The Sleep of Reason
Assemblages 1998-99
Text
by David Rodway
Between 1998 and 1999 Ramos-Poquí devoted his work to a new series of assemblages. Here, he further develops his critical engagement with contemporary society and culture: in particular, with the tension between their scientistic technological drives and our human search for emancipation and self-determination. Again, metaphor and transformation play a key role as creative devices in articulating the artist's response to some of the burning issues of our time: - the self-defeating contradictions of the arms race; the consequences and implications of global free market capitalism; the dangers of a naive faith in a quick-fix, the all embracing computer technocracy; the destructive Cartesian fragmentation of experience and culture. In many exhibits these issues are treated with a playful irony often evoking humour, though not concealing their dark side. |
Dangerous
Species 1998 |
The Profitable
Marketing of Celebrity! 1999 |
In Ramos-Poquí's "Dangerous Species",
the concern is an ecological one, and points to a grim future for the planet:
Inside a transparent globe, a mechanistic black bird - complete with cogwheels
and fighter planes on its wings, stands silent over a pile of salt and bones
from a dry sea (1998). Here we can draw a connection in this image with
Picasso's sculpture "Baboon and Young" (1951), where the artist
has replaced the head of the baboon with a toy Fiat car. In so doing, he
has brought into question the relationship between animal and machine. In "The profitable marketing of Celebrity!", we see a fossilised heart (on a one-brick building laid on sand). It is being explored by astronauts, but its arteries are but empty pipes which carry the icons of today's celebrities. This is a complex and potent visual symbol about our manipulation by mass culture. |
Easy Rider (Chicken
and Egg questions) 1999 Assemblage 40 x 20 cm. H: 18cm. Toys: tank, robot, dinosaur's head. Chain. Easter egg plastic mould with toy hand grenades. Plaster cast (chicken shaped lid). |
In "Easy Rider (Chicken and Egg Questions)" we see a robot, with a dinosaur's head, standing at the back of a tank, riding with chains a white-plaster cockerel. The cockerel has just laid some eggs inside an Easter egg plasic mould, and the eggs have turned out to be hand-grenades. This assemblage represents the madness of our consumer, weapons-driven global culture. The concept of "chicken and egg questions", is used here to refer to the issue of what comes first or is more basic - reason or experience? For philosophers this question is often unanswerable, and perhaps meaningless. What matters is the role or function reason and experience have in life, and the fact that knowledge and judgement (and their development) depend, as in the ecological paradigm, on their interdependence, not their separation. |
Arm of the Law 1998 Assemblage, found objects. 10.5 x 9 cm. Height: 12 cm. Robot's arm, toy house, male figure, Empire State building, computer board, and digital print (world map). |
The Oxymoron of Drought and
Plenty 1999 Assemblage 9 x 19 cm H: 21 cm. Wooden hand, clay bird; bird's dinking bottle, toys: whale, dolphin and shark. |
Suck You! Tornado Culture! 1999 Assemblage 28 x 55 cm H: 35 cm. Cotton wool and spiral armature wire holding: Statue of Liberty, TV, small joke penis, cement mixer lorry and bullet. Plastic pipe, boy doll, joke fingers over pliers, vacuum cleaner accessory. |
In "Arm of the Law" we see
a computer platform where one of the parts has been replaced by a scale
model of the NY Empire State building. Big brother, like a huge arm, reaches
inside a room in a private house. It is about to grab the man who inhabits
it. He stands on a floor where an image of the world is represented. In "The Oxymoron of Drought and Plenty" a bird stands in a wooden hand holding a drink container. This represents the oceans, now dry, with the last dolphin and whale as if suspended like specimens in a test-tube. The fate of the bird is sealed with that of these other two animals. In "Suck You! Tornado Culture" a small child stands on a vacuum cleaner pipe. Held by metal pliers he looks at a tornado representing culture; the tornado is a mirror image, with the vacuum cleaner sucking and the tornado throwing out into space, the symbols of freedom, war, childhood and sex. |
The Adoration of Bureaucracy
1999 Assemblage 20 x 25 cm. H: 22 cm. Briefcase, bird's cage, mousetrap, wooden clock, male figure. |
