BIO
Jerez de la Frontera, 1984I try to find the balance between reasoning and emotion, that is why I think I am in the field of play, because I need passion but that is also the result of knowledge, it would be the intermediate point between both issues. I create fake scenarios from disconnected objects that have been rescued from reality itself and use them as a preliminary sketch instead of facing a blank canvas. By being painted and decontextualized from their primitive condition they become transitional objects between reality and a painted reality. So they have an ambiguous and disconcerting expression that I surely can not describe and which makes them funny in my opinion. The characterization of the characters, which is already ambiguous, adds to the ambiguity of what is represented, which acts as a pareidolia. The representation of these objects is complemented by a playful intervention, with a sarcastic and ironic vision towards the object itself. In this way it subverts the original sense of the piece so that it is something else now. Most of the time we find interventions that reflect the game between spirit and hand: one in the same object and another one once it has been painted as if it were a vandalism act towards the painting itself. In short, it tryes to awaken the vision through the power of experience by inviting the viewer to enter my imaginary with the intention of discovering a secret, not a secret about painting itself or about art, but a secret about life itself.
INTERVIEW
How would you define the project that you undertook for TruckArtProject?
As an extension of my work, in which I try to find the balance between reason and emotion, that's why I feel comfortable in the field of the game. For me it is a perfect synthesis between passion and knowledge; as a matter of fact, I believe that its exact space is at the intermediate point between the two issues.
I use dialectical tools that support this idea and they are present in my painting. The first one is found in the elements represented, which are usually pieces or fractions of elements intended for children's play, although sometimes I also introduce decorative elements or objects that are for everyday use.
The second one lies in the way of treating and configuring these elements: I paint them, I break them, I mutate them, I assemble them, I compose them in such a way as if I were playing with them, and finally, I erase, repaint, modify and even intervene with spray as if it were an act of vandalism against my own painting, and thus mocking my own work.
All this means that both the object and its manipulation, or even the way of painting and marking my own artwork, culminates in a very personal way, the way in which I somehow conceive the creative act, and by extension, as the way I conceive life itself.
In your case, how do the two sides of the truck work together?
They are the two sides of a coin. I have set up a playful disposition that acts, as I say, in the same way as I understand life, and by extension, art, which in this case, materializes through iconographic and procedural winks. Both sides represent a daily scene: two plates on a tablecloth that is placed on a table. In each of these compositions, which are two - one for each side of the truck - a final element: a performance on the painting, done with spray, that convert the dishes on the table into large eyes over a face, whose expression takes shape with this final contribution, which emulates a mouth.
As a result, the face looks like a doll ecstatic, amazed or hallucinating with happiness. On the other hand, another table with dishes that ends up becoming surprised or stunned.
In any case, the definitive scene, on both sides, is open to interpretation, representing a scene that is actually another. Both expressions are paralyzed. They have, in short, an ambiguous and disconcerting expression. That makes them funny to me. The characterization of the character, which is already ambiguous, adds to the ambiguity of what is represented, which acts as a pareidolia.
At the compositional level the plates form a diagonal that therefore creates dynamism with respect to the horizontal structure of the truck. In addition the circular forms of the dishes they also keep some type of relation with the wheels of the truck, they are repeated figures, consonants. The stripes of the tablecloth are related to the support itself where they are painted.
What are the challenges of the project for you?
Besides finishing it on time, I try to generate a fake scenario with everyday elements, Subverting the scale of what is represented and also reproduced in the world to a different size. In this case by oversizing the pieces, it is the viewer who seems to be reduced to introduce himself as a co-operator. I try to immerse him within an imaginary scenario created to share with the experience. Making him reflect not only on what he sees, but on how he sees it. Generating different sensations in him by making him a part of the work and questioning his perception. In short, I try to generate in the viewer the need to seek a secret to what he sees, not a secret about the painting or art, but about life itself.
How does this project fit into your trajectory and your discourse?
This project is inserted in my trajectory as one more of the possibilities that the painting itself gives. I believe that I will want to paint bigger things after having thought about the idea of painting in this scale and on a mobile canvas.
As for my speech I have tried to maintain my language and the way I understand painting, perhaps because that is what I know and what has become a part of my pictorial research. It is, in any case, an extension of my work, not only in content, but in language, means and shape.
Some artists admit that they came in with a pre-existing idea that they had to modify, or that grew in other directions when faced with a canvas like this one. Was that the case for you?
I will know when I face the support, but in fact I can only answer with an ambivalent response. In reality, being true to my own method of work, I hope it changes, because such is my way of understanding the act of painting. As I said before, the process of my painting is organic, it is nourished by erasures, scratches and manipulation and the final result, always comes when I see that the previous study has been overcomed, but if the question has a double meaning.. The answer is no. I'm not going to paint anything else.
How did you approach the reception of a work like this, in which the spectator comes across it instead of seeking it out, and which doesn’t “circulate” through the usual art channels?
I think that's an added value. A very useful way to reach other eyes that may be shaken by a new interest. In addition, I think the nature of the image represented lends itself a lot to it. Although, on the one hand, a figurative and "intelligible" image is seen, it invites us to fix our sight and connect with that other hidden image, full of a expressive and almost hidden connection, that awakens in the spectator an effect of a playful discovery, inviting him to enter the game.
What about the fleeting nature with which it’s received?
Honestly, I hope they drive on secondary roads and can not go faster than 40. I also hope that they also have to stop some time to refuel and in those occasions they will be better watched. However, the size in which it is conceived, and the apparent simplicity of the images represented plays in my favor when they are seen with just a quick glance.
How did you approach the scale? Were you used to it?
Considering my size, and that I have to use a ladder whenever I paint something bigger than 160... Dealing with this format has inevitably given me a feeling of greatness and the respect that must be had to painting and I do not speak only of metric questions ...
I approached the scale with some fear and respect since I had never painted anything bigger than 2 x 2.
What does this type of project offer you, and what do you think you bring to the project?
Besides the experience, which is grandiloquent and also a first for me. Belonging to the artists who have been given the chance to color your trucks is a great pride.
Regarding what I bring to the project, I think someone comfortable and fun to work with and I hope an interesting work as well.
Why is a project like TruckArtProject interesting?
Truck Art Project seems to me as an extreme project that reminds us of the versatility of art, there are no borders. We talk about opportunities to innovate, first times in formats, mobility and expansion, and to get my painting to even reach those who did not have time on their agenda go see a work of mine. Does this not seem like much to you?