5.7.10

GUERRA DE LA PAZ: ART IN THE WORLD 0F THE HAND-MADE










BY LYNN DEL SOL INDEPENDENT CURATOR NYC
IMAGES: Guerra de la Paz, Nancy Watson, Douglas Voisin

In a recent interview with artists Guerra de la Paz (Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz), they were asked, why do they work with such a volume of clothing and fabric, they responded, “it’s free!” At first it felt like an awkward answer but revisiting that interview it actually highlights a growing and sustained trend in contemporary art, that of the handmade genre.



With the onslaught of video, new technologies, perform- ance, and industrial design in art one can understand why the re-emerging of the artist’s hand is a welcomed factor. More so, the “it’s free” reply is really part of a far wider current where the act of finding -or fabricat- ing materials is at its core -a resistance to capitalism and an ode to the flawed, 1960’s attempt to change the world with the do-it-yourself attitude. Taking nothing and making something, something really grand.



Perhaps you’ve seen the wind blowing over The African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Liberty City, Miami; their first and largest installation entitled Overflow (2002). On the building, a sixty-foot wide site specific environmen- tal installation, “An abstract landscape bursting with colors and textures, hills and valleys, as a two story cascade of garments that blew in the wind”. It took six months for them to collect enough material and three weeks to complete the installation.
Within the same vein stands Tribute (2002-05). Recently exhibiting during New York’s Armory Week, a monumental amassing of discarded clothing was collected over a span of three years. It rises from the floor, reaching the rafters, forming a glaring recreation of eternal youth sprung, a rainbow. It glimmers, shines and glows. The shifting softness of the hues bounces and roams -insisting on filling the room and enchanting the viewer. This work in particular is a science.



Each of the many bags contains a specific and subtle tone of color. Red, red-orange, orange-red and so on... it is not merely building on twelve feet high and wide but the art of placement. Each garment from the deep center to the outer ridges has a very precise home in which it lives.
Over all, their work feels raw, it burns intensely, its size makes it unruly, and its medium, being that of neglect, disdain, and rejection, makes it all the more a comrade than a dicta- tor in this -sometimes circumscribed trek- through the contemporary art world.



There is genuineness and a conceptual aching in the work of Guerra de la Paz. As in many of their installations and soft sculptural works, there is a line they tow where elements of experiment and surprise are married under an enigma. A completely unique experience is presented to each viewer.
With most of our judgment on the future being somewhat tragic it is important for us to see works like these, to see the hand of great artists at work. To walk into a room and just be floored by the sheer grandeur of it all, without overextending ourselves with the rimmed tirades of spoken art. These two artists will take you on a journey into a world of pure im- agination without having to step out of reality.