RODR IGO HERNÁNDEZ
What is the moon? - Sketch for the installation
2014
mixed media on paper, 21 × 30 cm
What is the moon?
2014
installation, Bonnefantenmuseum
What is the moon?
2014
installation, Bonnefantenmuseum
What is the moon?
2014
crystal-clear polyurethane
What is the moon?
2014
crystal-clear polyurethane
The silver cord
2014
Oil on wood, 30 × 25 cm
Las últimas horas
2014
oil on wood, 30 × 25 cm
What is the moon?
2014
técnica mixta sobre papel, 42 × 29,7 cm
What is the moon?
This is the most recent presentation of a cycle of projects reflecting on the writings of the Belgian painter René Magritte.
In the particular case of ‘What is the moon?’, the installation draws inspiration from one of the paragraphs of “Les mots et les Images” (The words and the images), a text that first appeared in the periodical La Revolution Surrealiste in 1929:
“The borders of objects in reality touch each other
as if forming a mosaic”
Along with the installation, a publication has been released including contributions by artists, writers and curators who were invited to submit a text or image free of any formal provision. These contributions are presented in dialogue with my own drawings, stories, dreams, sketches for sculptures and collected quotes. The thread connecting these different fragments is elusive and demands a certain playful willingness from the reader. The result is a composition of words and images that explores concepts such as perception, authorship, message, imagination, ambiguity and representation; close to the ventures of Dada publishing experiments.
What is the moon?
Publication
Edited by Rodrigo HernándezDesign by Santiago da Si lva
Publ ished byBOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE
Foldout publ ication with 4 pp. 198 x 280 mm (folded), 380 x 560 mm (unfolded), Risograph print, Edit ion of 500
Con texts and contributions from:Paula van den BoschTaocheng WangAbraham Cruzvi l legasRené DaniëlsEmil iano ValdésKenya HaraThomas GeigerDaniel Garza UsabiagaAna NavasOlivia DunbarRené MagritteJo-ey TangRita Ponce de León
hi tao! do you
know what this
stands for?
hi rodrigo,
this looks
tricky. I don’t
understand because
it mixes "wind" and
‘rag’ together.
RA
IHA
N
Higher E
ducationO
h, how em
barrassing! I am w
earing both contacts on the sam
e eye!
Spring D
anceP
ersonally, I hate to dance.
Slum
ber Party
Well�
well I’m
sorry for not having more problem
s! B
ut I plan to.
It’s Only a T
estY
ou are pretty cute without your glasses on.
The G
entle Art of L
isteningO
urs is not to reason why. O
urs is but listen and try not to cry.
Hom
e Again
There’s so m
uch that we haven’t done.
I thought we’ve done everything.
I didn’t mean that. I m
ean like�
well, I haven’t even taken you
to my favorite surf shop, or to check out m
y favorite band.
TH
E META
PHO
R O
F TH
E SPIDER
In the Bhad
rayaka U
panishad there is the metaphor of a
spider sitting at the center of its web, issuing and reabsorbing
its threads in concentric circles, all held at one point. This im
-
age occurs in several Upanishads since it points to the basics
of the Indian world-view
: unity in diversity. The spider’s threads
symm
etrically expand into a visible circumference, and though
there are divergent lines in between and varying distances
to be spanned they can all be traced back to the central point
of the web.
The yantra is a dynam
ic symbol w
hich reflects the same
three metaphysical concepts em
braced in the analogy of the
spider. A
geometrical
figure gradually
growing
away
from
or towards its center, in stages, until its expansion or con-
traction is complete, the yantra has around its center several
concentric figures
which
continue to
expand or
contract
as precisely as a spider’s web, not only as bridges betw
een
different planes, but also as symbols of unfolding or gather-
ing energies. The figure’s periphery is a square enclosure w
ith
four doors
opening tow
ards the
four cardinal
directions.
The concentric lines of the yantra define its volum
e and cre-
ate rhythmic unity, relating w
hat they unite or divide to the
center, the point of integration.
Un zorro viene caminando por la
calle y se tropieza con un perro.
Le dice: “I’m sorry” Y el perro le
responde: “I’m Perry”
An object can make one think there
are others behind it:
The visible contours of objects
in reality touch each other as if
forming a mosaic:
A content could be expressed through
the action or its result: “writer”
could be represented by a hand
holding the writing instrument or
with the drawing it makes:
Why have people come to favor
rectangular forms? One possibility
is the fact that if we break a big
leafy object into two pieces using
our two hands, we get a straight
line, while a second break results
in a right angle:
1)
2
1
4
5
8
Screen Shot 2014-07-28 at 2.01.51 PM
the gaps that fill a dreamless sleep.
expand against a supple gaze.
the softened ground situtates.
the dazed expression of memory.
to be weighted like clouds.
to name every rotation would take so much time.
that nobody has.
like I do.
