GUSTAVO
FARES
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I S U A L A R T I
S T // C U R A T O R //
C R I T I C
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GUSTAVO
FARES V
I S U A L A R T I
S T // C U R A T O R //
C R I T I C |
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The Philosophy of Language
and the Visual Undecidability of Closed Systems
Thirty or so years after Minimalism and Conceptual Art, I am interested in putting their legacy to use as tools to undertake an interrogation of the vocabulary of representation and abstraction in the context of a broader examination of the art object. Faced with Roland Barthes' dilemma of ideologize (Fredric Jameson would have preferred "historicize") or poetize, I want to navigate the waters in between the two options by taking both a retinal, aesthetic-related perspective, and a conceptual one. Against the backdrop of Conceptual Art's proposal of replacing the object spatial and perceptual experience by linguistic definition alone, I would like to take a reverse path by playing with the linguistic object and with its parallel visual construction. Using the Borgean labyrinth as a point of reference, I am interested in examining this figure by building my own personal maze with a series of visual renderings that exploit semiotic parallels between the systems of language and of visual representation. Two observations come to mind: Lacan 's dictum that the unconscious has the structure of a language, and Wittgenstein's remarks that language has the functioning of a labyrinth, and that the limits of my world are the limits of my language. The opportunity of assailing the unconscious not through automatism, but via a linguistic/visual reflection, has guided these series of visual inquiries. Wittgenstein's remarks related to the following of rules provided me with a working method that structured the shapes of my thoughts, later put in visual terms. The resulting images have, at their core, the development of a labyrinth, and its de-representation through the expedient of the network.Closely related to the labyrinth are the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges ' works, that have inspired a myriad of literary and visual interpretations. In my images I take a closer (visual) look at the structure of some of his fictions by rendering in visual terms Borges' main verbal figure, that of the labyrinth. The series is built on an understanding of language's self-referential nature and paradoxes. The images reflect and emphasize the self-referential and incomplete nature of closed systems, be they linguistic or visual, calling attention to the ultimate failure of those systems to attain completion and consistency, and proclaiming in the process the ultimate undecidability of the systems themselves. Besides being an important literary prop, Borges' figure is also a mathematical representation of space, specifically, a topological space. The maze is but one of many topological figures that provide a bridge between the abstractions of geometry and the abstractions of the visual arts, placing side by side two systems of representation in a sort of muted dialogue.After taking the labyrinth as a point of reference, my images de-represent it, transforming it into something else. The "something else" that begins to make its presence felt is a network, a system of systems as it were, that competes with itself for space and, in the process, questions its own representation. In the images, the network is formed by contradicting itself, by foregrounding the space, by questioning the very relationships between foreground and background in a sort of all-over composition that has no clear limits in the shape of the canvas or paper surfaces. As if representing the forms of my own thinking, rather than the contents, the lines embody what can be take to be the transcription of a geometrical space and the workings of a linguistic system.Some of the images are constructed using masking tape and follow a series of helicoidal movements that lead to its completion at the core of the figure. These helicoidal movements, however, are not exact, nor the pieces of tape uniform. The tapes are discarded materials that were once part of other projects and paintings, and that in this series are attached to a paper support. The pieces of tape covered with paint are randomly selected to take part in the construction of the labyrinth figure. The pieces of tape have to articulate and negotiate amongst themselves a number of spatial, textural and chromatic components, while following a general blueprint. In this process the general direction of helicoidal movements is constantly questioned by the textures, colors, and values of the pieces of tape as well as by their placement in the general arrangement. These works, which served as a basis for the whole series, were later challenged, and the lines lost all resemblance of helicoidal patterns to take over the composition and to relate to each other in many, though not infinite, ways. The resulting images were combined and mixed using computer graphics programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, in renderings where the lines work together as backgrounds and foregrounds of one another. The use of computer graphics allowed for an exploration of the possibilities of extending the series into the virtual realm, with the possibility of later transferring or translating them into actual works, which in turn are again used to further extend the project. Gregory Ulmer's Applied Grammatology and The Case of Florida apply Derrida's critique of totalizing systems, such as language, to the visual realm and to the computer, specifically to the Internet environment. Taking Ulmer's comparison of printing press and its mode of thinking as related to the rational and the Freudian conscious or "ego" realm, and the computer technologies as related to the Freudian concept of the "Id" and the "unconscious," my use of computers explore the possibilities of articulating a visual environment in a Post-McLughan age. Through the translation of my images from conventional art-related forms, such as canvas and paper to computer-based graphics programs, I explore the images' possibilities of being translated, manipulated, adapted, and used in a computer-based environment. In a similar way as McLughan described the front page of the daily newspaper as the image of our printing-age imagination, I am interested in the artistic exploration of (computer-screen-oriented) language. The images acknowledge a number of predecessors. From Arte Povera they take the use of simple materials and methods, in a kind of "aesthetic primitivism" (Robert Goldwater's expression) with a personal touch. Among the individual artists referred to in these works I should mention, in the American scene, Barnett Newmann (especially his "Stations of the Cross"), Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Ad Reihnardt, Robert Ryman (and his whites), Brice Marden (panels as well as glyphs), Jasper Johns ' crosshatches, and Terry Winters. In a less obvious manner, these works also relate to the "spatial concepts" of the Italo-Argentinean Lucio Fontana, although whereas Fontana would take away from the support, I add to it by means of networking lines. Mario Sironi and his depictions of figures in secluded spaces, and his palette, provided guidance through some of the pieces. Morandi was a constant referent in matters of light and space, as was Ducmelic and his famous representations of Borgean universes. Argentinean painter Hlito and the movement known as "Sensitive Geometry" are also part of the paintings, as is the Uruguayan Joaquín Torres-García's concept of structure. The dislocated symmetries resemble those of Islamic decorations and architecture, especially as represented in Southern Spain and Northern Africa.The ongoing series appears to be but a segment of a potentially
infinite number of labyrinthical shapes and both, series and individual shapes, can be
read and interpreted on at least at two different levels. On the one hand, each individual
visual figure refers to the others in the series while, on the other hand, the grouping of
the images calls to mind semiotic systems constructed in the parallel
system of language. This two-level reading of the works makes possible to propose the
existence of a third interpretation or reading, one that views the series itself as a
closed system. This closed system forms what mathematicians would call a Strange Loop,
topological spaces-like figures which in visual terms proclaim the ultimate undecidability
of the system(s) it(them)self(ves). Painting to Yepes
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