Author Archives: pclaro

Water Forms

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When water runs out, there is nothing that can replace it.[1]

Patricia Claro started her investigative work on nature and the behavior of freshwater nearly a decade ago, placing this water resource –national and world heritage – as the object of her creation. Through a diligent research, she has perfected and refined her technique, through the decomposition of image layers, giving life to particular forms of water.

The sample contains a variety of pictorial, digital and manual elaborations, various languages that show a creative process that has been transformed into a work of art. The way to represent light through masked pictures, fabricated by delicate cut-outs, the artist reveals certain codes and  figures of water. At the same time, the photographs are part of the archive of the path from which these codes of water deformation are extracted, drawn by beams of light united to a rhythmic motion. The video is the witness of this scenario in continuous change and renewal.

In the context of the overflow metaphor, which refers to the problem of freshwater shortage that the planet has been experiencing for years, Patricia’s work re-creates freshwater sources through images that convey the physicality of the water, through the dynamism between light, background and environment; which act as an extension and perpetuation of it, noting the infinity of images contained in each piece of river. The beauty of the images transmitted take the viewer to see the water again, but from a different valuation because the works of the artist discover the greatness contained in it, “making it talk”, so that it can communicate its content and memory to the viewer. Claro, through the technique used, lends water a way of expression: water is shown through the play of light that the artist is able to transfer from the river to the canvas, allowing it to be seen by countless viewers. By letting us get to know what water contains and expresses through the recreation of images, it leads the observer to consider water as an element worthy to be valued and protected. Thus, Claro’s paintings prolong and drag on their existence and, simultaneously, promote an awareness on the viewer about its preservation, to value it as an inexhaustible source of beauty.

When transfering the motion of the waves and currents, the artist discovers certain forms and signs that water reveals and represents, which resemble the characters in Chinese writing, as if an alphabet itself were contained in it. It is a meaning that attempts to be decoded to come to the exterior. However, in order to hear the water it would be necessary to spend hours in silence and admire it with absolute care and detail. With this purpose, the author goes to her source of fresh water in southern Chile, where – in a retreat of silence and contemplation – observes for hours, days, weeks and months the natural state of water, especially the transformations associated with seasonal changes. The digital record serves as a witness so that, when back in the studio, the multiplicity of images viewed can be recalled and associated with a unique deformation code that seems written on the the surface of water itself. This set of signs written by light and movement constitute the motive of the photographs that she presents, from which the phonemes that make up the language of water are removed.

The particular similarity between these aquatic ideograms and the Chinese calligrams is not casual. In the words of Ezra Pound, “(…) the Chinese notation is much more than arbitrary signs. It is based on a vivid shorthand picture of the operations of nature (…) The fact is that the acts are successive, even continuous; one is cause or succession of the other. ”[2]  In this way, the photo sequence constitutes a story that contains information of nature, as well as water figures which have been cut and linearly exposed.

Water has the quality of being in constant motion and that is why the images that it emits when it recieves sunlight are endless, inexhaustible and exclusive: there will never be an exact repetition of the conditions of movement, light, flow, topography and climate , that allow a replica of any of the images delivered by the water.

What does water want to tell us? How can we interpret its writing? We know that it shows us the nature and reflection of the surrounding environment: trees, branches, clouds, earth and the sun itself; but the forms drawn by the light that appear in a sequencial order due to the continuous permanent move, seem to contain something more … What information is contained in them?

“The world is an immense Narcissus that is thinking.”[3] The water, like a mirror, reflects us… reminding us who we are, holding our identity.

Perhaps water contains the memory of the history of mankind. If so, the need for its care and respect is presented as an uncompromising imperative: preserve freshwater sources is to preserve the legacy of man.

 

 

References

Bachelard, G. El agua y los sueños. Fondo de Cultura Económica. Mexico, 2003.

Fenollosa, E., Poud, E., El carácter de la escritura china como medio poético. Translation of Mariano Antolín Rato. Ed. Visor. Madrid, 1977.

Shiva, V. Las guerras del agua. Ed. Icaria. Barcelona, 2002. Vandana Shiva, Indian scientist and philosopher who has devoted much of her research to the problem of water, current director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy.


