Dispersal is a collection of sculptural compositions that enable contextual storytelling. It draws inspiration from the Juarez radioactive material accident, video game mechanics, a forgotten mine, the making of a monster and the activation of curiosity as it breaches containment in a multimedia instauration housing aftermaths of a life that is unfinished.
Dispersal as
a biogeographical event?
is a fundamental process of an organism moving away from its point of origin and distribution limits. It is rare, infrequent and seldom observed.
a characteristic of an unfocused mind?
is a failure of executive functions.
a strategy for making?
is to inhabit the incompleteness of it all, unable to conclude for every piece is in dependence of all the others.
a form of containment?
is to be in paradox. Do/n't deny the paradox.
decay?
it may be the spell for transmutation.
a logical structure?
is not recommended.
When an artist is juxtaposed between multiple cultures, border art must be conceived as a mode of operation, rather than as a definition. What makes border art an appealing practice is its emphasis upon its multiplicity of language within any single language, by choosing a strategy of translation, adaptation and transformation rather than representation, a border artist ultimately undermines the distinction in otherness. They give those who encounter us the opportunity to practice multidimensional, perception, and non-synchronous memory.
By multidimensional perception, I mean quite literally the ability to see not just from one side, but from a multiplicity. Those who encounter these curated experiences by the artist, are not always able to perceive the "logic" of it at first, nor will they be able to hear the multiplicity of discourse within a single language. A greater demand is made on the audience of border art. The ear of the other must be heard. One must work to understand how another perceives. If one is able to do this, you might find yourself crossing a border as well.
Bio
The works of rubén garcía marrufo are an audiovisual fabulation of the awe-inducing instances, gathering phantasmagorical narratives, silences, and rituals which expand the ways we embrace the concept of border, going beyond its social, historical and political meaning, to manifest border as the site for a vital existence. With video, film, and sound experimentation as their principal medium, they project their pieces onto public spaces or edit them into fragmented montages that alter our perception of the moving image, in an exercise that fuses poetic fiction with documentary chronicles. garcía marrufo invites us to transcend the veil of lost moments that occur when we sense the pulse of our surroundings, through sequences and scenarios that present human life as a fluid passage from one place to the next, a translation of languages and symbols, oral testimonies that tell stories of loss and communion. This work is a place where we launch into a sensorial adventure of discovery, that intimate encounter with the pondering image and its ability to connect with us, residual moments where we witness something both fulminating and captivating, summoning us to reunite with the primal wonder of being-in-the-world.
This exhibition is supported by funds from the Oregon Arts
Commission and The Ford Family Foundation.