Art Practices within the Postmodern World - Case Study Example

Federico Uribe The postmodern world of the 21st century is a world of constantly shifting definitions and identity crises. This is, unsurprisingly, reflected in the artwork being produced today. Rather than being confined to a single medium or form, artists are taking their creative expression into multi-media formats, transitioning art forms and exploratory materials. It is not uncommon to find painters combining their artwork with elements of sculpture, video, audio or other formats as a means of expressing the changeable nature of the contemporary world. One such artist is Federico Uribe. Uribe is a modern artist currently working out of Florida but represented on an international scale because of his unique approach and style. Born in Bogota, Columbia, the artist made a multi-cultural study of art prior to developing his own style. This style has only continued to evolve as he continues to work. Making a name for himself first with his paintbrush, Uribe is now most known for his works using everyday objects to create unique images and sculptures. The underlying focus of his work is to create connections – connections with his audience, connections with his materials and connections between ideas. When viewed from up close, his work may be revealed as an exploration into the connections between writing utensils and the ways in which we define ourselves while a more distant viewpoint reveals the 3D image of a woman’s body. At the same time, his work creates a connection between historic art, most specifically reminiscent of the Pop Art culture of the 1960s, and contemporary approaches to art in which mixed media is king. Another connection he creates is between the world of fine art and commercial art as he creates pieces that deliberately play on the logos or brand names of makers of products. It is the purpose of the following study to discover more about the artist, his approach to art, his techniques and the ways in which he uses these forms to bridge the spaces between within the postmodern culture. When discussing current art practices within the postmodern world, it is important to consider the main ideas connected to the “politics of representation.” This term attempts to make a distinction between the content of an image and the form of the image. Another way of thinking about this is the distinction that is made between the sublime and the visual. The sublime refers to the unspoken meaning behind the image, the ideas that cannot be fully explained because words are not big enough but they exist all the same. The visual refers to the actual forms that appear as the expression of the artist’s vision. According to this concept, the sublime content of the image, the most important element of the work, cannot have its own form or visual nature because it is, by nature, directly inexpressible. However, the form or the visual, which is the artist’s expression of his vision, is indivisible from the sublime whether the creator intended to incorporate this connection or not. The reason for this phenomenon lies in the fact that art is not static, but is instead interactive with its audience. Associated meanings inherently connected with the symbols and forms of our lives are shaped by the political and social ideas of an individual’s perceptions of the symbols inherent in the particular forms used within the artwork and inherent in the environment in which it is placed. “No individual has the same view of the world, but perspectives vary in systematic ways across racial, ethnic, gender and socioeconomic lines … the systematic variation we see in interpretations of politics by members of different social groups is not innate but is, instead, created through the process of developing and clarifying one’s social identity during casual interaction with other people” (Walsh, 2003: 2). The postmodern movement places particular emphasis on illuminating the sublime by bringing these ideas to the forefront. “The political and the aesthetic are inseparable, simultaneously present, faces of the postmodern problematic” (Burgin, 1982). As a result, representation, whether expressed in words or images or statuary, is not a neutral or innocent activity, but rather one with profound effects on everyday lives. By challenging our ideas of specific images or forcing us to make sense of forms that have no specific interpretation, postmodern art forms become powerful tools in reshaping political and/or societal views and blurring the boundaries of what we thought we knew, such as those boundaries we perceive between one culture and another. Much of postmodern art is representative of Dewey’s ideas that democracy needed to be pursued by directly relating the facts to common conceptions making them available to the greater public who can then make better choices (Schugurensky & Myers, 2001). It is in this context of appealing to and directly addressing social opinion or in influencing a mood or emotion that Uribe’s art has had tremendous impact on the art world of today. Federico Uribe was born in Bogota, Colombia in 1962 and spent his youth there. According to his artist website (2010), he continued to live in the area and study art as he attended the University of Los Andes until 1988. In that year, he moved to New York seeking a master of fine arts degree at the State University of New York under the direction of Luis Camnitzer. His studies would eventually take him to Cuba studying at the Institute of Arts in La Habana, Mexico, Russia and England before he finally settled down in Miami, Florida. His earliest works were paintings that strongly reflected the harsher elements of his Catholic