Abdul Vas
dal 26/10/2010 al 10/12/2010
Segnalato da
26/10/2010
Abdul Vas
Galeria Casado Santapau, Madrid
The artist's work tackles a new language that has references to the work of artists with such impact in the history of avant-garde as James Ensor, to German expressionism, or to the most radical ideas of Italian trans-vanguard. His mixed media are wild, genuinely contaminated, bizarre and tacky.
Both Abdul Vas (Suriname, 1981) and his interdisciplinary work are difficult to
classify. You can find references to the work of artists with such impact in the
history of avant-garde as James Ensor, to German expressionism, or to the most
radical ideas of Italian trans-vanguard. His work tackles a new language that has
nothing to do with the construction of a solid discourse, more or less adequate to
the usual prevailing canons. There is nothing common about Vas' work. It's wild. It
doesn't work under the aegis of any school nor teacher. It's genuinely contaminated.
It's bizarre and tacky. And it is precisely because it follows no formula, respects
no form, no control, that it emerges as one of the most attention-grabbing
approaches within our dull and mild artistic panorama.
The argument the project's exposition raises, with this new Casado Santapau's
project we're referring to, is framed by this whole, enormous projection of
elements, but it specifically talks about the relationship of a new race of humanoid
chickens with machines. To be more precise, with big freight transportation
artifacts such as Navistar trucks: symbol of North American imperialist power. And
so it is, in Vas's invented universe, that the birds—in an attempt to find AC/DC
within the confines of the galaxy—have become mixed up with these super machines,
giving way to a hybrid a la "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors." The drawings in this
series allude to the super chickens' symbiosis with the new model of Lonestar trucks
and its commercial routes, designed to spread the message of the new race.
In this new world order ruled by chickens, postmodern iconography, the fan
phenomenon and commercial routes have been assimilated by the new regime. Now
chickens are the rock stars, the mafiosi, the high-class prostitutes, the basketball
players or the truckers. Chickens impose the rules. They have taken possession of
human's agonic references as well as their social structure, making sure that the
message of AC/DC, heroes of hard rock, becomes the new ideological Decalogue.
This is not the prologue of some apocalyptic science-fiction series, but the
constituent principles of the world imagined by Abdul Vas. An iconoclastic universe,
based on the taxonomic description of an endless number of characters who subvert
the ideas of westernization, gender and belonging. It is altogether monstrous.
— Edu Hurtado
Opening: Wednesday, 27 October, 20-22.
Galeria Casado Santapau
Conde de Xiquena 5, Madrid
Opening hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 - 14 / 16.30 - 20.30
Saturday, 11 - 14 and by appointment
Free admission