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"No State", thread on fabric, 1 of 3 panels, 300 x 160 cm. / Die Ecke Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago de Chile, 2007
"Mass Suicide, Joy of Hope", Graphite and acrylic paint on paper, 55 x 40 cm. each, 2007
"Hear Toney Alamo, Chinese ad, Triangle of Hope", Graphite and acrylic paint on paper, 55 x 40 cm. each, 2007
"Red Miss Rita", Graphite and acrylic paint on paper, 55 x 40 cm. each, 2007
"Mass Suicide, Miss Rita, Chinese Ad", Graphite and acrylic paint on paper, 55 x 40 cm. each, 2007
Press Release:
Using drawing and appropriation as research tools this show treats artistic,
social and historically disperse themes and references. Consisting basically
in the installation of three fabric pieces, a series of drawings based on street
pamphlets and a cardboard-acrylic sculpture the different parts of this project
simultaneously complement and shortcut each others meanings and directions.
The exhibition space will be dominated by three fabric-curtain pieces; these space dividers are made replicating a group of on small linocuts made by Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko. The exhibition title, No State Exhibition, is also a reference based on an exhibition title: “State Exhibition #19”, which happened in 1920 and where Rodchenko exhibited a new group of works which conformed an investigation into the possibilities of the use of the line as an expressive tool, he also presented an essay where he claimed, in an almost scientific attitude, that “every work was an experiment”.
The appropriation of these images aims to bring attention in the fact that they
are both an historical reference and at the same time relatively unknown (compared
to other historical pieces of the same period). Mujica re-signifies them, amplifies
them and adapts them to the exhibition space. He also confronts them with a
group of drawings, which are based on different pamphlets and flyers that the
artist collected in the streets of New York, they function as a counterpart,
aiming to channel the viewers attention to social and day to day references
and situations. They mix religious, existential and common circumstances and
at the same time they showcase an ironic and conceptual approach of their use,
they also become a drawing experiment.
The third piece in the
exhibition is a readymade sculpture titled “Imi”. It is a basic
construction built using cardboard and plexiglass. One of the boards was found
in the street about 6 years ago, the artist painted two circles following the
grid creating a pixel like image, it was later stored and never exhibited. The
boards are measurement tools used in pattern cutting, their functional drawing,
non-aesthetic style is utilized by Mujica as a visual and volumetric confusing
point. Its ephemeral DIY set up works as a counterpart to the rest of the show,
it refers also to contemporary architecture and to the use of color as luxury.
In the artists own words: “through the phrase No State Exhibition I intend
to point towards an irony, the situation of being an artist in a “non-state”
system and the fact of planning an exhibition where the works have a non-state
situation”.