faith. As it is presented on his site, his paintings were “sensual and brooding canvases influenced by his dark reflections on the Catholic sense of pain, guilt and sexuality” (2010). Not achieving the kind of satisfaction from his expression he was seeking, Uribe turned away from painting and started looking around at the world he was living in. He was “attracted by the usually neglected beauty of simple objects in everyday use, he began to observe them with care, collect them, set them side by side and combine them, so that they became unusual instruments of a new aesthetic, full of color, irony and lively playfulness” (Uribe, 2010). His first big solo exhibition was held in 1999 at the Adriana Schmidt Gallery in Koln, Germany followed by at least one exhibition per year every year since. He continues to produce art on a regular basis and has added lecturing to his schedule starting in 2003. The artist, now 48 years old, currently lives and works in Miami, Florida, represented by the Now Contemporary Art Gallery. It is clear in his artwork and in his attitude that Uribe concept of art is well-defined within his work. In his sculptures, he illustrates that he is very aware of the connections that can be made through art. He illustrates his understanding that “the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act” (Duchamp, 1917: 819). His creations are intended to foster these connections. In his biography, it is pointed out how Uribe comes from a war-torn nation which necessarily has played into the development of his concepts. Bogota was the central gathering place for thousands of peasants and farmers fleeing violence near the region until shortly before Uribe was born. As a young child, he must have seen the effects of these thousands still coming to swell the city. During his older childhood, teenage years and college years, the city continued to see enormous growth, contributing perhaps to the sense of hope, humor and love that is expressed within his work. In many ways, his career has echoed the recent history of his birthplace – beginning with a deep sense of darkness, punishment and the need for atonement only to brighten into a new expression of beauty and growth. On his website, Uribe is quoted as saying, “I have the hope that people who relate to my sculptures and live with them, will see the love I put into them. I want people to feel that I do this with a lot of careful attention and the purpose of beauty. I give my life to my work and I want people to see it.” His concept of art is as something that should make a connection with his audience, something that communicates a sense of Uribe’s ideas to the viewer in a way that leaves interpretation open to individual understanding at multiple levels. To create these works of art, Uribe says he typically starts with a word or collection of words and builds the piece from there. “Most of my work is based on words. I sometimes start with a name and look for my objects, sometimes the object makes me think of the word, and I exploit it to create a work” (Uribe, 2010). These inspirational words are often reflected in the title of each piece and provide deeper understanding of what he was thinking in conceptualizing the finished design. His technique is flexible, though, allowing objects to suggest words to him that he then manipulates into a form or allowing words to suggest a form and then he searches for the right object to represent that form or any other combination that suits. The sculptures he creates are constructed of everyday objects and materials, sometimes new, sometimes recycled. These materials are woven together, bound with rubber bands, tied with shoelaces, held in place with nails or otherwise creatively arranged so as to show off the inherent beauty of the original object or material, aspects of the work which are quite clear when the work is viewed from a close distance. The artwork perceived in this way is fully abstract, often given a highly repetitive structure and revels in the use of strong color and contrast. Seen from this distance, the art can sometimes remind viewers of the Pop Art focus of the 1960s (Osterwold, 2003). However, the way in which these objects are arranged take on entirely new aspects when viewed from a distance. With space between the work and the viewer, the objects take on more dimension, stronger definition and intricate contours that can be as expressive as a human face and as specific as a portrait. This technique is designed to encourage the audience to take a new look at things, to examine the art work in an interactive manner, to get close to it and to see it from afar and to make an interpretation of it based upon this interaction. This intention to Uribe’s technique can be appreciated more fully when applied to one of his artworks, such as the tiger found in his Miami exhibition “Risk” held in 2010. Viewed from afar, this piece features the impression of the head, shoulders and one front paw of a three dimensional tiger bursting from its hiding place behind long green grasses. The rest of the tiger is presumably contained within the wall on which the piece is hung; however, an impression is given of the animal’s strong back lifted above its head in mid-pounce. The long grasses criss-cross over the tiger’s face and body. They manage to give an impression of the individual blades simultaneously breaking before his charge and holding him back from achieving his aims. As the grasses are arranged on the wall, they seem to create a spiral vortex with the tiger in the center. Another approach might interpret this pattern as akin to a spider’s web. Upon taking a closer look at the exhibit, the multi-shaded grasses are actually