning.
I invent the figures, my characters, and place them side by side with an abstracted form into a scenario that mimics what happens in a social space and setting. The emotional thread woven into my paintings, the social spaces, is meant to stimulate discourse with the audience.
Physical applications of multicolor brush strokes to the canvas, which are both intentional and volatile actions, are the basis to inventing these characters. It is very similar to the literary work of an author who creates his characters or personages for a theatrical play to engage and interact with one another through their juxtaposition.
In contrast to the characters, the “abstractions” play a variation of roles in the images and, oftentimes, they behave as portraits. At times they are the silent partners, the sidekick, the support system or the specimen right beside the characters. In other occasions the undefined form is the main character. The abstractions may be graphic or diffused depending on what the juxtaposed portrait calls for.
The second level of interaction takes place between the individual pieces themselves, when hung side by side, and how they create a conversation amongst themselves (metonymy). I use the term “sentences” in relation to groups of paintings because each image adds meaning to the painting beside it, creating a repertoire of images. Overall, the paintings are behaving in a network system. Each image is a friend, a relative, a cousin and a complement to the other.
The third level of social interaction relates at the human social level between the group of paintings, the artist, the curators and the viewer. The different individuals involved in organizing an exhibition of the paintings are invited to organize the presentation with me, in pairs or sentences variations, according to each exhibition site. Finally, the viewer completes the interaction by circumnavigating the network of images. |
