Fantasma (Phantom) by Adrian Villar Rojas
at Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
Two hundred pieces presented on a high podium in a separate gallery in the Museet. The platform was so high that, standing on tiptoe, this was the best view I could get.
So, I asked Ken to take a few photographs, and the results were more pleasing and visible.
Working with a team of collaborating artists, engineers and sculptors, Rojas compares his role to that of an artistic director or leader of an ensemble. He describes his practice as an organic process and is known for his site-specific works in clay as well as organic materials that disintegrate with time.
The size of the large podium appears to challenge any notion of human beings as the measure of all.
The collection of the complex pieces on the podium originally belonged to Las Teatros de Saturno, a project that Rojas and his team developed in Mexico City.
Needless to say that I was only able to photograph the objects that were on the edges of the podium, but given that we were able to walk around it, I managed to get quite a few. So, here are some of the individual pieces:
He seems to have a definite penchant for sneakers as they kept appearing in the most odd places in this installation
Mutant watermelon: dry watermelon skin, coloured plaster stuffing
The Peeing Girl was originally imagined as a kind of avatar or ghost wandering through his Return the World installation but Rojas eventually set the idea aside.
Extraordinary. It reminds me of seeing a huge rubbish pile outside Manila, with people, children mostly, picking over it for items they could sell, or even eat. It made me feel culpable.
ReplyDeleteI shall explore the artist further. Thank you for this introduction.
A very talented artist, and very young. Apparently this was his first body of work in colour. His previous work was huge sculptures made out of concrete and clay. I could not find as much as I wanted on him as most of the information is in Spanish.
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