© Gabriel OROZCO
Piedras en la Reja (Stones in the fence)
| Artist | Gabriel OROZCO |
|---|---|
| Year | 1989 |
| Material/ Technique | cibachrome |
| Size/ Duration | H40.6 × W50.8cm |
| Copyright Notice | © Gabriel OROZCO |
| Year of acquisition/ donation | 2003（作品購入年月日：2003/03/31） |
| Description | Born in Veracruz, Mexico in 1962. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico and New York, USA. Gabriel Orozco’s works span a range of different media including photography, drawing, sculpture, video, and installation, and usually involve the transformation of existing objects or things or interventions in familiar everyday scenes. By laying geometric patterns over news or sports-news photographs, covering a skull with a checkered pattern, or cutting a car lengthways to create a single-seater vehicle, for example, he seeks to overturn the existing order and find in things meaning or connections that transcend space-time. Drawing on his study of mathematics and profound knowledge of architecture, he seeks to reconstruct from his own unique perspective the order linking all things in the universe. Orozco’s practice of slightly altering existing things or situations or intervening in them by adding geometric elements is noticeable in this work from the “Atomists” series that was first unveiled in 1996 at the “Empty Club” exhibition in London. The title of this work, which was made by cutting out photographs from the sports section of a newspaper and adding oval patterns, derives from the philosophy of atomism developed by the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. "Ping-Pond Table" is a typical example of Orozco’s game-themed works. The ping-pong table is shaped like a four-leafed clover, and the hollow in the center is filled with water, upon which water lilies float. The form of the game as we know it is transformed, and as a result the very act of viewing, including discovering the rules and experiencing the game, becomes closely connected to the creation of the piece. The same principle applies to the mechanism of "Bamboo Ball", which consists of rubber balls with bamboo grass leaves attached to them hanging from the ceiling, in that the actions of the viewer in circling the work to view it causes them to sway. Orozco’s penetrating insight into reality and refined sculptural sensibility can also be seen in his drawings and photographic works. His art practice demonstrates symbolically his approach of treating the everyday as a a place setting and seeking to uncover new relationships and frames of reference in thought, creative processes, forms of expression, and the act of viewing. |
NOTES
This Collection Data page contains the works and materials in the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as of April 1, 2018.
Artists are listed alphabetically by artist’s surname.
Works and materials by the same artists are listed according to the date of the work in principle.
Works whose dates are unidentified are listed at the end of each item. Some works are not listed according to the date of work due to their relations.
The data of works and materials are listed in order of title, production year, material/technique/form, dimensions, donor’s name, copyright holder and credit for photograph.
Dimensions are given by height (H) x width (W) in centimeters for plane work, and height (H) x width (W) x depth (D) in cm for 3-D work. Diameter (Ø) is used for circular work.
For the name of country or city, the name currently used in English is listed in principle.