Time, Place and Purpose: The Identity Art of Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada

Maria Tudela (all images from Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada website)

Some artists like to work big.  And then there's urban artist and former culture jammer Jorge Rodriquez-Gerada, and his Identity Series.  

Aurelio Monterrey

Concepcion Buenos Aires

Emma Barcelona

For his Identity Series, he portrays everyday people who have a strong connection to their community and then finds a suitable space for their portrait.

The artist at work on Julio Granada

But these images are only part of his story.  For Jorge creates all of these portraits in charcoal. And as they gradually fade away, they encapsulate identity, memory and the tenuous nature of our existence.

Maria Barcelona

Here's a short video showing the creation of Maria Barcelona as Jorge explains what he's working towards.

If the video doesn't play you can watch it here.

Jorge began the Identity Series in 2002.  His vision? It's about "how the person depicted fades into the wall over time. The memory that is left confirms the importance and fragility of every existence. My intent is to have identity, place and memory become one."

But there's also another dimension to his work, which  

tries to counter the political and advertising images that permeate the cultural landscape. "I believe that our identity should come from within, not from the brands that we wear. We should question who choses our cultural icons and role models as well as our values and our aesthetics." 

David Vitoria

This portrait of local resident David quickly became a political statement when Jorge created it in Spain's Basque country. The video below explains:

             

If you doesn't play, you can watch it here. 

There is so much we take for granted about the impact of art and the artist. We assume the artist has uncommon skill and talent and that great art is a creation that lasts for the ages.  

Of course I'm oversimplifying, but in Jorge's work we have a strong visualization of what the winds of change both create and destroy. And I think there's something at once inspiring and humbling about his work, as it celebrates our common humanity and points towards the impermanence of everything.

There's more to his story that you can check out on his website. And here's a link to an interview he did last year. And I'd like to end this post with two images from his Terrestrial Series. 

He created this homage to a beloved Spanish architect from colored sand:

Homage to Enric Miralles

Here's a link to a video showing how he did it. 

And then there's the image below, made from 650 tons of sand and gravel, just before the 2008 US election.

Expectation

Motoi Yamamoto's Salt

Motoi Yamamoto sculpts with salt.  I find his work a little confounding, it's formality brings up such varied feelings.  Of course, the whole execution is stunning.  And it fits nicely into the genre of conceptual art.  Salt, a basic building block of life.  Salt, sculpted into a labyrinth seemingly without end.  Salt, a mediation on grief.  His work was recently featured on the NPR site.  A more satisfying overview is on the Force of Nature site.  It has a fuller explanation of how the artist sees his work.  And two time-lapse videos of the construction process as well as some detail photos like the one below.

As a Westerner I feel at a disadvantage in trying to decode what I am seeing.  I feel there is something about this that is very "Japanese".  There is a carefulness, a haunting perfection, a sense of ritual and frozen motion that remind me of their classical treatment of waves, fabric and ancient design.  A study in patience.  Quiet movement. I like how each line fits within another line, in a gentle curve ever unfolding.   


I think the process of making the work must be a kind of catharsis for the artist.  The discipline required boggles the mind.  And yet the rigidity of the concept carries within it a greater and refined beauty.  Much of it due to Mr. Yamamoto's exquisite sense of design.   

And here's how I understand it: within the labyrinth lays, perhaps, the totality of a life. Each turn the pulse of a beating heart, one's path so clearly outlined, yet only understood in the totality of the viewing.  Life unfolding, moving, reaching and yet constantly turning in upon itself.  And profoundly impermanent.  

See Me Tell Me

Subway Saints (on going)

Continuing on the theme of collaboration and innovation, my daughter Jennifir sent me info about an artist friend, See Me Tell Me who collaborates directly with the public, bypassing galleries, dealers, critics, marketers, and the like.  See Me Tell Me has created a new definition of public art as she scatters her works all around the city for people to discover.

Bound Numbers (completed)

And she asks whoever happens upon her latest art installation to let her know which work they find (there are different series and are all numbered) and where.  A very cool idea.  

Little Monsters (on going)

And her work has it's own intricacies 
that resonate on a number of levels, 
from comic to cosmic.  Her inspiration comes from people and places in the city.  And are quite a gift in their own right.  I think all of us love the idea of the hand-made object, and here with the art of See Me Tell Me we're bumping into work that has been lovingly crafted.  I find the whole thing ingenious.  And I like the idea that the person discovering the work is asked to get in touch with the artist.  Completes the circle, doesn't it.  


I also loved reading about it on the Subway Art Blog.  What?  Of course there's a blog about subway art. Where else in the city is it such a delight to encounter the unexpected?  And blogger Jowy documents finding one of her works.

And, since we're talking about collaboration, there's also all  that music that flows through the tiled halls of the NY subway system.  The Subway Art Blog posts about that too. 


And there's New York's Underbelly project that I wrote about last year, where a hundred artists created work in an abandoned subway station deep in the bowels of the city.  And the lush and festive places that inform Sweden's Metro that I described here last month.  Wow, under+ground = fertile+ground.  Transforming the routine into the sublime.