equilibriarte.net

The art period we are currently experiencing offers multiple examples of reflection on object and the perception of our daily lives, questioning our confidence about knowing and defining reality. Starting from Duchamp's ‘readymades’, and then thanks to Arte Povera, it’s been understood that the object could be something else and that its function could be related to what the mind makes of it. What is in fact an object without our thinking and our memory? Starting right from Duchamp's Dadaism, Gabriel Orozco, Mexican artist from Jalapa (1962) reinterprets everyday objects, as well as the landscape and the human body in its dismembered parts. In his works the movement, expansion, circles, and the combination of organic and geometric elements are recurring themes such as the giant decoration with concentric circles "tattooed" on a 14 feet long whale’s skeleton, called Dark Wave. In order to express himself, Orozco uses sculpture, photography, video, drawing and various installations. For over 20 years, his artistic research has explored the possibility of dissolving the boundaries between art and objects in their everyday life and to combine art with reality at times pushing the limits of the absurd like at Venice Biennale of 1993 when he exhibited an empty shoe box deprived even of the slightest chance of being something more than that – at least Duchamp's urinal aspired to be a fountain...