[1] Shiva, Vandana. Las guerras del agua. Editorial Icaria. Barcelona, 2002. P. 32.

[2]Fenollosa, Ernest; Poud, Ezra. El carácter de la escritura china como medio poético. Traducción de Mariano Antolín Rato. Editorial Visor. Madrid, 1977. Pp. 33-37.

[3] Gasquet, Joachim. Narciso, p. 45. En: Gastón Bachelard, El agua y los sueños. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México, 2003.

PATRICIA CLARO: From Invisible to Visible

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By Constanza Navarrete

Patricia’s academic upbringing was in design. Years later, she sudied for a degree in art, and since then she has developed a project of water paintings. The interest emerges from the multiples possibilities the said element gives her, for it’s simplicity doesn’t show the technical and simbolic complexity it possesses. Water is one of yhe four elements and is a universal material that exists everywhere in the world. She represents dying waters, since fresh water is the scarcest resource on the planet. It is also a landscape, part of nature and an infinitive source of imagery thanks to its mirrored quality; a metaphor for change and eternal cycle.

The artist is inspired by different techniques. Among those, we find photography, video, installation and painting, with the later being te most relevant. All are linked to the same problema: the representation of fresh water; an element that in itself can be everything and nothing. It i sable to be transparent as well as infinitely reflect images, always differently, since water from a river constantly flows while it is witness to the diverse happenings of the environment: day, evening, night, spring, summer, fall, winter, etcetera. It goes from invisible to visible depending on the light as long as it reflects; the shadow shows depth. These are the two planes that converge on the surface. Even so, such images are not long-lasting; they change from one moment to the next, thus it is necessary to record them through photography. “From everything it provides, I can only capture a small part. I show that small detail as the whole in my work,” comments the artist.

She personally uses the river –generally, Río Bueno in the south of Chile- to enter it and contemplate it for hours, until getting the desired images. A wait in front of the water which is then photographed and edited before being put into the canvas. For Patricia, it is important to preserve the essence of the water while always seeking to emphasize its qualities through paint. Light-shadow, brightness-opacity, shalowness-depth, figure-background, are the dualities that make up her pieces. Layers and layers are overlapped until forming the finished piece. In that aspect, her creative process involves accumulation and constant change, whose development is hidden over and over again by the oil paint. Regarding this, she explaines: “I have a dual process. First the background (shadow) and later the reflection (light). Only I know that first step. It stays hidden under the reflection of the light. That technique allows me to establish a tight dialogue with the piece, which gives me time to ‘listen and observe’ what it tells me to follow. It’s a moment of respect for the piece, as well as a moment of respect for nature.”
The relationship that she establishes with her work is extremely sensitive. She carries out each part of the process; from the photography in situ to the painting. There is a certain gaze when facing the wáter, its behavior and representation, which is vital to do in person. She creates that close-knit link with her work –which isn’t always present in contemporary art-, that gives it a romantic connotation, but that also involves a meditative process that starts at the river and continues in her workshop.

In turn, Patricia’s work is linked to Taoism and Buddhism. The patient attitude of waiting and contemplating which involves observing the riverbed, photographing it, taking it to the workshop and ensuring that it keeps its identity, are characteristics that are typical of Chinese art, which seeks to expand the essence of the landscape to the paint. It requires to empty the Self in order to be able to blend with the object and revive its primordial characteristics: “listening to it” just as stated. On the other hand, objectifies the concept of Taoism very well. In the 14th epigram of Tao Te Ching by Laozi (translated by James Legge), it says: “We look at it, and we do not see it. We name it ‘the Inaudible.’ We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it. We name it `the Subtle’ (…). Its upper part is not bright. Its lower part is noy obscure. Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named. It again returns and becomes nothing. This is called the Form of the Formless. The Semblance of the Invisible. The fleeting and indeterminable. We meet it and do not see its Front. We follow it and do not see its back…” These verses allow us to appreciate how the Tao finds a poetic correlation in the figure of the water, which is also shape without form, image without objective; neither dark nor bright.

