Juanli Carrión "10.21-23 The Plague of Darkness"
Y Gallery (319 Grand St.)
This event has ended.
What is illuminated seems to be true and ideal, but when looking in dimness the authentic truth may be revealed. In the video 10.21-23 Carrión explores an imaginary city immersed in total darkness, a place where humankind is obliged to live in obscurity, where exposure to radiation and sunlight is fatal. It is a land where the human eye has developed the capacity to see through the darkness. The lack of illumination has forced the foundation of new strategies to explore the world, where not long before visual memory was the element that gave credibility to human experience. Behind the video’s images lies a sociological study, exploring the artificial darkness of the first world’s enclosed spaces and weighing the triviality of our daily life. In 10.21-23, observation in obscurity opens unknown and hidden doors.
Carrión continues his investigation of darkness and reality through a series of barely illuminated night-landscapes of New York City, where the legendary and picturesque nocturnal horizon is devoid of its radiant gloom. Carrión exposes the metropolis submerged in shadows, consumed by a sudden blackout. The city appears static and opaque, like a contemporary archaeology of corporate stardoms, all equally exposed by a lack of illumination.
In extension to the erasure of luminosity in corporate edifices in New York, Carrion draws constellations of the major business conglomerates existing throughout the United States. Pfizer, Exxon, Allstate, Walmart, and several others are represented separately in each piece as whiteout spaces filled with black stars, using Google maps to chart their placement nationwide. What we see in each piece is an inverse of the sky we see at night, enlightening a viewer as to how prevalent these powerful companies actually are, and suggesting that they are holes that suck the light out of the inhabitants.
The exhibition finishes with a series of drawings based on YouTube video stills of infrared war documentation. These pieces will be viewed in total darkness through the help of special “night-vision” glasses.
"10.21-23 The Plague of Darkness" documents and questions some topics that form the core of global capitalism and its current operating systems through the internal and external darkness of contemporary society.
Juanli Carrión is a New York City based artist, born in Yecla, Spain in 1982.
[mage: "EXXON" from "Constellations" series (2011) Duratrans print on light box 27 x 14 in.]
Media
Schedule
from June 22, 2011 to July 31, 2011
Closing Reception on 2011-07-28 from 18:00 to 21:00