DECK CHAIRS SERIES, PAINTING

With this series of paintings I am marking my return to painting (intensively, I mean, since I had never stop painting as such).
These paintings have been influenced by the several years I have spent drawing, with charcoal and pencil, exploring nature, concretely, the urban nature of my natal city: Caracas, Venezuela.
The paintings that came before the drawings (and without these paintings there would not be any drawings), explored the painterly qualities of camouflage, as the landscape soldiers dress with. From painting uniforms I went to the landscape behind the soldiers, where they hide (with a great sense of the use and feel for the material, oil and waxy media, as Philip Guston).
I took me 3 years to develop the ATC series of drawings, charcoal and pencil. During this time I continued painting yet the formats were small, oval or circular, and concentrating on the more intimate and delicate images from my photo archive: flowers. These I consider to be camouflage studies, for utopian friendly soldiers, whose uniforms would inspire trust and take away the implication of the army's institutionalised violence.
These paintings were in acrylic, used almost like a watercolour, with transparencies. There were flat, with hardly any texture.

STUDY CAMOUFLAGE ROSE HIBISCUS ON BUSH No 2. 2013. Acrylic on canvas board. 40 x 30 cm

There was an element that appear quite often in my photo archive: deck chairs.  I recognised them as a symbol, a possible compositional element , with its whiteness and geometry and man-made quality. Benches, as deck chairs and tables, in my drawings were also used as elements to reminds us of the plants size, as to emphasise the overwhelming qualities of their growing cycle.

In my archive, there was also another element that appear always that I incorporated in my ATC drawings:  architectural elements, that put into context the monster-like plants.
In my large format drawing, furniture and architecture elements were left as white areas in the complex compositions.

Towards the end of 2014 I unrolled a large canvas (245 x 220 cm)  that I had intended for TROPICO CAMUFLADO, but never made it. 

It became DECK CHAIRS SERIES No 1. 2015. Oil on canvas, not stretcher. 245 x 220 cm. Hangs from a pole at the top.

I tried then to put into practice, in my painting, what I had learned from my drawings. In came a realistic approach towards the nature elements used in the composition, while furniture and architectural element acquired a symbolic status. The architectural archway-like structure make it almost like a old-fashioned photographic backdrop, its fictional qualities enhanced by the lack of stretcher, leaving the canvas irregular and loose on the bottom. The life-size deckchair, draw in such an angle that plays with the illusion of its availability for a minute's rest. It becomes an installation, quoting Las Meninas effect, drawing you in, playing at being an installation. Deck chairs became symbols of human presence and occupation, white and sterile contrast to a  green luscious mass. 

The paintings that followed were of different sizes, and considerable smaller. 

DECK CHAIR SERIES No 2. 2015. Oil on canvas, MDF shelf. 43 x 35 cm

DECK CHAIRS SERIES No 3. 2015. Oil on canvas board, wooden shelf. 29 x 61 x 9.5 cm. Private collection, Madrid, Spain.

With these two small paintings I managed to incorporated the use of white shapes as effective compositional elements, while letting all the lusciousness of the urban jungle come through. The white came for merging architectural and furnishing elements that became untouched areas, masked during the process in order to preserve as much of the canvas whiteness as possible. Also, with these paintings,  came the need to made them more objects that just bi-dimensional images, trying to elevating them to a sculptural level, while reconciling my very own need to incorporate sculpture into my work. I have to mention the difficulty that I had for years to paint on stretched canvases , square or rectangular. These small canvas and canvas board laid  in my studio for many years before I finally understood how to use these formats, to my satisfaction.

DECK CHAIR SERIES No 4. 2015. Oil on canvas. 76 x 152 cm

It was finalist in the Connect2Colour  competition, during Summer  2015 at Lacey Contemporary Gallery.