Under the same influence of the oriental aesthetic, the artist establishes analogies between the forms of water with the Chinese calligrams; “it is as if the water were communicating something, or simply writing the story of my relationship with nature,” she says. Patricia Claro’s work is very beautiful in its subtlety and accounts for that empathetic attitude with nature, water and its rhythm: an issue that our eastern ancestors were able to study and express.

CONTRASTES Y UTOPÍAS – IV Biennial of the End of the World

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sfondohome11

Biennial of the End of the World

 

Hall Central del Palacio Municipal, Mar del Plata

 

Founded in 2007 in Ushuaia, Argentina

Organizer: Fundación Patagonia Arte y Desafío

Created by the Fundación Patagonia Arte y Desafío in the context of Polo Austral de las Artes de las Ciencias y la Ecología Project, with the sponsorship of the Fundación Memorial del Parlamento de San Pablo, Argentina Biennial, under the name of Biennial of the End of the World.




VI Edition:

With more than 150 artists from 35 countries on 5 continents and a new Contemporary Popular Music Festival , the Biennale Argentina , opens on Friday December 12 fourth edition which will run until the end of February.

 

Its headquarters will be in Mar del Plata and will in February and March special interventions in Valparaiso and Punta Arenas , transforming its proposal to incorporate binational Chile as part of this regional world order , which covers the Southern Cone of America .

 

With an exhibition of contemporary art in various formats and different locations in the city of Mar del Plata will open on Friday 12 December 4th . Editing the BIENNIAL OF THE END OF THE WORLD: ” Contrasts and Utopias ” and will run until February 22, 2015 .

 

The Artistic Director is Scaringella Massimo (Italy ) , also in charge of the direction of the committee of ten curators / international selectors. It also has the special collaboration of renowned Chilean intellectual Justo Pastor Mellado .

 

The End of the World Biennial opens a new award , having been elected in July in Berlin as a full member of the International Biennial Association ( IBA ), a prestigious institution based in South Korea that brings major biennial world .

 

This 4th edition will have to Italy as the guest country of honor. The proposal brings together more than 150 artists , national and international , including: Joan Jonas ( USA ) , Tracy Moffat ( Australia ) , Karen Cytter (Israel ) , Regina Galindo ( Guatemala ) , Matteo Basile (Italy ) , Fabio Mauri ( Italy) , Marinella Senatore (Italy ) , Toshihiko Kato (Japan ) , Marinella Senatore (Italy ) and Liliana Porter, and Juan Andrés Denegri Doffo , among Argentines

 

Patricia Claro selected work

video “APRIL 16”

00hr-07m-38s-Still-video-APRIL-16

A Fresh Approach to Contemporary Painting

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Essay by Selene Wendt

fresh paint

Patricia Claro’s realist landscape paintings are related to an intense and time-consuming study of water and its characteristics. Claro’s highly scientific high-tech approach to painting is a perfect example of James Elkins’s theory that painting is alchemy, and a painter’s role is that of an alchemist. Read more →

A hint of Warhol left wanting more

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Art critique in UC and Animal
WALDEMAR SOMMER

The object as a protagonist, portraits as objects: fundamental subject matter which Andy Warhol (1928-1987) chose throughout his life. We can appreciate it in the small and educative set that the Extension Center of Universidad Católica is dedicting to the American in its main hall. The second space from the same institution, excellent initiative, offers silkscreen classes to children, technique preferred by the most radical authors of pop art. From his vast work as a decorator, designer, painter, printmaker and filmmaker, some screen print works are presented. They belong to his typical plot series. One of them, from 1976, portrays domestic pets: three dogs and an acrylic cat, with unexpected texture and printing ink on canvas. The expressive contrast between the tenderness of the cocker spaniel and the intensity with which the cat stalks enchants. From 1981 belong some cartons with diamond dust from the series “Myths”, where three serigraphs specially stand out. One is led by “Mickey Mouse”. A notable figurative synthesis of repeated contours, with white, black, gray, touches of pink and red on a background whose dazzling brilliance is reminiscent of the diamond lights of Hollywood cinema. There are also “Superman” duplicates, overlapping and in flight, and beautiful self-portrait –“The Shadow”- that plays, insinuatingly, with the face and the shadow of the artist’s profile.

