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Email PageCRUSH: nada más hermoso que volar y caer…
March 8, 2006- April 29, 2006
Elsoca and Fabian
Magnan Emrich Contemporary
505 W 28th St Elsoca and Fabian Spine (2006) |
Known for their meticulously rendered “bio-drawings”, Elsoca & Fabián (Adrián Soca Beltrán and Fabián Peña Díaz) use fly wings, roach legs and various other critter particles to create lyrical, thought-provoking works on canvas, paper and site –specific installations that often integrate existing architectural elements. The windows at the entrance of the gallery greet the viewer with a translation of the exhibition title: Nothing more beautiful than to fly and fall . . . but even more beautiful is to fall and rise again . The reference to flight has great significance to Elsoca & Fabián: alluded to in the imagery they create, intrinsic in the materials they use, and a poignant metaphor to their flight and journey from Cuba .
In one work, painstakingly composed of tiny fly wings and insect blood applied onto canvases in varying sizes, a 12 x 20 foot image of a T-Rex dinosaur emerges. Titled, In the beginning . . . , this site-specific work addresses life/death issues of both the emergence and power of new life forms and the inevitable extinction of the same. A miniscule cage and a fleeing goose make up Now that the Bird has Flown Away What Will We do With the Cage , to be presented at *Scope. A perpetual and cyclical game of entrapment and release abound. Beautifully rendered images together with proclamations about freedom and flight are ironically juxtaposed with the “ materia prima ” from which they are created - the detritus of dead animal particles, literally trapped in the work.
Elsoca & Fabián continue to present performances that rely on audience participation and emphasize social and personal issues through seemingly mundane, repetitive acts that invade public space. In-Cognita: Invernadero, from the on-going Invernadero Series , includes two structures in the form of an arrow. The artists enter each structure and begin to inflate clear bags with air from their lungs. In a short period of time, their bodies begin to show signs of confinement within the structures. Without air, the lack of oxygen becomes increasingly evident to the audience; condensation gradually creates a fog on the inside of the walls, transforming them into a canvas. Using their fingers to pose comments and questions in the condensation, the artists interact with their audience. The amount of time they remain trapped inside their work depends on their own limitations or public intervention.
Both artists were born in Havana , Cuba in 1976 and trained at the pioneering Instituto Superior de Arte (Superior Institute for the Arts) where their collaboration was borne. They were members of the Colectivo Enema, a performance group under the directorship of Lazaro Saavedra. In 2003 they participated in the Eight Annual Havana Bienal as well as numerous international exhibitions. Elsoca & Fabián crossed the Mexican border into US territory in 2004. Since their arrival, they have successfully exhibited their work in Houston , Texas and, most recently, Miami , Florida where they currently reside.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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