Angora 1 vs Angora 2: When Scenesters get Distracted

ANGORA 2
April 12-26 2008





Expectations were running high for this year's installment of Angora. But unlike last years' collective aggressiveness and disregard for the market, this new edition proved that the innocence got lost along the way. 

What happened?

Frances Gallardo was one of many artists visitors caught installing late. This disregard for professionalism and commitment is a factor that could be attributed to artist spreading themselves thin, participating in multiple exhibitions in, and outside of the fair,  desperate seeking exposure. 

Despite the tardiness, Gallardo showed skill and guts, coming out on top with her drawn- out fitting rooms resembling paper podiums for narcissistic politicians.
Quintin Rivera-Toro multi -channel video installation shows the artist reciting complaint letters sent to city hall. The work is noisy, like a preachy grandma, as the artist even sits on a rocking chair.

                                   Omar Velázquez' xilography of a junkie living the moment.
Of the few installations addressing the awkward spaces was W&N 's desk drowning in a pool of colorful plastic balls. Here the artists juxtaposed traditional educational systems with entertainment.

Consensus had it that the best installation of show was a product of chance, not art, as exemplified by the retro poster cooled off by industrial fans. 

An intelligent statement by Nicole Rodriguez with an overblown receipt of Einstein's 1939 letter to FDR, (in association with Leo Szilard), justifying the need to experiment with nuclear power before Nazi Germany got a hold of it. Rodríguez successfully trivializes the historical document revealing the contradictions of moral values when life is not black and white but shades of gray.

                  "I'd like to teach the world to"... not make any more Coca Cola based art.

Norma Vila  recycled found daily time clock cards in a large installation that had the cards, flowing like water from a broken pipe, originating from a working sewing machine.
Site specific art can be problematic when it becomes "too" specific as shown by these prints/posters with its obvious critique of capitalism.

                                        Angora 2 was too cute, mainstream, simple and bland.

Angora

ANGORA 

March 30-April 1, 2007

Caguas

Angora was designed to attract the masses during Circa Art Fair '07. It was also a promotional vehicle for the city of Caguas to claim its stronghold in the Puerto Rican art scene. Included in the exhibition were 28 young artists, mostly undergrads from the University of Puerto Rico and the Escuela de Artes Plásticas in Old San Juan, working collaboratively for  24 hours.

To enter the site visitors had to cross a dark parking lot in an abandoned warehouse property of  collector José Castrodad. 

Omar Torres' performance was meant to keep visitors from entering or leaving the premisses by the allegorical drop of curtains-steel gates- of the warehouse. A looming prediction of the fall of the economy and the local art market in 2008. 

Swing with fluorescent lamps by Natalia Martinez was one of the highlights of the night.

Angora's innocence was like a mosquito lamp attracting all kinds of predators and pseudo dealers  looking for a quick fix. The black and white mural is by Cristopher Rivera. It reads: "You can believe in the best art and the worst art."

Visitors could easily get lost in the shady motel -like maze of the site, stumbling occasionally with dark hidden rooms fitted with sound pieces, a bathroom full of balloons, and large scale installations. One of the best pieces in the show, an office painted in shades of gray and textured cement adhesive was by  Isabel Ramírez.

To view the work of Joe Torres visitors had to climb a makeshift cinder block staircase that lead to an attic. Binoculars were needed to peek at the work.

                                                                On the way up, a graffiti by Pseudo Mero.

                                                                        the binoculars...
                                                          Who knows what this was.
                                                 Joe Torres' mysterious place of worship.

         Interactive playground: Video projection , sound, deck, rope, and a bouncing platform.

       (Artist Patricia Alvarez (left), curator Erika Pastoriza, and local  poet Jomi).

Michelle Fiedler, Director of Galería 356, multimedia artist Myritza Castillo, and artist Christopher Rivera. 

Cool painting of dead people, mutants, I -pods and record players by Gerardo Cloquell reminds me of the record cover of Killing Technology  Voivod.

Pattern, displacement and recontextualization of the workspace in Patricia Alvarez' 3m scotch blue painters tape drawing.

                                                                     Angora

                                                        Omar Torres and Arnaldo Roman
                                                               Scenesters hard at work.
                                                                          Artist Natalia Martínez
                                     Painting by Sebastian Vallejo, and sculptures by Ramón Beltran.

     Cement sculptures with sticky stencil of Arab militia and plastic granades by Ramón Beltran

                                             Postal service installation by unidentified artist.
                                           Luis Navarro's interminable phone wiring.

                               José Navarro is the brother of cable guy, Luis Navarro.

                  Pillows for Rent by Karlo Ibarra is a raggedy homage to the bohemian lifestyle.

Norma Vila sculpture of ant mound, photographs, and feathered ceiling, seems to speak of the working class and governmental bureaucracy. 

                                                Norma Vila (photo courtesy of the artist)

                                             Interactive piece by Frances Gallardo.

The view from inside Frances Gallardo's installation (photo courtesy of Mariel Alvárez). Visitors were supposed to write, anonymously and in private, messages to be dropped inside the urn. A funny take on the Patriot Act.

                 Chunks of grass were placed inside common areas as a way to unify the exhibition.

                        Omar Torres' CV looms over visitors as the ultimate sign of identity.