RENATA FERNANDEZ
SERIES ATC PENCIL

Renata Fernandez. ATC Pencil A3.1. 2014.
Pencil on paper  180 gr. 36 x 49 cm

  The Series ‘ATC Pencil’ is preceded by my series of large format charcoal drawings, also called ATC. The big charcoal drawings are about tropical vegetation. My paintings on camouflage (2008 -  ) gave way to my need for registering flora, as I went from exploring camouflage's painterly qualities (as  the landscape that covers the soldier), to paint the landscape where the soldier hides. A trip to my birthplace, Venezuela, allowed to re-connect and rediscover the biodiversity of such place, not needing to go to far from the urban context of Caracas, my city.

Renata Fernandez. ATC Pencil A3.2. 2014.
Pencil on paper  180 gr. 36 x 49 cm

A subsequent trip to Venezuela coincided with an invitation to have a solo show in Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela. The first 14 large format charcoal drawings (of a total of 25, so far) were the main body of work of TROPICO CAMUFLADO (October 2013 – March 2014). It took me over 2 years to develop it as a series, and they are the result of the appropriation of images of the tropical urban jungle of Caracas, and a reflection on the engineering, life cycle a geometry of the overwhelming nature.

Renata Fernandez. ATC Pencil A3.3. 2014.
Pencil on paper  180 gr. 36 x 49 cm

The first bulk of images that were later to be used as reference, come from a series of afternoons spent on Altamira Tennis Club (ATC). This images were taken not only by me, but by those around me whom I asked to lend me their eyes and their vision in order to register for me the vegetation around us. I was also, marvelled to be among these monster-like creatures, a quality I used to give them as a child: leaves that are bigger than a child, hanging roots that envelop all around and creep all over...

Renata Fernandez. ATC Pencil A3.4. 2014. Pencil on paper  180 gr. 36 x 49 cm

On subsequent trips to Venezuela I continued to add on to my images archive of urban tropical nature, which I called ATC. After exploring charcoal, and relearning to use it,  I also then had the need to explore another humble technique: the pencil, using my archive of photographs. I have to mention the artist Michael Landy work as inspiration for exploring the possibilities of lineal drawing. As an admirer of Landy, I was mesmerised by the series of lineal works depicting single weeds. By registering delicately these small and common plants of the urban environment, Landy added a great deal of poetry while observing, and revealing to us, their intricate design. 
With this new series, pencil on paper, comes the exploration and developing of intricate drawings that allows for a higher level of observation of these structures, the plants from the urban jungle (the complete opposite of Landy's small weeds, but equally common for those living there) a more intimate looking and understanding their growing cycle,  geometry and  engineering.

TROPICO CAMUFLADO, MUSEO ALEJANDRO OTERO, OCTUBRE 2013, FEBRERO 2014

TROPICO CAMUFLADO
Individual de Renata Fernandez en el Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas Venezuela. Curador y productor, Manuel Sanmartin.

La exposicion inauguro el domingo 13 de octubre de 2013, y fue muy concurrida. Lo primero que el publico ve es la intervencion de la fachada, titulada "El Dia de los Trifidos". Estas gigantografias, una obra en conjunto entre el curador Sanmartin y yo misma, son versiones de 4 dibujos de la serie ATC presentes en la sala, ocupan 4 nichos de la fachada este del museo, cada uno midiendo 10 metros de alto por 7.6 metros de ancho. Esta intervencion fue posible gracias al patrocinio de Iberoamericana de Seguros.

