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23/5/2003

Juan Carlos Batista

Martinez Gallery, New York

PATHOLOGIES OF WAR

FROM MAY 24 THRU JUNE 29

BROOKLYN - Martinez Gallery is proud to present the work of Juan Carlos Batista. Batista, born in Spain's Canary Islands, brings a unique and fascinating mix of sculpture and photography to bear upon one of the most pressing matters of this, and every, age of mankind: the social illness that is war.

With clear antecedents in Goya's horrifying and yet frustratingly gripping (and yes, even beautiful) series of lithographs, 'Disasters of War,' Batista has painstakingly created a series of grotesques that fearlessly explore the deprivations, arrogance and all-encompassing grip on our lives that are characteristic of war. 'Pathologies of War' has as a starting point plastic action figures - seemingly harmless children's playthings available in any toy store. But the artist has meticulously altered, transformed and individualized them and thus creating, in his strange breed of surgical theater, an army of twisted, diseased, mutilated soldiers shamelessly bearing their casualties for the world to see.

Like uniformed harpies of the modern world, Batista's soldiers are shocking and awful, horrible and delightful; each serving to make its own pointed political and social commentary. They bear names like 'Romance on the Front,' which depicts a soldier with an erection talking on a cellular phone; 'Soldier Boccioni,' sculpted in Futurist -style and with no weapon; 'Child and Soldier,' whose undersized genitals are exposed; and 'Victim and Whip,' showing a soldier with pistol drawn and the torso of a dead man.

Batista finishes his work on these soldiers by photographing them, distancing the viewer from the actual suffering of the individual and instead mirroring the kind of propaganda that war, and the violence that is invisibly suspended between us like aluminiferous ether, depends upon. The finished artwork is a kind of window into a visual Newspeak, where the monstrous is made gorgeous, hideous hilarious, truth a liar, life dead and where bloody war, as we hear all so often now, is peace. 'Pathologies of War' is a backwards land, casting a sidelong glance at Orwell as one truth behind the bravura and machismo of war and warriors is revealed to us all. Harmless toys for twisted children.

'Pathologies of War' will be on display through June 29. For more information or press queries, call 718-706-0606

Gallery Hours: 1 PM - 7 PM Thursday - Sunday.

MARTINEZ gallery
37 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11222
t 718 706 0606

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