6
7
2
René Daniëls, Untitled (Two ‘I’s
Fighting over one Point), 1982,
collection Bonnefantenmuseum,
Maastricht
DEAR Rodrigo
Thinking quietly about DUTCH FLAT THINGS
IMAGINARY MOVEMENT
WHAT IS THE MOON
Piet Mondriaan LAYING OUT Victory Boogie Woogie
Colored tape provisionally LAID DOWN during the phase
of RETHINKING
Forever opening up to
MULTIPLICITY
VIBRATING geometry
“It is now known that
the world is not FLAT,
but SPHERICAL”
Hilma af Klint seeing
the INVISIBLE
MOON on the water
Metaphysical MAN
Like a make-believe bird hanging in
a make-believe sky, I see the room
from above. I enlarge the view, pull
back, and survey the whole, then
zoom in to enlarge the details.
3
7
Danton
2014
rice paper, wood, china ink, other materials, 188 × 145 cms
Spettacolo
2014
rice paper, wood, ink, other materials, 72 × 40 cms
Maxcanú
2014
crystal-clear polyurethane, 55 ×35 cms
Sometimes something happens
2014
installation, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam
The dial of a watch is also said to be its face
2014
paper, ink, wood / paper, lack / paper, plaster, wood-powder
Sentimental reasoning
2014
tempera and golden leaf on wood, 32 × 25 cm
Looking forward is also looking back
2014
oil on canvas, diptych: 24 × 30 cm each
Dutch Flat Things
2014
installation, Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie
Dutch Flat Things
2014
installation Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie
Dutch Flat Things
2014
installation, Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie
Dutch Flat Things
2014
one-off, cardboard, paint, 8 small objects
14.8 × 21 × 2 cm
Maastricht Thinking Diagram #1
2014
técnica mixta sobre papel, 23,5 × 29,7 cm
A Sense of Possibil ity
2013
installation, Weingrüll , Karlsruhe
A Sense of PossibilityRoos Gortzak
- Is your work about ‘mariachi’?- How do you mean ‘mariachi’?- You know this thing filled with sweets that you are supposed to break open with a stick?- Ah, you mean a piñata...
It’s Sunday night and I am with Rodrigo in the gallery. We are not having this conversation, he tells me about it. It was an exchange he recently had with another Dutch woman, a fellow research artist at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. It reminds me of the interview Marcel Broodthaers had with a cat in 1970, which starts as follows:
- Est-ce que c’est un bon tableau celui-là, qui correspond à ce que vous attendez de cette transformation toute récente qui va du Conceptual Art à cette nouvelle version d’une certaine figuration pourrait-on dire?- Miaou.- Vous croyez?- Miaaaaauoaaaauo, miaaaaauo, miaaaou.
It is not the content that made me think of it but the form. I remember another story Rodrigo told me this autumn when we were having drinks at my balcony and talking about his work. It was a story by meditation guru S.N. Goenka about a boy who came to visit his blind friend and told him about what he had just experienced:
- I just had a delicious rice pudding!- What is rice pudding?- It is something white.- But what is white?And trying to find a way to describe white he grabbed a white duck passing by and handed it over to his blind friend, saying:- This is white, for example.- So white is soft?- No, no, try again.And touching the duck again from the peak to the back, he said:
- Oh, I get it now: white is crooked!
Having sat down today behind my computer to write a press release for Rodrigo’s show at Weingrüll, I thought it would be more interesting to share these stories with you. Closer also to Rodrigo’s work, which isn’t about getting it, about fixating meaning, but about keeping things open, in a contingent state. For those of you who have seen Rodrigo’s work when he was still studying here at the academy in Karlsruhe, you might recognize certain motives: the white paper cup, the disembodied head, the amorphous objects out of rice paper, the structures referring to architecture. More importantly, you might recognize a certain set-up, a kind of two- or three-dimensional riddle, in which the motives function like letters in an alphabet, although they are never exactly have the same function. The riddle isn’t ever there to be solved. It invites you -or at least in my interpretation- to abstract the arrangements we currently have in place in order to understand one another.
Objective truths are not what we find at the basis of knowledge, but rather a set of agreements that make us believe we have a grasp on the world. It is like the man standing in front of a glass sliding door, who figures in several of Rodrigo’s drawings and paintings in this show. The man is looking at his own reflection, but when approaching it, the doors open and the image disappears. To quote René Magritte, whose 1929 article “Les Mots et les Images” (in which he explores the relationship between an object, its image and the title it is given) is one of Rodrigo’s departing points: “We see the world as being outside ourselves, although it is only a mental representation of it that we experience inside ourselves.”