--> Al entrar a la sala, el público se encuentra con 14 dibujos de gran formato que forman un mural, la serie ATC, cada uno mide 193 x 117 cm. Cada dibujo muestra una planta o aspecto de una o varias plantas de nuestra jungla urbana caraqueña, y en su aparente virtuosismo traen de la mano una amenaza velada. Los dibujos son una metáfora, de aquello que nos rodea y nos seduce con su exuberancia, pero nos amenaza constantemente con tragarlo todo, de tomar el control.Las obras presentes en la sala 6 del Museo Alejandro Otero sintetizan un proceso en mi obra que comprende los últimos 10 años. Todo arranca con una foto invertida de un soldado británico en avanzada los primeros días de la invasión a Irak. La repetición de este motivo por un año, que su arma atravesada parece una cruz invertida, me llevó a voltearlo un día y conectarme con la humanidad del victimario de la violencia organizada de un ejercito profesional. Esta conección me llevó a concentrarme en su uniforme de paisaje, con el camuflaje y sus cualidades pictóricas intrínsecas, lo cual me llevo a tropezarme con otras imágenes de la prensa internacional de otros tantos soldados en los numerosos conflictos bélicos. Del paisaje en su vestimenta, pase al paisaje que los esconde, para terminar desechando a los soldados eventualmente y quedarme con el paisaje, yo, que el único paisaje que alguna vez me interesara fuera el del concreto de la urbe.
Justo en este momento en mi proceso creativo surge la invitación a exponer en el Museo Alejandro Otero. Coincide también con el hecho que tuve la necesidad de refrescar mi imaginario, y sentía que debía documentar la flora urbana caraqueña (opuesto a la flora bella pero predecible de los numerosos parques londinenses, lugar donde resido desde hace unos cuantos años).

Y así arranca la serie ATC, con las medidas exactas para usar el ventanal interno de la sala 6 del MAO como marcos. 14 dibujos de una serie que aun continua haciéndose. Hago uso de la técnica más humilde, el carboncillo y el borrador, para desenmarañar el amasijo de las plantas que ocupan las islas de las autopistas, los jardines públicos o privados. Blanco y negro para obligar al público a ver lo mas conspicuo de su paisaje urbano, ausencia de color para y virtuosismo aparente para introducir un elemento de incomodo, dramático, donde la arquitectura presente o los objetos vecinos se sugieren, no se terminan, para mostrar escala, para recodarnos que los dibujos son una metáfora.

A continuación me permito copiar el texto de sala, escrito por Colin Smith, pintor, profesor y editor escritor de la revista Turps Banana.


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"En la obra de Renata Fernández, el aparente realismo que se nos presenta existe primariamente para ocultar una verdad más profunda. O paradójicamente, un significado que se sugiere o se revela, pero que no se nos ha permitido ver.

En Europa Occidental la preconcepción mas común del cuerpo cultural que emerge de América Latina esta probablemente relacionada al realismo mágico. Éste puede describirse vagamente como un proceso esencialmente narrativo, que evoca a la realidad pero incluye elementos innaturales o fantásticos. Matthew Strecher define al realismo mágico como “algo que sucede cuando un entorno realista muy detallado y realista es invadido por algún elemento demasiado extraño como para creerlo posible”. 

Hasta cierto punto la obra de Fernández cumple, pero difiere de ésta en el hecho que no es una obra alegórica sino metafórica. Ella no está contándonos historias. El concepto de ‘Camuflaje’ – lo que es, por qué existe, y para qué es usado principalmente, son explorados y explotados de una manera desafiante. Es una metáfora extendida, que ella usa repetitivamente. Como cualquier tipo de manifestación militar puede ser usado tanto defensiva como agresivamente. Es en esencia una forma de mentir, que intenta convencernos que algo que está ahí,  no esta ahí.

 

En este sentido, las obras gráficas recientes de gran formato constituyen un ejemplo en este sentido. A primera vista estas piezas trabajadas de una manera tan fuerte e intrincada parecen muy directas en su planteamiento. Son muy hermosas y han sido realizadas con gran concentración  y con una técnica muy exigente en el confinado estudio de Fernández en el sur de Londres. Estas obras difieren de la fotografía de la que derivan en el drama creado por el uso solo de blancos, negros y grises, y por la evidencia intensa de un proceso, en el cual la manufactura a mano añade cierta tensión, cierta incomodidad.

 

Sus pinturas tienen una metodología similar, excepto que  van más allá del ‘realismo’que se ha apropiado de la referencia fotográfica, y hacen uso de algunos de los tropos recientes del lenguaje pictórico mismo. La manera como ella manipula la pintura hace uso de la idea modernista de la verdad del lenguaje. A lo que me refiero con esto simplemente es que la pintura siempre parece pintura. Las marcas del pincel son claramente visibles y sin embargo permite romper también con una lectura obvia de la imagen, tal y como lo hace el camuflaje. De esta manera la metáfora se extiende de una manera consciente e ingeniosa. La calidad de la pintura nos seduce no solo a través del color sino también a través de la ejecución visceral.

