'TangIed Lines'. Guillem Ramos-Poquí. Drawings 2015

Foreword

Guillem Ramos-Poquí's 2015 series of drawings, 'Tangled Lines', pulsate with dynamic energy.  Each drawing is complex and rich, yet its layers allow the viewer to effortlessly enter the ‘world’ evoked and absorb each level or story.

The juxtapositions of high art/culture, and mythology, with 'low-brow' popular culture (from Mickey Mouse to a lingerie model), alongside allusions to contemporary political events and social issues pack a powerful punch. These palimpsests suggest that we live in a world of chaos and flux, a world devoid of concrete principles and values – only those that are man-made, arbitrary and temporary.

These drawings expose the absurdity of 'civilisation', of man's obsession with control and power, and the dominance of the West, but not in a moralising way – it is done subtly, by presenting familiar symbols of culture in complete anarchy and chaos. Each drawing functions as a visual articulation of the reality of the mind: fragmentary, chaotic, non-linear and ultimately irrational.

Ramos-Poquí's ideas relating to cultural memory and the collective unconscious remind me of Aby Warburg's last project: his 'Mnemosyne Atlas' (1927-1929, at the Warburg Library). Warburg started collecting images across time, from books, magazines, newspapers, and other daily life sources. These pictures were arranged according to different themes, collaged together, to show resonances. Although Warburg was an academic, not an artist, there are fascinating parallels to be made here.

Antony Austin

Link to all other drawings and other text

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Links to other recent works:

Paintings 2016' 'Visions of Time, Space, Memory and the Ephemeral'

Drawings 2015 'TangIed Lines'

Assemblages 2015 'Urban Beach Combing'

Collages 2014 'Mirror Spaces: Reflections on Culture and the Ephemeral'

Exhibition Barcelona 2014

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