BODILY. RITUALS OF THE INFINITY
PRESENTATION
Buenas tardes. First of all, I would like to thank the organization of the TRESDË Conference, thanks to the Dionisio Ortiz School of Art and all the attendees for sharing this moment with me.
How many of you have made paper figures with origami and cutting and gluing pieces? When you are a child, who has not ever made a paper boat, a little doll, the kind of cutouts that were sold to build paper buildings. You will then have been able to perceive its fragile, non-durable nature of this material, the special care that must be taken to be able to handle it. In many cases its durability was only a few hours. That is a few of the expressive characteristics of the paper, among many others of course.
As an introductory summary, comment that in this presentation I will talk about how my work on Japanese paper emerged, its conceptual and emotional origins, and how drawing with Chinese ink was involved in all this. Also comment on the different series that I have made throughout my career. I will also raise questions about the value of the ephemeral and that are attributed in a special way to paper in Eastern cultures and that are opposed to ideas from our Western tradition, as well as some notes on the philosophical influences that permeate the work such as the Buddhism, Taoism, or Zen. I will talk about how I made the leap towards installation and spatial intervention approaches and how, again, to give that evolution the Chinese ink is present.
TITLE. The title I have chosen for this presentation is CORPORAL. RITUALS OF THE INFINITY.
The work that you are going to see has a strong component of presence as an object, the paper becomes a three-dimensional body and plays with the space, making its own many languages that are traditionally attributed to the sculptural tradition.
RITUAL. All this occurs through work processes that have a lot to do with a ritual based on very careful and laborious gestures.
It also has the character of a ritual due to a special attitude that occurs before starting to work on the work, during the process of making the work and afterwards once the work is finished. An attitude of great concentration that requires me to carry out each work, where I pay attention and awareness to each of the details of these stages.
Also the care in the selection of the materials that I am going to use is very important. The qualities and durability. The energy they give off. And the laborious nature has to do with that need for physical and manual contact with matter, that contact that is tactile and that summons me to a more primary form of human communication. When we are born it is through the skin and contact, the sense that initially communicates us with the world. Also for that repetitive and conscientious work and that is constant in all my work not only in the one made with Japanese paper, but also in drawing and painting.
VIEWER. When someone asks me about my Japanese paper work, in an informal, close environment, I generally try to answer in a simple way like something like this:
These are bas-reliefs or installations where I use a type of industrially manufactured Japanese paper, and through small cut-out pieces I form textures and undulations in the manner of abstract landscapes. The work aims to generate a sensory and aesthetic experience in the viewer.
SYNESTHESIA. For the viewer, the first impact is the textures, the velvety color, the tactile and the sculptural aspect of the approach despite being made with something as delicate as paper. It is an inviting exploration with the eyes, but the sense of touch also participates in a synesthetic way. By carefully exploring the surface of the work, you can discover the different densities of the paper, the modulations of the color tone, as well as the play of light and shadow.
The experience of my work with the viewer is of the utmost importance, because for me it is when the work occurs. My work, as I think most of those who are dedicated to this art, is not made to be kept, it is definitely made to be experienced. And which, without a doubt, is a first-person experience. The work really manifests itself when the viewer lives it.
SCULPTURE PAINTING. In any case, from the beginning, my work has been located on the border between painting and sculpture: a painting that goes beyond the flat surface or a sculpture that contracts at the limits of a painting.
REFERENTIAL ABSTRACTION. In my paper paintings, despite responding to a logic of growth that emanates from the work itself and that in that sense its origin can be considered abstract.
Stracto, they also find a correlation with systems external to it and organizations that occur in nature or in the cosmos, and that are fractal in nature. So my paintings can be framed in a referential line of abstraction.
MINIMALISM. The energy and the material quality of the paper together with the qualities of the various pigments that I use, where I also put in the forefront its physical qualities and ultimately its sculptural values, the apparent simplicity of its visual approach and the constant tendency to monochrome approaches, in that sense it is related to the American minimalist tradition.
MAXIMAL. The tendency I have to develop work processes where it demands a lot from me on a physical and mental level, where the work is built on the basis of an infinite repetition of units that overlap or overlap and that I take this process to cover the entire surface of the painting In that sense, it is related to Chinese maximalism and the tradition of abstract artists of the so-called YI School.
MONOCHROME. In my works I have renounced a display of a comatic variety. In that sense they are monochrome and the color is given by their sculptural and tactile qualities. These are velvety colors such as deep ultramarine blue, cadmium orange yellow, bluish or fallen black or the whites typical of paper.
For me, making monochrome work is an attempt to get away from a world of noise loaded with very disparate information. I seek a silent balance with my work. An attempt at concentration on a single color.
