In this work, I took as a starting point a photo I made showing a set of earthbags, organized in a pyramid-shape on a construction site. As a result of workers’ effort, this arrangement seems to mimic a form of organization of society present in Western civilization: the hierarchical division into classes, where a small upper ‘caste’ is maintained by a dominated, large bottom class.
In a world surrounded by neoliberalism, this dominating character becomes almost invisible. Poulantzes points out that “the absence of any trace of class domination”1 is a hallmark of the discourse of the bourgeois ideology. As “an innocent power”2 and a “representative of society’s general interests, far from being an oppressive apparatus”3, this discourse sells neoliberalism as a non-ideological option, “rational, as a natural state of affairs, invisible”4.
Before, the political power and political interests were concealed and hidden behind the mask of religion and the sacred. Now, with the bourgeois ideology, science5 (sold as a neutral and purely technical element) is the chosen disguise. The quest for transcendence is not lost, but it is resignified and is now mediated mainly by the accumulation of wealth and consumerism, by social position in society and the work environment.
Faced with the power of this structure that spans generations, the human meets the finitude of his/her material body.
Keeping these issues in mind, I created a series of 5 compositions using materials such as oil, silk paper, and transparent films.
The image of the earthbags was reticulated, in a reference to how this hierarchical structure is reproduced by discourses from the media industry.
The drawings employed geometric graphics, a way to refer to the use of science as a form of concealment of political interests. At the same time, they are produced from a subtle and minimalist graphic language, suggesting a structure that seeks to be unidentified and invisible. The graphics were arranged and separated into different transparent sheets. These were then superimposed, forming the final image and trying to show that these structures remain and reproduce in us in several discursive layers.
The silk papers refer to the sensitive universe of the human, like skin in contact with these structures, that stores and mimics them. The oil formed marks and blisters that could lead us to internal dialogues present in our body.
The work is ephemeral and hard to maintain. Its shape changes with the action of the oil after a few days, losing its initial setup; however, the structures present in the work persist and remain visible and present. The registration of the original work also becomes a work.
2019, mixed media, 42 x 29.7 cm. Silk paper, oil, digital print on transparent polyester film, Viking watercolor paper.
In a world surrounded by neoliberalism, this dominating character becomes almost invisible. Poulantzes points out that “the absence of any trace of class domination”1 is a hallmark of the discourse of the bourgeois ideology. As “an innocent power”2 and a “representative of society’s general interests, far from being an oppressive apparatus”3, this discourse sells neoliberalism as a non-ideological option, “rational, as a natural state of affairs, invisible”4.
Before, the political power and political interests were concealed and hidden behind the mask of religion and the sacred. Now, with the bourgeois ideology, science5 (sold as a neutral and purely technical element) is the chosen disguise. The quest for transcendence is not lost, but it is resignified and is now mediated mainly by the accumulation of wealth and consumerism, by social position in society and the work environment.
Faced with the power of this structure that spans generations, the human meets the finitude of his/her material body.
Keeping these issues in mind, I created a series of 5 compositions using materials such as oil, silk paper, and transparent films.
The image of the earthbags was reticulated, in a reference to how this hierarchical structure is reproduced by discourses from the media industry.
The drawings employed geometric graphics, a way to refer to the use of science as a form of concealment of political interests. At the same time, they are produced from a subtle and minimalist graphic language, suggesting a structure that seeks to be unidentified and invisible. The graphics were arranged and separated into different transparent sheets. These were then superimposed, forming the final image and trying to show that these structures remain and reproduce in us in several discursive layers.
The silk papers refer to the sensitive universe of the human, like skin in contact with these structures, that stores and mimics them. The oil formed marks and blisters that could lead us to internal dialogues present in our body.
The work is ephemeral and hard to maintain. Its shape changes with the action of the oil after a few days, losing its initial setup; however, the structures present in the work persist and remain visible and present. The registration of the original work also becomes a work.
2019, mixed media, 42 x 29.7 cm. Silk paper, oil, digital print on transparent polyester film, Viking watercolor paper.
1 Cited by Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology: an introduction. 1st. ed., Londres: Verso, p.154.
2 Ibid, p. 154
3 Ibid, p. 154
4 Cammaerts, B. (2015). Neoliberalism and the post-hegemonic war of position: The dialectic between invisibility and visibilities. European Journal of Communication, [online] 30(5), p.523. Available at http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64480/ [Consulted at December 30, 2018].
5 Poulantzas, cited by Eagleton, T. (1991). Ideology: an introduction. 1st. ed. Londres: Verso, p.154