Read more →

Art in 2007: Poor in the outside, rich in the inside.

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Artes y Letras, EL MERCURIO.
Waldemar Sommer.

With respect to the traditionally poor quality of foreign exhibitions – it seems like our Los Andes mountain stops them-, the year that just ended did not get better. Only four with unique artworks result worth talking about. In first place, the work from the great sculpture artist, a contemporary British, Tony Cragg. His fantastic metamorphosis of the object deserved our award Premio Del Circulo de Criticos de Arte. Other valuable visits were, on the other hand, glances to the past: the Spanish archeological pieces and Russian icons from the XV to the XVIII century. Let’s add the actual Korean art sample, heading by the hurtful men of Dangwood Lee and for the video around the dollar, of Joonho Jeon. The rest of the more attractive visitant groups limited themselves to multiple edition work: the excellent homage to Picasso –printings of the best artists of the XX century-, the two actual German photography groups-Höfer, Polke, the Beckers, etc.-, the Suisse photographer retrospective-North American Robert Frank. Of Sao Paulo’s Biennial’s uneven selection, we have to highlight Pieter Hugo’s photos and Abdessemet’s videos, from Abdul.

artes-y-letras-crit-1a

The national ambit did produce various important exhibitions. In sculpture, Francisca Nuñez’s retrospective and delirious botched paintings amazed. Another journey over a decade it’s being dedicated to Marta Colvin. Teresa Gazitua presented herself with recent volumes –stoned metaphor of the Chilean river-, Tatiana Alamos and her exotic culture mix, pretty wooden work from De la Puente, the “cochayuyos” from Lise Moller, Marcela Correa, David Cofré, Javier Arentsen and a new name, Mauricio Garrido, with boxes and an ensemble about E. A. Poe. Read more →

Patricia Claro: Liquid Landscapes

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Art District Magazine
By Denis Colson

As soon as I saw the work of the Chilean, Patricia Claro, at Kelley Roy Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Art District, I was reminded of heated debates about the death of painting, questions as to why produce a realistic painting when photography and digital media are able to capture reality precisely and instantaneously; unconsciously I recalled the controversial topic that has preoccupied artists since the birth of photography at the end of the nineteenth century. Upon closer examination of Claro’s works, which appear to have been created by the lens of a camera, I then thought about recent conversations about so-called “expanded painting,” and how many contemporary artists blur the boundaries between artistic manifestations and move traditional artistic material to different visual supports through the intervention of other disciplines like photography, video and new technology.

Patricia Claro, who considers herself to be a landscape artist, does not attempt to stray from traditional pictorial techniques, nor does she substitute them with digital ones; instead she makes use of the latter during her creative process. With the lens of her camera, she captures unrepeatable static images of landscapes reflected in water, and that reflection is the true protagonist in her enormous canvases.

It all begins with the recording of the reflection on the surface, which can take her hours or entire days during which she travels the lakes by boat, little by little capturing images that later on she deconstructs pixel by pixel to then reconstruct them in her pictorial works. When she stands before the canvas, she first dedicates herself to preparing the background of the painting, creating layers that cancel out the texture of the fabric. In this way she manages to achieve a smooth surface, at the same time that she incorporates the refracted image of the water. The painting is complemented by the reflected image that the artist incorporates through sfumato and a masterly handling of light. It is the wise use of light that causes her paintings to show a certain three-dimensionality, a certain movement; a somewhat changing nature makes them appear more real, as if they were living fragments of the tangible world.

Her works can be appreciated from afar like a hyperrealistic landscape, like those liquid mirrors that we find on the surface of still water. However, as we approach, we start to glimpse a collection of geometric forms that, like the pixels of a digital photograph, shape the image into a whole. The artist has studied the process of perception performed by the human eye, and she has made both the nearby and distant images converge on a 1:1 scale. In this way she causes that set of sensations in which the dialogue between the painting and the public takes place.