Last summer, when I was writing a review for a Mexican magazine on Rodrigo’s show in Luzern, Rodrigo sent me a link to a video in which curator Giovanni Carmine says that “thinking is just finding new connections between things that you didn’t think were connected.” I like how this can be seen as a motto for looking at Rodrigo´s show. More recently I discovered an audio work by poet and critic Quinn Latimer for Marisa Merz’s show at the Serpentine Gallery in London. It struck me how much it could have functioned as an audio for Rodrigo’s works. I’l l finish this text here with the last words of Quinn’s piece: “What greets you as your eyes close, what opens, what extraordinarily thing?”
Is That So?
2013
oil on canvas mounted on wood, 29,5 × 25 cm
Divide or Lack of Divide / Iro Space
2013
paper, wood, ink / cardboard, lack
Shiro Space / Aka Space
2013
cardboard, lack
White is Crooked
2013
graphite on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm
Untitled
2013
paper, plaster, wood-powder / leather glove
The net is full of holes
2013
A Sense of Possibil ity
2013
offset print, 10.5 × 14.8 cm
take-away postcards, edition of 1000
Flower poem for a si lent audience
2014
installation, The Ridder, Maastricht
Flower poem for a si lent audience
2014
Maastricht Diagram #3
2013
mixed media on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm
Things are moving2013
oil on wood, 25 × 30 cm
I ’ve rode the crest of a wave / With you beside me
2014
installation, Kunstverein Freiburg
I ’ve rode the crest of a wave / With you beside me
2014
installation, Kunstverein Freiburg
Figura 1
2013
paper, plaster, wood powder, 172 × 53 cm
Kip Salade
2014
rice paper, wood, ink, 70 × 40 cm
A Man, a Plant, a Rietved Buffet
2013
color pencil on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm
œ2013
installation, AdbK Karlsruhe
œ2013
installation view (detail) , AdbK Karlsruhe
œ2013
installation (detail) , AdbK Karlsruhe
œ2013
mixed media on paper, 30 × 40 cm
Maintenant
2013
unfired clay, 70 × 40 cm
after a sketch from René Magritte
Maintenant (Salzburg Hbf)
2013
color pencil on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm
Was ist der Mond?
2012
paper, lack, other materials
Sculptures
2013
series of 9 one-off, mixed media on paper
10.5 × 21 cm, 16pp
published por Mark Pezinger Verlag, Berlin
Pedro2012
installation, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
PedroRoos Gortzak
A little blue ball. I walk over to it to see the room-installation by Rodrigo Hernandez for Raum für aktuelle Kunst in Luzern from this almost centre, but off-centre point. It is hanging in front of my eyes, like a third eye, but instead of enabling me to see the installation, consisting of six objects that I’m surrounded by, it is doing something else. It is making me feel, to loosely quote Rene Magritte from Les mots and les images (which Hernandez shows in the other room as referential material), that “there are others behind it”. But I cannot see them, which is disorienting. And the little blue ball itself also refuses to be seen - in a similar way to Op Art and Kinetic Art. A gesture of the simplest technology pointing out something about this installation that remains out of reach.
For a second, you might be put onto another track when seeing the material in a separate “documentation” room, usually used for the opening cocktail. There is a table upon which drawings, notes, photocopies of references and maps are placed under glass plates - a second installation by Hernandez. Especially his drawing of the origin of his six objects, obliquely deriving from some of the art works in Harald Szeemann’s When Attitudes Become Form (1969), triggers a detective process. As if it was about finding out that the two empty paper cups, one placed inside of the other on the floor, echoes Bill Bollinger’s “Pipes”, two identical objects placed onto the floor in Szeemann’s show. But soon enough, and luckily so, this map, seen along the rest of the material, refuses to be understood as a conceptual anchor for the installation in the other room and and then escapes its function as text.
The same goes for the “found” objects in the show - which Hernandez prefers to name “re-found”, as he conceptualizes them first and then goes out to find them in the city or in his home-studio. The wooden box, the tin can, the paper cups are emptied out, turned upside down, devoid of the function they once had. Together with his hand-made objects (the above-mentioned ball, a hanging cable, a head) they all seem to have lost the ability to reach each other, and the same feeling infiltrates the way they seem to try connecting with the visitor. In this quasi-dialogue the intention of reading is suspended and the connection to a ground appears lost (in a similar way that the red cable hangs from the ceiling without quite touching the surface). Then we find a head lying on the floor, disembodied, empty, with open eyes and slightly smiling.