Tanto los dibujos como las pinturas combinan el sentido poético que algo yace mas allá de lo que vemos, algo intangible y definitivamente hostil. No obstante todo parece estar bien en la superficie. Estamos en el trópico, las plantas y hojas son hermosas, estamos en paraíso – que mal podría acontecer?

Esta es la manera como el mejor Arte funciona con frecuencia, exigiendo que la audiencia haga parte del trabajo. Evocando cosas que se parecen a cosas que ya conocemos, pero para las cuales aún no hemos encontrado la frase o imagen.

Hay otra metáfora extendida de las estructuras que asemejan celdas usadas tanto en la escultura tridimensional como en la presentación de los dibujos. De nuevo en la escultura vemos una combinación de imágenes representativas tanto de la naturaleza como los aspectos mas siniestros de la maquinaria o la actuación militares. Cada bloque o celda contiene un escenario pequeño independiente de los otros, y sin embargo están vinculados como si fueran los edificios de apartamentos modernos o los barrios de los menos afortunados. No hay manera de escapar y poner distancia a lo que aquí se nos presenta, debemos confrontarlo. Otras celdas son de sosiego y calma, abstraídos de lo que acontece a su alrededor, y por ende más vulnerables a la invasión o violación. De nuevo la falta de color en la obra escultórica sirve al mismo tiempo tanto para dramatizar como para crear una unidad formal entre las celdas.

La obra de Fernández en toda sus expresiones como objetos, pinturas y dibujos tiene unidad y convección. Sus implicaciones  y acepciones pueden aplicarse a una situación especifica, o puede tomarse universalmente. Ésta es una de sus muchas fortitudes."

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Colin Smith,   Cadaques 2013

Pintor

Colin Smith M.A.( Royal College of Art)
Harness Fellow de la Universidad de Yale

Editor Asistente y escritor de la Revista Turps Banana, Londres, Reino Unido. Revista epecializada en pintura.

Tutor del programa de pintura de Turps Banana

Profesor Loughborough University. Petterborough. Reino Unido

Vive y trabaja entre el Reino Unido y España

CLUSTER II on SW1 Gallery

On Tuesday October 23rd 2012 opens CLUSTER II in SW1 Gallery (http://www.sw1gallery.co.uk), a group show with Brazilian, Argentine, Venezuelan, Colombian, Mexican and British artists, exhibiting in the second in a series of exciting mixed media shows in London.

I am in the same room with Kate Bradbury, Rodrigo Souto Bueno, Christopher Campbell, Geoff Diego Litherland, Graham Carrick, Daniel Medina, Marcus Cope, Mauricio Fallini, Dominic Hawgood,  Garry Hunter, Cipriano Martinez, Stephanie Moran, Gustavo Ortiz, Emily Wilcox, Adolfo Perez, Clare Price, Manuel Sanmartin, Lucietta Williams and Esteban Peña.

This collective is being curated by Mas Civiles Manuel Sanmartin and Graham Carrick, together with  Fitzrovia Noir’s Garry Hunter, Westminster Arts and the SW1 Gallery.

As I m writing this blog, trying to have it ready for the Private View on Wednesday October 24th 2012, the show is all ready: all work hung, all the sculptures set and the floor scrubbed. It looks good. I am proud to have been invited.

Sanmartin (http://www.masciviles.com) and Carrick work very well together, they know how to hang a show. I like curators that have a natural talent for creating a dynamic dialogue among diverse works of art. And they do it so smoothly, no dramas, just the mandatory bucket of coffee and the bacon sandwich.
 

Owen Ward, artist and director of the gallery, is amazing and such good sport, with that essential good eye for positioning work. I can see why he is at the front of this elegant space.