A viewer who is not very familiar with this type of approach can be repetitive and monotonous. But it is an invitation to attentive contemplation and to be able to perceive subtle variations that coexist between its movements and rhythms.
JAPANESE PAPER
Japanese paper is also known as washi paper, it has been made by hand throughout Japan since ancient times and its main characteristic is its enormous resistance to paper made with cellulose or rice paper. Due to the fact that in their manufacturing process, the natural fibers, after a cooking phase, are crushed with large hammers or wooden mallets, and not crushed, as happens with other types of paper. In this way, the fibers can maintain a length of up to 100mm, which gives washi its characteristic resistance. In Japan, you basically work with three fibers: kozo, ganpi, and mitsumata.
Its low acidity, as it is an acid-free paper in its artisan production, makes it a very stable paper, which remains unaltered for hundreds of years.
In 2004, Unesco declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity the techniques for making this material and the oral teaching tradition.
I am fascinated by the respect and the infinity of uses that in traditional Japanese culture is given to paper; from artisan and decorative uses to architectural applications to separate rooms. Paper in the West has been used as a support for writing, as well as a support for artistic techniques, among others, relegating its use to the background.
I am impressed by the wide variety of Japanese paper types out there, I think it would take more than one lifetime to thoroughly research each type of paper. The Japanese paper made by hand you can perceive in a very evident way the vegetable fibers that compose it. They can also have multicolored prints or incorporate gold leaf. These are papers with a great energy and personality charge that conditions any use that you want to make of it. The role itself speaks to us. In my works, it is necessary to use a more neutral type of paper, a type of industrial paper that contains a certain neutral and silent coldness, a silence from which it allows me to construct the poetry of the work more freely. .
PAPER AS MATERIAL. Japanese paper works are one third of my total work. Its importance in that sense is considerable.
Specifically, the type of paper that I have been using for many years is called Hosui. A type of Japanese paper made with bleached Manila hemp (or Abacá) pulp fiber, weighing 21 g. With this type of weight, it makes the paper remain translucent, allowing me to work with transparencies and at the same time sufficiently consistent to be able to make more three-dimensional approaches. This Japanese paper is industrially manufactured, it is also sold in rolls, it has a very uniform appearance and its texture is very regular.
This great resistance is given because the fibers of Manila hemp are long and very soft. The plant is of Asian origin and tropical countries. They are the leaves of the plant from which the fibers are obtained. They can be cooked in an alkaline medium and once defibrated, brown pulps are obtained that can be used alone or mixed, giving very originals. Supports pigment well. The paper that I use perfectly withstands wetting, so I can work them by immersing them or applying with a brush the dyes and pigments dissolved in water.
PAPER AS ENERGY. Talking about paper it is necessary for me to refer to its more ethereal and energetic quality. Paper is a derivative of the plant world. In its manufacturing process, water participates as an element that facilitates the dispersion of vegetable fibers, water is then closely related to paper. Paper is also leather as its smooth texture and thinness can be similar. I perceive a very feminine energy in it since this is a material that does not impose itself, adapts, sifts and is extremely sensitive to external factors. Due to its volatile capacity and extremely light weight, it can be easily moved by a blast of air in a movement that can evoke the mystical. The translucent character reinforces its ethereal lightness.
PAPER THROUGH CHINESE INK. Discover Japanese paper through Chinese ink. At that time I did not have many references of artists who worked on paper in a three-dimensional way beyond the tradition of origami, which by the way is of Chinese origin in the 1st or 2nd century and which later passed to Japan in the 6th century. (Heian period (794 to 1185 AD) and great diffusion in the Muromachi period (1338 to 1573 AD)). Another of the references he had were the ephemeral folkloric decorations of celebrations of our Andalusian culture.
At that time, I entered a creative “crisis” in which I went from enjoying painting and drawing from life a lot (which I was not bad at) to feeling a tremendous rejection of it. Reading about Zen philosophy I discovered that the monks used the washes of Chinese ink to make landscapes or vegetal, anthropomorphic or zoomorphic forms, but looking for their internal essence, that resulted in drawings with a very high level of abstraction. That fascinated and seduced me. It had nothing to do with the American abstraction he had studied. I had to do something with India ink to find that essence of things and the reality that surrounds me and it also helped me to release the brakes that I had within me. Practice a lot, with uneven results. Until I began to look at the qualities of the papers I used. That opened a world of possibilities for me by discovering the infinite expressive capacities that the role itself has. I worked with many types of papers and I cut it, doubled it, burned it, impregnated it… .etc. Until I found a type of paper that perfectly suited my creative needs, very neutral in appearance and which is the one I currently use.