Pedro
2012
installation, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
Pedro (Head)
2012
paper, plaster, wood powder
detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
2
2012
plaster, 11 × 8 cm
detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
Time Shadows
2012
wood, 50 × 40 50 × 4 cm
detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
2
2012
plaster, 11 × 8 cm
detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
Pedro
2012
installation, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
Pedro - Document Room
2012
detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne
Pedro (Diagram)
2012
mixed media on paper, 29,7 50 × 4 21 cm
Penetration
2012
installation, IAAB Studio, Berlin
The Effect of 7 Foldings
2012
installation view, Poly Galerie, Karlsuhe
Spiral
2012
installation, AdbK Karlsruhe
Spiral: Artistic Markings between WorldsKonrad Bitterli
Light from the north enters through a large, slightly tapered rooflight and illuminates the studio. It makes the walls and even the slightest details of the room appear in sober clarity. The artist Rodrigo Hernández knows how to use this situation of concentration - not, as one might expect, for the presentation of classical painting, but for the wonderfully luminous floor piece Spiral (2011), the deeper meaning of which rests in darkness.
Spiral could be interpreted using the terminology of painting - as a redefinition of the traditional figure-ground problem, but translated into the third dimension. In an area of roughly seven square metres, several small objects are grouped in a bizarre rendezvous on top of radiantly white tiles. Inevitably, one recalls the oft-quoted comparison of Comte de Lautréamont, the French poet and grandfather of the Surrealists: “(...) as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!”, though Hernández’s installation Spiral is of a distinctly more tranquil nature. The six jewel-like miniatures, each set on a ceramic tile, contrast with their gleaming ground in a frugal aesthetic arrangement: a lizard, cast in metal, underneath a plexiglas dome: a stone on a wooden plinth with an opening the size of a mouse-hole: a Red Bull can sanded down to the aluminium base: a book with a white cover, which is actually a plaster cast with traces of drawing on it: a cardboard object on its side, as well as a skyscraper model. A wooden ball hangs from the ceiling on a fine thread, seemingly hovering over the surreal scenery. With only a few elements the artist creates a concentrated layout of objects, a poetically loaded topography of the mysterious.
As clearly as the articles can be labelled, since most of them derive from our everyday reality or emblematically refer to it, a conceptual interpretation in the sense of the narrative capacity of a coherent ensemble is complex, ultimately doomed to failure. This is what the tiled field suggests: to a certain extent it is a plinth, a stage for the encounter between the equally foreign and familiar things. Each one seems to belong to a different world, to contain different stories, or to encourage different readings: a lizard, even cast in metal, could refer to nature, a Red Bull can points towards a popular form of everyday culture, and the small skyscraper could be a metaphor for the progress of civilization. Although small-scale, some of these precious items can be viewed as models; others are life-size, and yet others seem to be both at the same time. With his precisely selected items and their diverse references on the glistening tiles, Hernández, at least mentally, literally lures us onto thin ice.
It is exactly such moments of permanent notional linking and rejecting that characterize Rodrigo Hernandez’s artistic work. Even if it is formally oriented towards Minimalism or Arte Povera, it proves to be absolutely contemporary. His subtle artistic gestures are substantially formed out of the cultural source of his Latin American home, which clashes with West European visual languages just as it does with our profane everyday life. Aesthetic precision and intellectual openness - for Rodrigo Hernandez they are mutually dependent and ultimately result in a subjective voice for a mute message - as delicate artistic markings between worlds.
