Fernando Arias
OVA is introducing the work of Colombian artist Fernando Arias to the UK with an extraordinary exhibition of two special commissions, and the restaging of a major installation premiered at the 5th Havana Biennial in 1994.
Arias’ video works and installations often begin their creative life in the hospital workplace and use materials such as viral infected blood samples, human umbilical cords and computerised images of foetal scans. The treatment of these materials does not employ shock tactics, but is integral to the physical and spiritual intensity of the artist’s considered questioning and the viewer’s subsequent confrontation with his or her own mortality and the fragile links between life and death.
Madre Tierra (Mother Earth), commissioned by OVA, focuses on the human relationship to the earth and explores the intangible links between people - links we are born with and those we create. In many South American cultures, women believe that the umbilical cord and the placenta should be buried beside a tree - a gesture to nature’s cycle. Arias has created nine glass towers, the lower third of each containing rich soil, where a single white organic umbilical cord, floating in fluid, appears to be growing like a stem but simultaneously penetrating the earth.
The features and function of a tent have been transformed in Arias’ new installation Tent (working title) which has been intricately crocheted by the artist’s mother and erected in the same manner as the weather-proofed shelter we are familiar with. Drawn to the warm glow from within, the viewer is invited in through a vaginal-like opening. Printed onto the PVC floor is the cutting of an umbilical cord - an image chosen from a series taken by the artist photographing a caesarean birth.
Radioactive Installation, commissioned by OVA, As you enter the dark space the first thing you see on the wall is a 12’ x 16’ colour photograph of Fernando taking a small glass capsule out of a metal container (wearing surgical gloves). He is outside next to a hole in the grass. Next to the photograph on the wall reads, radioactivity can last from one millionth of a second to five thousand million years. On the floor nearby and in the same space there is a beautiful metal object projecting light from inside it. It is the container. The light invites the viewer to peer through the hole in the container permitting him to see, with the help of a magnifying glass a 35 mm slide of the glass tube lying in a hole in the earth. The hole he is actually looking through is the compartment where the capsule containing radioactivity material was stored.
Seropositivo, commissioned for the Havana Biennial, is a major installation involving a larger-than-life photograph of the artist covered with a transparent layer of thousands of anonymous blood cells - some healthy, others infected, and illuminated in UV light. The resulting sanctuary-like atmosphere creates a space for considered reflection on our ethical responsibilities.
Through exploring his country’s cultural ability to amalgamate both ancient traditional beliefs and modern ideas, together with the confrontation of the body as a highly politicised space, Arias also raises the question of what can be considered ethically acceptable in the making of art. New works exploring these themes have been exhibited internationally and include the highly controversial and publicised What is he bid? for Arco ‘97, Madrid; Short Cuts: Links to the Body, DASA Dortmund; Building Site, Architectural Association, London; Insight ‘97, Tijuana and San Diego; V Bienal de Artes, Bogota, Colombia and Salon Internacional de Estandartes, Tijuana, Mexico.
Arias’ video works and installations often begin their creative life in the hospital workplace and use materials such as viral infected blood samples, human umbilical cords and computerised images of foetal scans. The treatment of these materials does not employ shock tactics, but is integral to the physical and spiritual intensity of the artist’s considered questioning and the viewer’s subsequent confrontation with his or her own mortality and the fragile links between life and death.
Madre Tierra (Mother Earth), commissioned by OVA, focuses on the human relationship to the earth and explores the intangible links between people - links we are born with and those we create. In many South American cultures, women believe that the umbilical cord and the placenta should be buried beside a tree - a gesture to nature’s cycle. Arias has created nine glass towers, the lower third of each containing rich soil, where a single white organic umbilical cord, floating in fluid, appears to be growing like a stem but simultaneously penetrating the earth.
The features and function of a tent have been transformed in Arias’ new installation Tent (working title) which has been intricately crocheted by the artist’s mother and erected in the same manner as the weather-proofed shelter we are familiar with. Drawn to the warm glow from within, the viewer is invited in through a vaginal-like opening. Printed onto the PVC floor is the cutting of an umbilical cord - an image chosen from a series taken by the artist photographing a caesarean birth.
Radioactive Installation, commissioned by OVA, As you enter the dark space the first thing you see on the wall is a 12’ x 16’ colour photograph of Fernando taking a small glass capsule out of a metal container (wearing surgical gloves). He is outside next to a hole in the grass. Next to the photograph on the wall reads, radioactivity can last from one millionth of a second to five thousand million years. On the floor nearby and in the same space there is a beautiful metal object projecting light from inside it. It is the container. The light invites the viewer to peer through the hole in the container permitting him to see, with the help of a magnifying glass a 35 mm slide of the glass tube lying in a hole in the earth. The hole he is actually looking through is the compartment where the capsule containing radioactivity material was stored.
Seropositivo, commissioned for the Havana Biennial, is a major installation involving a larger-than-life photograph of the artist covered with a transparent layer of thousands of anonymous blood cells - some healthy, others infected, and illuminated in UV light. The resulting sanctuary-like atmosphere creates a space for considered reflection on our ethical responsibilities.
Through exploring his country’s cultural ability to amalgamate both ancient traditional beliefs and modern ideas, together with the confrontation of the body as a highly politicised space, Arias also raises the question of what can be considered ethically acceptable in the making of art. New works exploring these themes have been exhibited internationally and include the highly controversial and publicised What is he bid? for Arco ‘97, Madrid; Short Cuts: Links to the Body, DASA Dortmund; Building Site, Architectural Association, London; Insight ‘97, Tijuana and San Diego; V Bienal de Artes, Bogota, Colombia and Salon Internacional de Estandartes, Tijuana, Mexico.
