odd mix : Rum piraguas at La 15
Kristene Serviá
SUPRATEMÁTICA
LA 15 Curatorial Space
jueves 5 de noviembre
jueves 5 de noviembre
According to the press release “SUPRATEMATICA explores ludic concepts in consumerism, information, encoder-decoder, the end of a story and even gets to deny postmodern discourses.” Fortunately, this random mix match of ideas were nowhere to be found physically or conceptually in the exhibition. As a whole, the concept was so randomly related that you couldn’t help but wonder if it was an excerpt from a different exhibition altogether. Another problem was the absence of titles.
Works by two noticeably distant generations of women artists where shown across each other: Inés Aponte and Dhara Rivera (representing the 80's) and Kristine Serviá and Myritza Castillo (stepping to the plate as the fresh contingent). This offering illustrated an obvious rift between what's considered to be an established and an emerging artist, and for all the pretentiousness found in press release, this alone could’ve worked quite well as a characterization of the show.
Dhara Rivera
Inés Aponte presented a series of small drawings on patterned paper from which an equal number of animated sequences were shown on a looping DVD player. The framed works exhume that typical aura contained in artifacts made by mature artists--her particular aesthetic exerting a powerful pull of experience on the observer. A whimsical museological display by Dhara Rivera was a pleasant surprise. Made up of tiny animal body parts, carefully colored through intricately weaved red coverings, and are displayed under a glass top. Six framed black and white photographs of different specimens complete the installation. Rivera’s ensemble echoed the usual neurotic ordering of taxonomic language.
Kristine Serviá’s drawing on squared drafting paper was successful in terms of atmosphere and depth, but hardly impressive given the vibrant, unavoidable and graphically masterful graffiti scenes we have become accustomed to seeing in urban San Juan. The artist seems to suggest a life-size installation or spatial construction—with the hum and peeking-through-power-lights of machines in a dark computer lab—set to a dark ambient soundtrack. Other symbolic geometric components like boxes, packaging material, empty billboards, panflets and a web of cables deal gracefully with memory. Incompleteness is ambiguously located between accident and intention.
Rounding up the exhibition was Myritza Castillo’s interactive "typewriter" installation. Here visitors could write their own narrative on a long roll of tracing paper, each participant collaborating with the artist in what appears to be a work in progress. It was also an invitation to experience this vintage machine in full aesthetic function. The action proved a bit clumsy, especially for our keyboard generation.
Kristine Serviá’s drawing on squared drafting paper was successful in terms of atmosphere and depth, but hardly impressive given the vibrant, unavoidable and graphically masterful graffiti scenes we have become accustomed to seeing in urban San Juan. The artist seems to suggest a life-size installation or spatial construction—with the hum and peeking-through-power-lights of machines in a dark computer lab—set to a dark ambient soundtrack. Other symbolic geometric components like boxes, packaging material, empty billboards, panflets and a web of cables deal gracefully with memory. Incompleteness is ambiguously located between accident and intention.
Rounding up the exhibition was Myritza Castillo’s interactive "typewriter" installation. Here visitors could write their own narrative on a long roll of tracing paper, each participant collaborating with the artist in what appears to be a work in progress. It was also an invitation to experience this vintage machine in full aesthetic function. The action proved a bit clumsy, especially for our keyboard generation.
Javier Román is an artist, architect and editor of Entorno
photos courtesy of Edwin Medina and La 15