On this occasion I am showing an old favorite (of mine at least), my velvet soldier from 2005-07, which I have shown at least in 5 other occasions. I said is a favorite work of mine because is still a seminalt work in my creative process. Here it is, in the best shot I had been able to take of it (with Owen passing by, handy to show the scale). It looks stunning, the space does it justice, at last!

But I am very excited for the other work also. They are 23 individual plaster sculptures, that I started making 2 months ago.  The making was really intense and difficult, a constant fight with the technique. I had to learn as I went along, so the first pieces are extremely fragile, while the rest got stronger as I proceeded.

People keep asking how I made them. And I respond that is good I am making a video that hopefully will shed some light over the process.

These pieces are in all sense the continuation of my very first sculptures, the ones I made in the art school that I call concrete paintings. These later pieces are the better, more sophisticated version of those first sculptures.

How do I start? I use a wooden mold / frame, 13 cm depth . This mold goes on the floor on  top of a protective material. Inside this frame I made a composition using clay and toys. I trap the toys in the clay, half way in the clay, in order to trap them with the plaster once I pour it in. This composition is a negative of the final result. I sealed  the edges of the bottom of the frame using decorators caulk, so the liquid plaster wont escape when I pour it in. I prepare the plaster and add 1 part of white Portland concrete, in the hope it makes the pieces a bit stronger. I pour the mix in and let it dry.

The next day, depending of the weather, I take the frame off and turn this white box of plaster over, upside down. What I have them is a blotch of clay in the middle of a box of plaster. I proceed to take the clay out, taking great care to trying to remember what toy was where, so I don't break them o pull them out accidentally. I wash the piece and clean as much as I can. Another day, once is a bit dryer, I look a this hole or holes left by the clay and proceed to try to make sense, geometrically speaking, of this cavities. I carve using a  small chisel, sometimes I hammer a bit but most of the time I use the chisel pushing with my hands. As I carve there is inevitably a sense of a archeological excavation of sorts, or the shaping of a house, making door frames, windows, portals and arches that themselves frame the toys. The toys appear to be in a permanent confrontation, which each other, with themselves.

I sand the pieces and use filler to make the surface very smooth, and undercoat the toys, and spray-paint all using masonry paint. And more often than not, the sculpture breaks here and there, and I try to incorporate the breakage into the final product, transforming the accident into intention, since I know once the all pieces are all together, these unespected cavities will create negative spaces very valuable to the whole composition.

In order to show all the pieces I had to literally play with them as building bricks, taking the time to find out which combination works better. The images show only the composition that receives the public in the gallery. But there are sculptures also on the other side, like a double brick wall.

  
I decided to add some more text to this blog, after had lived through the Private View. I want to register the public reaction towards these new sculptures of mine. As they were positioned right by the door of the gallery, they received the public when they enter the space. More often than not, people feel compelled to approach the small wall of sculptures and, since they are quite low, almost on the floor, people also kneel and express great curiosity (I think) towards the detail of the pieces. They don't know there are toys in these sculptures, I guess, not at first glance, and some think all has been cast in plaster or else. They are technically very intriguing. The people then move around, usually "reading" the group right to left, and continue to inspect the composition at the back, which contains less pieces.

I had he opportunity to talk with some members of the public, puzzled as they were about technique and intention behind the sculptures. Since I usually shy away from revealing too much of what lies beneath of what I do, i do concentrate on talking about the technique, which in this case, has provoke  a lot of questions. But then I realized that as I was on the floor with members of the public, they became playful, recognizing the toys they used to play with. They connected with my own time playing with the toys while I was doing the compositions with clay. I realized that my playfulness came through and reverberated even in the gallery.

Sculpteurs et Jardin, Brussels, à Hanzinelle

‘Sculpteurs et Jardin’ ran from May 28^th to June 5^th, on the ground of Hanzinelle, a 18^th century chateau 1 hour from Brussels.

The members of the Hayez-Ijak family organized this event, who are themselves contemporary art collectors. The event did show great sensibility towards displaying the work on show on the grounds, and looked professional, beautiful and perfectly organized. Any profit of any sales was destined to the foundation Sanaa Sasa, in collaboration with En Avant des Enfants, that works for orphans in Congo.