revealed to be long shoelaces arranged in a confusing array of shades and patterns that help to hide the component parts of the tiger’s body. The color pattern of the grasses starts light in the background and deepens to a dark green converging around the tiger. Directly under the tiger shape are several neon green strands that add light and energy to the piece. These shoelaces are strung tight, illustrating their strength as they pass tautly back and forth over the tiger’s body. The tiger is comprised of orange and black leather shoe parts skillfully arranged to focus on the all-important running surface of the shoes. The technological approach of today’s running shoe is exposed in the differently colored, differently engineered rubber of the sole, creating the bands of stripes leading up the tiger’s back as it recedes into the wall. The tiger’s face is easily created with the addition of an orange sports mask, complete with the company name “Puma” centered on the animal’s forehead. The piece appears as part of a larger exhibit including other animals created in the same manner using shoe parts and other sports equipment. When seen as a whole, it becomes clear that the tiger is bursting out of the grass with the aim of capturing a fat rabbit sitting nearby created of the sides of pure white running shoes. While the tiger has the power in featuring the actual running surfaces, the rabbit is given the speed in the sleek side design of the shoes. In this way, Uribe manages to blend the meanings of the materials with the meanings of the subjects to create a larger meaning to the scene presented. In choosing to use such a commercial approach to his art, Uribe’s approach also seems to answer to the questions of modern art as it was expressed at the beginning of the 20th century. “Not only art but also everyday objects, buildings, décor, everything lacked a face, and it was the realization of its lack in this particular respect which began to make the period so cruelly conscious of its anonymity” (Cassau, 1962). Uribe removes that anonymity but reveals the risk taken in doing so. The title of the show, Risk, indicates his intentions behind such a piece as he illustrates the risk taken by the rabbit in enjoying a moment of peace, the risk of the tiger hunting close enough to human habitation that a small house can be seen in the distance and the risk of the people scattering the exhibit who must choose to face the wild animals everyday in their own struggle to survive. Eventually, the work emerges as a very strong yet hopeful and somewhat whimsical commentary on the state of the world today. Everything that exists has become somehow associated with a brand name or else stands a good chance of becoming extinct. The tiger, currently on the endangered animals list, displays his brand on his head but this is still no guarantee of success. First he must find a way to break through the ties that bind him and escape the web of commercialism in order to even have a chance at securing a meal to sustain him. Despite his power and seeming advantage, evidenced by the soles of the running shoes which is the real work surface of the shoe, the tiger is finally seen to be perhaps even more helpless than the rabbit which can at least enlist the assistance of the laces rather than suffering their limitations. The shoe laces, the object that seems to carry the least power, emerges as being both the item that connects them all and the strongest element of the game. Taken to a sublime level, Uribe seems to be making a commentary on the nature of the modern corporate world and the need for modern man to examine the power that green (as in money) has over them, the energy they are exerting for little gain and the ruthlessness of their desires to overcome the innocent and defenseless. Through his work, Federico Uribe provides a prime example of the major concerns of post-modern art while remaining true to many of the artistic ideals of the modern age. His images are interactive and encourage exploration. His compositions provoke thought and seek to inspire new appreciation for the everyday experiences of our lives. Although not immune to the realities of life in the 21st century, Uribe illustrates the possibility of taking a humorous perspective on the major issues of our times. He shows us how approaching a situation with a touch of laughter can help us to see more clearly the follies of our actions. Once this is clear, we might then be able to take a more useful and successful approach to problem-solving. The ideas he generates in his blending of the everyday, the corporate animal and the human experience seem to hit all at once, in the blinding flash of a tiger attack. However, once one takes time to sort out the individual threads of thought that have thus been inspired, the art takes on new dimensions that extend beyond the visual space, tapping on the sublime elements of our inner being. Bibliography Burgin, Victor. (March, 1982). Thinking Photography. New Jersey: Humanities Press Intl. Cassou, Jean, Emil Langui and Nikolaus Pevsner. (1962). Gateway to the Twentieth Century: Art and Culture in a Changing World. New York: McGraw-Hill. Duchamp, Marcel.(1917). “The Richard Mutt Case.” Blind Man. New York: Vol. 2. Federico Uribe website. (2010). http://www.federicouribe.com/about.php Osterwold, Tilman. (2003). Pop Art. Cologne, Germany: Taschen. Schugurensky, Daniel and John P. Myers. (2001). “1922: Walter Lippmann and John Dewey debate the role of citizens in democracy.” In D. Schugurensky (Ed.), History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century [Online]. Walsh, Katherine C. (2003). Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Read More