Patricia Claro’s liquid landscapes have made me believe that painting will continue to exist in its own right, as long as artists view their surroundings from a contemporary and informed perspective. Her paintings offer a “media-filtered” vision of natural landscapes; this could be no other way because it is through digital media that the contemporary individual today approaches reality. The result is an oeuvre, which is strong, authentic and full of life, an oeuvre that secretly touches the visual repertory of the observer by providing fragments of reality thereby activating the rich archive of images we each carry in our unconscious.

Denise Colson is a freelance art critic based in Miami.

TIME AND RIVERS DON’T FLOW BACK

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María Olga Giménez. Bachelor in Arts and Literature.
homep

Time and rivers don’t flow back is the title of Patricia Claro’s second solo exhibition at Animal Gallery. This collection is the fruit of a study about water and it’s characteristics where rigorous observation of reality has given the artist more insight about the natural laws that determine the particular properties of this element.

In conjunction with the aforesaid, the artist conducts a study on the concept of time, in which she explores the internal mechanism that allows water to flow permanently. The video is a complement to the pictorial representation and a synthesis of this study. It demonstrates a variation of light intensity throughout the day, revealing a series of changes that water experiences in its natural setting. The sequence of images uninterruptedly delivered by the river evokes the idea of infinity, as water continues to reflect and mirror, going beyond the limits of the framing and temporality of the chosen captions.  This temporality (which represents a non-existing instant at present time), contrasts with the idea of the eternal flow of water and is the substratum of the author’s reflexion with respect to time. The artist’s strategy starts from filming from a fixed angle that is manipulated through flipping, direction change and synchronized clips, among others. The objective is to recreate the presence of the river in the most vivid possible way. The video is a mise en scene of the river as the origin of the paintings.

The idea of time present in the videos as well as in the pictorial sequence connects with the theory of Heraclitus where movement is considered as the characteristic phenomenon of all that exists. The famous saying “no one bathes twice in the same river, extracted from the work of this pre-Socratic philosopher, alludes to the changing condition of all reality, starting from anything defined in a particular space and time, and mutating in accordance to  the changing process of both factors. Heraclitus uses the image of a river to represent the temporary nature of reality, the river being the best proof to the passing of time and the singleness of every lived instant. This paradigm supports the title of the exhibition. The evanescence of the mirrored images in the water with its unique and unrepeatable character grants a sort of sacredness to the piece of river chosen by the artist, for one is facing a scene that only occurs in that time-space and exists only once. Finally it is the river that determines and dictates the images appearing in the paintings.

The collection is a sequence of images of the same portion of water. The images are only fractions of a minute away from each other, thus giving continuance to the presentation. The span of the sequence encloses only 8 seconds, enough time for a wave to expand and disappear. A variation in the intensity of light is added to this representation of movement in water, simulating sunlight throughout the day, and revealing the transparency of water and its ability to mirror all that surrounds it.

This work is made possible due to the interrelation between nature and technique as part of Claro’s internal creative process. The predictable- represented by the digital caption- converges with the unpredictable and random- the water in its natural setting-, forming a triad: nature-technique-painting. The use of contemporary technology points out to the presence of a versatile studio, where thoroughness and deliberation of manual work intertwines with efficacy and arbitrariness of the technique, building a system that defines her particular style.

To fully understand the creation of the artist, one has to go back to the setting where the work originated. Instant photography is the result of a detailed and accurate monitoring of every transformation process that happens in nature, where the artist is witness to water cycles as seasons change. This constant rigorous observation shows the author’s personal adaptation to the rhythm of the river as the source of her images as she is subject to its changes in order to make an accurate representation of reality. Being a witness to the process of change in water according to its particular time and adjusting to it, year after year, is a testimony of the nobility of her creative process. It resembles the selflessness and generosity of water reflecting everything around it.

The adaptation of the artist to different rhythms and cycles of nature grants her style a kind of uniqueness marked by the presence of different times throughout the process. The first time corresponds to nature itself, the stage from which the image is captured to be used as the basis of the pictorial image. With the second time a creating process begins, where the rhythm depends on the quality of the material used and the sophistication of the techniques used by the artist to approach figuration by cutting.  Both times imply the artist’s diligence, calmness, and submission. This patient attitude which corresponds to her personal rhythm joins nature’s (rhythm) in order to capture and represent each image. The rhythms of water cannot be intervened; neither can the rhythm of painting and the creative process.