PREPARATION WITH PAPER. To make my paintings I use paper units that I repeat in different directions and sizes. These basic elements can be in the form of “scales” of “leaves” or “strips”, and with them I create a textured surface that produces different effects depending on its direction and size.
KNOWLEDGE OF THE TECHNIQUE. As for the development of any artistic technique, it requires a lot of knowledge and skill to be able to manipulate it. Throughout my research with this material, I have developed cutting, folding and gluing formulas that adapt precisely to the initial idea of the work. Each frame requires different resolution formulas; That is why once the traditional techniques are known, it is necessary that independently, in each frame, the final result can be solved.
PROCESSES. The work processes that I follow, despite being very careful, also contain a certain component of randomness, which, as John Cage gave, is a controlled randomness, where the stages of development and growth seek a free “naturalness”.
Sometimes I make an initial approach, an idea or intention that articulates all the paintings and determines the general guidelines for composition, rhythms, textures, etc … but it is not a closed guideline. As the work grows, it is sometimes transmuted into other ways. For me, the work process is a journey in which you find unexpected things, details and small surprises that you did not initially have and that can be incorporated into the work, enriching its final result.
The tools can be scissors of all sizes and shapes to cut straight or curved lines, heat guns to inject the adhesive onto the paper, surgeon’s scalpels with different types of blades, tweezers … etc.
The supports are board on a treated phenolic wood frame, covered with canvas fabric with gesso primer. I cover the support with several layers of synthetic resin primer and pigment to achieve a uniform color. And the conservation system that I use to protect the work is the hermetically closed methacrylate urn, in this way I preserve the work from changes in temperature or humidity.
INFINITE.
My work in general, not only in the work of paper, but also in the rest of my works of drawing or painting, I pursue a unity of the whole as a constant, and its plastic elements are related as a rhizomatic or fractal scheme, interconnecting and overlapping, but always maintaining the same value. Each of the elements of the composition acts within the same unit creating a great set, which in turn could be part of a larger set.
It is a metaphor for infinity, since the work can continue to expand infinitely, with infinite interpretations and infinite possibilities.
STATE OF MIND. TEMPO.
My process generates cycles of creation and work that repeat and describe a temporal space, and also a mental one, reflected in the final pieces. This cycle could describe a spiral rhythm. For me it is a way of connecting with the cyclical rhythms of the Universe.
-Maybe all this could find parallels with the “Books of Hours”. A kind of diary that organizes different liturgical rites and prayers in a daily, monthly and annual cycle that in some way represents a formula for the organization and temporal management of human behavior, integrated in a cycle analogous to that of the microcosmic and macrocosmic world.
-In that sense, I was very inspired by that idea that comes from the neo-confused Chinese tradition that talks about the philosophical idea of Symmetry “Li”, and that talks about the underlying reason and the patterns that are generated in nature by the “growth in progress “and” the passage of time “and that for me are wonderful generators of forms in the natural order.
When I am making my pieces of paper, it is not only my hands that create the work, it is also time that is shaping it. Talking about time, and rather long times in a social context where it is precisely time that is lacking due to the rush of the frenetic pace, can be almost an anachronism.
OF THE TRANSITORY AND THE EPHEMERAL. I became interested in eastern philosophical traditions very early, such as Taoism and Confucianism, initially attracted by their exoticism, and later as a need to seek other ways of relating to the world. This began to resonate with me and I began to find ideas that somehow provided answers to transcendental personal concerns that I did not find in Western cultural and philosophical principles. I read about Japanese Zen Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism and realized that my way of working was closely related to that way of spiritual development.
EPHEMERAL. To this is added the delicate and ephemeral character of paper, values that somehow clashed with the concept of permanence and durability traditionally highly valued in our culture.
My initial training was in a workshop and art in bran, this allowed me to contact numerous artists from the Academy of Seville who made their sculptures there. Many sculptures for public spaces were also cast. The classic concept of sculpture has to do with the permanence of memory and with the idea of gravity that confers an aura of extra quality to the work. That concept of permanence that I had very internalized, collided the moment I began to read about Buddhist philosophy and Zen that speaks of the transitory reality of things. For the Japanese, paper represents one of the maxims of Zen philosophy that says that everything changes, nothing is permanent.
I wanted to get away from the traditional idea of sculpture and began to explore other possibilities. I made pieces with wood that consisted of an infinity of sticks where each of them were in perfect balance through the tip of a needle. This meant that the piece could be disassembled by the minimum friction or by a sudden blast of air. In this context, which was looking for this idea of the ephemeral, the easy balance to destabilize the delicate, the light or the lacking gravity, it was when my first works with Japanese paper emerged.