Spiral
2012
installation, AdbK Karlsruhe
Can
2012
detail of the installation Spiral
Boat in the Waves
2012
detail of the installation Spiral
Ciudad
2012
wood, paint, ink
New Stones
2012
installation, Mucharaum Karlsruhe
Norwegian Wood
2011
installation, Espacio Alternativo “La Esmeralda”
ICE
2011
installation, AdbK Karlsruhe
Rodrigo Hernández
México City, 1983
Studies
2013-2014 Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL
2010-2012 Akademie der bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, Alemania, Prof. Si lv ia Bächl i
2006-2010 BFA Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, “La Esmeralda”, Cd. de México
Grants and prizes
2014 Laurenz-Haus Stiftung, Basel , CH
Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, DE
2013 Jóvenes Creadores, National Fund of the Arts, FONCA, MX
Jan Van Eyck Academie Stipendium,
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen, NL
Graduiertenstipendium Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, D
2012 Kulturfonds der Landeshauptstadt Salzburg, AT
2012 DAAD-Preis zur Jahresausstel lung, AdbK Karlsruhe, D
2010 International Studies Grant, National Fund of the Arts, FONCA, MX
2011 Graduation Work Grant, INBA, MX
2009 Internship Studies Grant, Landesstiftung Baden-Wurttemberg, Karlsruhe, D
Solo shows
2015 Here is Someone, Kim?, Riga, LV (upcoming)
Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, MX (upcoming)
2014 What is the Moon?, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, NL
Go, Gentle Scorpio! , Paral lel Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MX
Dutch Flat Things, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL
2013 A Sense of Possibi l i ty, Weingrül l , Karlsruhe, D (cur. Roos Gortzak)
2012 Pedro, o.T. Raum für aktuel le Kunst, Lucerne, CH
2011 Interaction of Nothing, Zip, Basel , CH
Penetration, IAAB Atel ier, Berl in, D
Automatic Sculpture, Poly Galerie, Karlsruhe, D
2010 New Stones, Mucharaum, Karlsruhe, D
Ebony, Ovo Space, Mexico City, MX
Group shows (selection)
2014 Sometimes something happens, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL
A Special Arrow Was Shot In The Neck. . . , David Roberts Art Foundation,
London, UK (cur. Vivian Ziherl and Natasha Ginwala)
Autodestrucción4: Demolición, Thomas Dane Gal lery, London, UK
(cur. Abraham Cruzvi l legas)
Mark P works both ways, FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, F
ERNTE, Kunsthaus Basel land, Mutenz/Basel , CH
Moules, Oeufs, Frites, The Ridder, Maastricht, NL
Roving Room, Habersham Mil ls , Demorest, Georgia, USA
Van Eyck Open Studios, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL
Dasdasdemdes, NO SPACE, Mexico City, MX
2013 Magic Hour, The Ridder, Maastricht, NL
Six Memos fort he Next. . . , Magazin 4 - Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz, AT
The Carrousel Col lection, 45cbm Studioraum - Kunsthal le Baden-Baden, D
Jenseits des Rahmens, Kunstverein Freiburg, D
Regionale 13, Kunstraum Riehen, Riehen-Basel , CH
Left Eye, Right Eye, V8, Karlsruhe, D
Mark Pezinger Verlag at Pioneer Works, Nueva York, USA
Wood(s), Zwinger Gal lery, Berl in, DE
I don’t know, Vamial i ’s Gal lery, Atenas, GR
The Mystery of Intersecting Paths, HBK, Braunschweig, DE
2012 When Does Something Become.. .?, Walker Art Center, Minneapol is, USA
Regionale 13, Kunst Raum Riehen, Basel , CH
La Distancia es el Material , New Museum of Contemporary Art, Guatemala
Reading Disorders, Kunstverein Kassel , Kassel DE
London’s Cal l ing and It ’s Cal l ing You Gay, Preteen Gal lery, Mexico City, MX
O Tannebaum, Alte Sal ine Hal lein, Salzburg, A (cur. Manfred Pernice)
Five in a Row, deuxpiece, Basel , CH
AutoconßtrukSchön, Arratia Beer Gal lery, Berl in , DE
2011 Les jeux sont faits, Hinterhof, Basel , CH
Übermorgenkünstler I I , Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, DE
Se Amable, Centro Cultural de Cal i , C
Ovo Host, National Museum of the Phi l ippines, Mani la, PH
Vänster, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, S
SiempreOtraVez, Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, MX
2010 Jahresausstel lung, Akademie der Bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, D
Observar el Cielo, Café la Gloria, Mexico City, MX
Actos Proféticos, Centro Cultural de Cal i , Cal i , CO
Work in Progress, Alberta Col lege of Art and Design, Calgary, CA
Rules of Casual Sex, Galería de la Esmeralda, Mexico City, MX
2009 ICE, Akademie der Bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, D
Texto es, Espacio Alternativo, Galería La Esmeralda, Cd. de México, MX
Very normal, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, CH
Trabajando, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Oaxaca, MX
Publicaciones
What is the moon?, Bonnefanten Museum / Bom Dia Verlag, Berl in, 2014
How do you do?, VIS publ ications, 2014
A Sense of Possibi l i ty, VIS publ ications, 2014
Dutch Flat Things, Mark Pezinger Verlag, 2014
Left Eye, Right Eye, Charles Nypels Lab, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL, 2013
Marginal ia no.1, harles Nypels Lab, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL, 2013
Sculptures, Mark Pezinger Verlag, Berl in, 2012
Rodrigo Hernández: POT, Fluid Edit ions, Karlsruhe, 2012
Rodrigo Hernández
© 2014
www.rodrigo-hernandez.net