The artist’s patient attitude throughout the process resembles the internal disposition suggested in Tao Teh King or the Taoist book of wisdom. The book states that contemplating nature is one of the ways which leads to the path of knowledge.

According to this, it is possible to establish certain links between Claro’s style and the oriental principles of aesthetics. One of them is the way she deals with her object of study as she implies a depersonalization in order to assimilate and internalize the timing of nature. It is the only possible way for her to inspect and perceive the particular characteristics of water: it’s lack of identity, it’s formlessness, it’s lack of color and it’s transparency; identifying it as a “sounding solitude”[2].

      

“By not being we can contemplate on the essence. By being, we only see

the appearance.”[3]

 

This quote from the Taoist text draws allusion to the existing opposition between movement and stillness. It expresses that contemplation of reality is possible by not-being while only seeing the appearance is product of being. The message of the Taoist book is a description of a way of life that allows contemplation of reality and therefore guaranteeing the knowing of truth. The essence of reality is identified with Tao, which contains as well as sustains all that exist in the world we perceive. It is Tao’s embodying characteristic that makes it similar to water with its ability to contain the landscape- from the sky to the earth- , and at the same time mirroring it with fidelity and detachment (As shown in the paintings of the artist). This feature of water is present in Patricia Claro’s work, whence it is possible to understand the idea of Taoist emptiness. 

“The highest goodness, water-like,

 Does good to everything and goes

Unmurmuring to places men despise;

 But so, is close in nature to the Tao”[4]

The identification between Tao and the concept of emptiness leads to a search about the dialectic between water and the environment, where the image is a product of the reflection of light waves that bounce from the exterior surface. Water needs the tree to be seen because it cannot do so all by itself.

Understanding and studying the emptiness as well as differentiating its common meaning from the Taoist acceptation of the term, has been a substantial support in the development of the artist’s creative journey, particularly in its conceptual aspect and theoretical framework. To perceive water as an absence which is also infinite and undefined presence of new images has allowed her to use the concept of emptiness as a strategy to conceive the work.

Another point where the aesthetics of the artist and the oriental meet is evident in the use of paper-cutting for the construction of light filters which is an ancient technique in China dating back to 200 B.C. It consisted of using small scissors and chisels to cut paper. The final work was hung from the windows to filter the light entering. There is a drawing technique that is called “paper cutting” or “ Jianzhi”. This technique is referred to the way Claro proceeds with the drawing, as she creates the effect of light in the painting through a light-defining cut resembling a “chiseled mask”.  The cutting of paper-done with laser technology,  grades the intensity of light over the surface. This “handmade” light gives the image dynamism, as it creates a sense of movement similar to the waves produced by the currents. Every piece without a mask is a window that lets in beams and photons transformed into pictorial material. They define the image and give rise to the distorted reflections of the surrounding, which in turn reveals what there is in the exterior.

It’s essential to point out that Claro’s study about the quality of water is related to the biodynamic research done by Rudolph Steiner. The study focuses on water, as a living organism, and its characteristics in relation to the environment and the system it is part of. As the artist’s work of demonstrates the behavior of water in response to certain climatic, geographic and seasonal conditions, among other factors, it places it amongst hydrographic works of the planet and its ecosystem. Water chosen by the artist-as the basis of her work- is part of only 1% of the entire world’s water (the percentage of Sweetwater which is not frozen as glaciers, nor is groundwater)[5]. Therefore it is a rescue mission to do a study focused on the fugacity of time and its relationship to the water’s mirroring images. It draws the attention of the spectator in an attempt to change his view about this portion of water in extinction and its particular beauty.

1. El título de la exposición está inspirado en la novela de Yasunari Kawabata titulada Lo Bello y lo Triste. Emecé editores, Buenos Aires. 8va ed. P. 119.

2. Luis Racionero, Textos de Estética Taoísta. Editorial Alianza: Madrid, 1999. P. 52.

3. Lao Tse, Tao Teh King. Editorial Sirio: Buenos Aires, 2004. P. 11.

4. Ibid. P. 25

5. Fuente: National Academy of Sciences. Washington, DC. September 2011.