Guillem Ramos-Poquí's Photomontages
Introduction
Is there art and life after post-modernism? Can digital art learn from the painter? Is philosophy for artists what ornithology is for the birds? Can art be a language? Can it be a vehicle for ideas and narratives? What are the perceptive and creative strategies for this? Is meaning or interpretation inherently "indeterminate"? And to what extent "indeterminate"? If so, what are the implications? Does it mean we have no control over our destiny?
These are some of the issues which are investigated by Guillem Ramos-Poquí in the works illustrated in his web pages, selected from several of his London shows during 1996-2000.
Ramos-Poqui's work aims to identify and articulate hidden patterns and meanings in our social and cultural environment and the collision between nature and the technologies of our post-modern condition. The images use creative devices such as metaphor, and related tropes like metonymy and synecdoche, to express these themes whilst commenting on the contradictions and potentials of our contemporary life and culture.
Ramos-Poquí's most recent photomontage work shows a shift in the geographical sources of its narrative and inspiration. During the 90's he embarked on a project predominantly dealing with a critique of technological and urban culture, the city, and the tensions which society imposes on the individual and our communities as a whole. Now, at the dawn of the new millennium, and as he did in the eighties, he looks back at nature for his inspiration. But far from only looking at nature from a purely romantic or utilitarian perspective, he treats' it as a platform through which to articulate visually his personal, metaphysical reflections and experience. Here nature takes the level of a metaphoric space in which the artist's fears about the passing of time, the shortcomings of memory and the inevitable cycles of life and decay are exposed. And as a poet, he looks at the images in nature as vessels of those timeless questions which belong to the dark mirror of the human condition.
(Text: David Rodway)
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RAMOS-POQUÍ'S PHOTOMONTAGES: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Artists in Britain Since 1945 (Vol 2: M to Z, pp 1312). David Buckman. Art Dictionaries Ltd, Bristol. 2006
ISBN: 10: 0 95326095X
"The Paint Box Era": Artists in the Digital Art Museum, Berlin (DAM) www.dam.org
The Times Higher Education Supplement: Multimedia: 14th March 1997: Pages II-III
"Digital print and the pursuit of a perfect image" by Guillem Ramos-Poquí (with 1 colour reproduciton)
CGI -Computer Generated Imaging Magazine (London N1 8DU UK): Vol 3 - Issue 1: January 1998
Page 16 "Environmentally friendly" (with 4 colour reproductions)
CGI -Computer Generated Imaging Magazine (London N1 8DU UK): Vol 3 - Issue 2: January 1998
Page 8 "News: Gaze the Maze..." (with 1 colour reproduction)
Computer Arts Magazine (Future Publishing, Bath BA1 2BW UK): Issue 17: April 1998
Page 108 Exposure: "Images from the Hermeneutical Maze" (with 4 colour reproductions)
The Daily Telegraph Newspaper: Connected Colour Supplement (London UK): Thurs 30th April 1998
Pages 1,10-11 "Caught in the Gallery Door" by Paul Fisher (with 1 colour reproduction and 1 in b&w)
Creative Technology Magazine (St John Patrick Publishers. London SE1 9AG): April 1998
Page 10 Folio (with 1 colour reproduction)
Art Review Magazine (London EC1A 9LB UK): May 1998
Pages 58-61 "Computers...The Last Frontier. Part I" by Brian Ashbee (with 3 colour reproductions)
Art Review Magazine (London EC1A 9LB UK): June 1998
Pages 48-49 "Computers...The Last Frontier. Part II" by Brian Ashbee (with 3 colour reproductions)
The Times Higher Education Supplement: Digital: 27th November 1998
Page 11 "The Pixel Problem" by Claire Neesham
The Times Higher Education Supplement: Digital: 8th October 1999
Page 14: "Beyond Words" (with one colour reproduction)
SAGE Publications: Cover for "Social Work & Social Policy" catalogue. SAGE Publicatons, London 2000. (1 colour reproduction of work from 1999).
The Times Higher Education Supplement, 25 May 2001:
Page 12: "Poetry in Motion" (1 colour reproduction)
The Observer (Business/Cash Suplement), Sunday 27th January 2002. Pages: 12-13: "Pixels into pounds"/ "The Digital Masters" by John Windsor (1 colour reproduction across)
The Irish News, Sat 2 Oct 2004, page 49.
Exhibition Review at the Cathalyst Art Gallery, Belfast . By Aisling MCrea
(1 colour reproduction)
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Recent publication:G. Ramos-Poquí's work 1965-2001, with 48 pages size A4, containing 84 colour reproductions, and 4 in black and white. Preface by J. Corredor-Matheos. Main text by D. Rodway (the English text has a Spanish translation at the back). |
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