Santiago/ London
dal 6/5/2005 al 29/5/2005
Segnalato da
Isabel Garcia
Marcela Moraga Millan
Carolina Ruff
Jorge Cabieses
Claudio Correa
Viviana Duran
Viviana Duran
6/5/2005
Santiago/ London
Transition Gallery, London
These art works illustrate how the imprints of historical events have shaped contemporary Chilean art. The artists in were too young to have experienced the traumatic events of 1973's American sponsored coup at first hand. Consequently their work rather than reverting to cliched, victim based notions of Political Art utilizes playful and seductive imagery, whilst simultaneously remembering historical events and remaining suspicious of the growing encroachment of American influence.
Works by: Isabel Garcia, Marcela Moraga Millan, Carolina Ruff, Jorge Cabieses, Claudio Correa, Viviana Duran
Santiago/ London examines the contemporary art scene, which currently thrives in the Chilean capital Santiago. Curated by the artist Viviana Duran the show focuses on the great changes that have taken place in Chilean culture from a historical and macro-social perspective.
These art works, shown in the UK for the first time, illustrate how the imprints of historical events have shaped contemporary Chilean art. The artists in Santiago/London were too young to have experienced the traumatic events of 1973’s American sponsored coup at first hand. Consequently their work rather than reverting to clichéd, victim based notions of Political Art utilizes playful and seductive imagery, whilst simultaneously remembering historical events and remaining suspicious of the growing encroachment of American influence.
Isabel Garcia shows large-scale photographs Santiago car parks with digitally enhanced billboards with “fake†advertising. One of these photographs shows the ubiquitous MacDonald’s logo in the background and hints at encroaching Americanisation.
Marcela Moraga Milan creates photographic narratives with Playmobile figures. Using these children's toys to subvert and comment on history, politics and the increasing uses of technology with humour, honesty and criticism.
Jorge Cabieses makes miniature paintings based on photographs of war and disaster culled from American magazines such as Newsweek. These tiny paintings are realised with an exquisite meticulousness that horrifically intensifies the drama and pity of the action they portray.
Carolina Ruff uses photography as testimony, creating installations that interact both with concrete actual spaces and spaces in the memory. In the work shown here she has filled in the missing green lawns in the main square in Santiago by collecting grass from the graves of those who were killed during Pinochet’s reign.
Viviana Duran sculpts idealized buildings in polystyrene and glitter. These superficially naïve structures both enhance and disrupt commonly held notions of both folk and conceptual art. Duran herself is keen to dispel the stereotype of the Latin American artist as victim or folk artist.
Claudio Correa’s sound piece takes snippets of the songs censored by American radio post 9/11. These lyric segments, deemed offensive by the moral majority have been joined together by Correa to form an absurd musical collage where the Doors ‘Come on baby light my fire’ sits next to The Talking Heads ‘Burning down the houseâ€
This exhibition has been supported by Visiting Arts, The Chilean Embassy in London, The Museum de Art Contemporaéo (Santiago), The University of Chile, DIBAN and Epson.
Curated by Viviana Duran
Transition
110a Lauriston Road - London E9 7HA
Opening hours Fri-Sun 1-6pm