The Thinker's Last Refuge 1999 Assemblage 21 x 22 cm H: 14 cm. Toy house with models of eye, heart, ear, brain, intestines.Three Figures: two firing with umbrellas and one seating (with birreta, holding wires and detonator). Joke fingers holding a stick. |
In "The Adoration of Bureaucracy",
we see a briefcase converted into a cage. Inside, a small man is trapped
by a mousetrap over which there is a clock. In "The Thinker's Last Refuge" we see a house where each room contains a different part of out sensory, digestive and cognitive organs. These are connected by wires controlled by an invisible hand, which dictates both the economy and the academic life of today's society. |
The Rape of the Mind 1999 Assemblage 22 x 65 cm H: 10 cm. Empty Brillo Box, nose plaster cast with binoculars, forehead plaster cast with spectacles, natural sponge, walnut, tweezers, surgical glove over hand plaster cast. |
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El sueño de la razón Ensamblajes
de Objetos Londres 1998-99 Entre 1998 y 1999 Ramos-Poquí dedicó su trabajo a una serie de ensamblajes de objetos. En ellos continua el desarrollo de su enfoque crítico de la sociedad y de la cultura: en particular la tensión entre las corrientes cientísticas tecnológicas y el ansia humana por la emancipación y la autodeterminación. De nuevo, la metáfora y la transformación juegan un papel clave, como medios creativos que articulan la respuesta del artista a una serie de cuestiones candentes de nuestro tiempo: las contradicciones contraproducentes de la carrera de armamentos, las consecuencias y repercusiones del capitalismo global de mercado libre; los peligros de encontrar soluciones fáciles por medio del dominio de la tecnocracia del ordenador; y la fragmentación destructiva cartesiana entre la experiencia y la cultura. En muchas de estas obras estos temas se tratan con la ironía del juego, frecuentemente evocando el humor, pero sin ocultar los aspectos sombríos. En "Especies
peligrosas", Ramos-Poquí se preocupa de la ecología
e indica el futuro funesto de nuestro planeta: dentro de un globo transparente,
un pájaro mecánico negro, manipulado por ruedas dentadas
y con aviones cazabombarderos en el pico y las alas, está de pie
y en silencio sobre un montón de sal y huesos del mar que se ha
secado (1998). Aquí podemos establecer una conexión entre
esta imagen y la de Picasso "Mandril y su prole" (1951), donde
el artista reemplazó la cabeza del mandril por un coche Fíat
de juguete. Al hacer esto, consiguió poner en cuestión la
relación entre el animal y la máquina. De nuevo podríamos
hacer aquí algunas conexiones entre la obra de Ramos-Poquí
y la de otros artistas. Ya hemos mencionado la obra de Picasso "Mandril
y su prole" en relación con "Especies peligrosas"
y podríamos hacer comparaciones entre algunos artistas claves norteamericanos,
por ejemplo: Edward Kienholz, con sus instalaciones tamaño natural
de los años cincuenta y sesenta, con su visión pesimista
de las instituciones que gobiernan el mercado capitalista norteamericano.
Pero, en el caso de las obras de Ramos-Poquí, vemos algo diferente;
son más pequeñas y menos amenazantes y a pesar de que tienen
aspectos sombríos, siempre son tratadas con el humor y la ironía;
también juegan con una gran diversidad de medios formales, particularmente
los cambios de escala y las transformaciones. También hay actualmente un grupo de artistas neo arte-pobre (o neopovera) y neoconceptuales que utilizan objectos encontrados en sus obras (Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Carlos Pazos, Mike Kelley, etc). En general la obra de estos artistas se basa en la suposición de que es suficiente comprender una obra a partir de sus orígenes psicológicos y biográficos, las fuentes o causas y a base de citar sus estilos o referencias. Pero deja completamente abierta la cuestión de si una cosa es "verdad", vale la pena que se diga, o merece nuestra atención. La diferencia en los ensamblajes de objetos de Ramos-Poquí con la obra de los artistas acabados de mencionar, es que quiere expresar temas y cuestiones sociales, políticas y filosóficas, complejas. Sus obras lo expresan a través del uso informado de la metáfora y de vínculos sorprendentes. Además, para facilitar la descodificación de sus artificiosos contenidos, los títulos de las obras actúan como punto de partida y de esa manera se integra la imagen con la palabra, en vez de separarse de ella. |
Guillem Ramos-Poquí LINKS