Thought I would start off by reevaluating my last work to see how to develop it further. To continue my art in a way that explores me as a person, my emotions, my thoughts and tendecies.
My Veiled/Unveiled series at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3186773
My current work is mainly installation and photography based. In terms of installation based work, the subject matter is about me, my thoughts and understanding of the surroundings. My approach draws upon the idea of automatism and continuous streams of conscious thoughts as a form of expression. My interest in automatism stems in particular from Dali and the surrealists approach to it. An attempt at the following:
“Surrealism, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express – verbally, by means of the written word, or any other manner – the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” (Breton, ‘Manifesto of Surrealism’, p. 26)
The use of installation is so that the viewer can receive a greater sensory experience which reflects the thoughts and workings of my mind. The installation, entitled A Conversation With Myself, is text based and every brushstroke of ink is an attempt of replicating my thoughts both in their meaning and shape. The writing fluctuates in language; it switches between English, Spanish and Catalan. At times there is change in personality depending on the language I am thinking in at the moment I place the ink on the calico or paper.
The fascination with the languages I use to express the different types of thoughts and words is what drives my work forward in this medium.
Taken from the statement of my latest piece: ‘I find anxiety in everything I step into; in every stranger I engage and talk to. I prophesy my thoughts and torments in writing, so you don’t have to’.
In terms of photography it is another medium in which I can continue to explore the subject of automatism, the conscious and the unconscious. For the Veiled Unveiled there are two parts. The first part is the ‘Veil’, which is the screen that we put up as human beings to face the world around us. The second part is the ‘Unveiled’, which is the nature and repetition of thoughts, anxieties and torments.
The black and white photography is a continuation of the subject of automatism, and thoughts. However it is an attempt to illustrate it in sequence. The sequences draw inspiration and influence in particular from the photographer Robert Frank and specifically his work entitled ‘Hold Still – Keep Going’.
My more immediate influences are predominantly from the paintings of my grandfather Cesar Jesus Blanco and great uncle Nelson Blanco that hang on the walls of my house. They are artists who I have always looked up to and the ambition to be, particularly in the medium of painting and their approach to art.
