The grafeos and other work
This artwork explores what is hidden from us in society, the lies that are sold to us and the reasons why we believe them. In a sense it could be called figurative, or mimetic art, because it describes a reality using its same language. Thus, it is about a hidden reality that is equally hidden in the artwork. Perhaps in an attempt to learn something about non-verbal communication, the role of intention in the success of communication or how much needs consciously to be understood to accurately assimilate a message.
The grafeos contain a huge amount of information carefully researched, structured and executed. But unintelligible.
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| Grafeos. acrylic and charcoal on wood or gouache posters. 2004. | ||
| They evolved from the work on propaganda in democratic societies and the psychological conditions in the average individual required for its success. In these grafeos the text overlaps, it has been erased, scratched, and it is incomplete. The information they contain has been manipulated and they have become unintelligible. | ||
essence
and existence
You,
fascist (or the holy trinity of manipulation)
The unintelligible as a means of expression
Words are the main tool in propaganda and communication in general. When words
are used for propaganda they deceive, disguise intentions, evoque feelings,
divert attention and veil their real purpose and meaning.
Visually this can be translated using text that is incomplete, overlaps, that is scratched, etc., mirroring both the process of manipulation, in which the information is edited, hidden away, censored, and our inner struggle to make what we have been taught match what we see happens in the world.
The grafeos are the visual analogy of the different ways of adapting information for propaganda in democratic societies. The mass media manipulates the information using methods like distorsion, displacement of enphasis, saturation of data, omission, ambiguous or equivocal expression, censorship, incomplete information or information out of context, random association of concepts, etc. The grafeos reflect this process.
The commitment of the unintelligible
Our conformism makes it easier for us to accept critical work expressed in a
conventional intelligible form than work that is not openly political, but whose
appearance disturb our apparent order or evoke feelings that cannot be admitted.
The shock of the unintelligible can communicate more because it works at the
level of fundamental attitudes. To adapt political art to the existing forms
of realistic expression is to trivialize it, which then reduces the political
effect.