I was pleasantly impressed walking around the grounds, enjoying not only the carefully kept gardens and meadows,

but encountering high level of work.

Starting in the barn where indoor work was located

(works by Olivier LELOUP, Philippe BRODZKI and myself, sculptures and large format drawings),

the walk continued around the pond towards the chateau where several metal works were located (Philippe BRODZKI, Catherine FRANCOIS and Kinga et Anatoly STOLNIKOFF)

Leaving behind the chateau, there were a few small bronzes by Bernard HAUREZ in the ziggurat, and sitting perfectly in the smallest pond was a big piece by

Odeaubois.

By the edge of the pond, a devil like figure by Jean-Claude SAUDOYEZ

lead to an installation of several other figures.

Walking towards the green house, hanging from several trees, mushrooms

like structures by Elodie ANTOINE. In the glassless green house, there was an installation by Jean – Guy CLOSSET that celebrated

the importance of the chateau as a forge mill; a inconspicuous garden shed housed a rather surprising and refreshing installation by Dominique Ijak.

Coming back towards the edge of the pond, a series of works by Marianne LEMAIRE and Florence FRESON, in blue stone favoured in Belgium, and slate, lead to metal pieces by Christina JÉKEY that hang from trees or were placed on the floor.

The walk continued towards the works by Rose-Marie WARZEE that emerged from the meadows, and took us to small to medium scale pieces by Jean MORETTE. After that, with the chateau across the pond, works by the late Nic JOOSEN were scattered on the largest area available. Which was more than appropriate given the monumental scale of these pieces, whose negatives space framed the landscape around them.

The ‘tour’ as such, ended with bronzes by Félix ROULIN, a very popular Belgium artist who is very present in many squares around Belgium.

Overall, one could feel the sensibility that informed the placement of each one of the works included in this event. Or appreciate the efficiency of the organizers, and Jacques’ well-honed marketing skills behind all. I am certainly grateful and honoured to have been invited to participate.

As I am writing this, the very day of the closure, I don’t know how the Hayez-Ijak evaluate the experience, or if there are any planes to repeat the event somehow. Could we hope for a biennial?

Intervention Art Trail / Fitzrovia Noir

http://www.fitzrovianoir.com

Fitzrovia Noir Art Intervention Trail (http://www.fitzrovianoir.com), was launched on April 2^nd and finished with Easter.

What was it? Art by 22 artists was placed in shops, pubs, houses and on the very street on Fitzrovia, central London, to form a trial that was more like an art treasure hunt: it started on Westminster University (with my piece) on Wells Street and finished on Percy Street. with Paul Snowdown.

As treasures hunt go, this one was great fun, and the art was very very good most of the time (only very few pieces made me question the effort and we only missed or couldn't locate 3 works).

As we started with my piece and the mandatory photographic session, we followed the map of the trial: the first work must mention was Angus Ogilve’s, that made us realize we were in a arty treasure hunt. Finding it was tricky but worth it. You can see the images in http://www.fitzrovianoir.com/page3.htm.

Garry Hunter’s photo in the designer furniture shop was perfectly located, even matching the colour scheme…I must mention also Lucy Williams photographs inside a café in Charlotte Street, or the absolutely wonderful miniature chewing gum paintings along Tottenham Street by appropriately named Chewing Gum Man. Or try to find Gustavo Ortiz’ small sculpture inside a pub, or his other piece and that of Manuel Sanmartin in Pollocks Toy Museum, or Valerie Joseph’s poetry along Scala Street. or really enjoy viewing Daisy Richardson videos in probably the most appropriate location: the window shop of a video shop…

That was another treat; to discover Fitzrovia (the very central part of London) and , for me, unknown magic places such a Pollocks Toy Museum. For £5 one can tour this miniature museum and marvel at its collection.

I understand this is a biannual event and, if this year comprised 22 artists, I think the curators/artists of Fitzrovia Noir are planning to double the participants artists and shops/locations