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Daniel Ruanova DEFEND:SECURITY
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Daniel Ruanova DEFEND:SECURITY
constructs of a people fearing society
FEBRUARY 14 - MARCH 21, 2009
Artist's Reception:
Friday, February 13, 6 to 9 p.m.
Seminal Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition by Daniel Ruanova, titled DEFEND:SECURITY / CONSTRUCTS OF A PEOPLE FEARING SOCIETY, comprised of a single, monumental steel sculpture installed in the Main Gallery, accompanied by a mural-size painting in the Projects Space. This is Daniel Ruanova's debut solo exhibition at Seminal Projects, which will be on view from February 14 through March 21, 2009. An artist's reception will be held on Friday, February 13, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Based in Tijuana, Mexico, Daniel Ruanova is at the forefront of an important, new generation of younger Mexican artists. Most recently, his work has appeared in Proyecto Civico/Civic Project (curated by Ruth Estevez and Lucia Sanroman) at Centro Cultural Tijuana/El Cubo; Political Mutante Politico at Arcuate Arte Contemporaneo in Monterrey, Mexico; Strange New World: Art and Design from Tijuana at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; War as a Way of Life at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA; and, Viva Mexico!/Long Live Mexico! at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland.
Violence has long been part of our way of life and, by many accounts, is one of the most obvious attributes of contemporary American life. Tragically, it has also come to define the Mexican-American border experience, one of the world's most trafficked international boundaries that is at the center of the global debate on immigration, free trade, human smuggling, drug-trafficking, and cultural integration. DEFEND:SECURITY speaks to a growing sense of insecurity--the constant threat and fear of violence, a state of continual crisis--and the idea that violence in the 21st century has permeated our individual lives, psyche and everyday world to such a degree that it shapes not only the way we live but may even define who we are. It has become a part of the status quo, an integral--albeit, subversive--characteristic and component of our normal way of life.
In the past, Daniel Ruanova's works have addressed different forms of "fictionalized" violence (children's toys, video games, comic books), presented in ironic and often humorous, colorful pop assemblages of plastic guns, tanks, and toy soldiers, as well as densely layered paintings whose hyper-graphic compositions suggest our fascination with war and destruction. DEFEND:SECURITY poses an entirely different proposition and critique. It catapults beyond the fantasies and games of the virtual/telegenic/entertainment mediums in order to confront the sobering reality of our desensitization to violence as a whole: aggression and hostility characterized by cynicism and hypocrisy, and a political and moral laissez-faire that result in apathy, discrimination, and outright violence, transforming human beings into victims, potential victims and perpetrators.
In this respect, the forms and conceptual framework that Ruanova engages in his newest works, both paintings and sculptures, are built upon the linguistic and rhetorical ruins of fear and violence. The same overused words and bankrupt language that are routinely co-opted and cleverly exploited of their potential and credibility--enigmatic words and phrases, such as DEFENSE, SECURITY, BE SAFE--classic signifiers and affirmations in the American tradition/myth of freedom and democracy, are reclaimed by Ruanova as the central leitmotif in his paintings. Yet, these new paintings present a different kind of façade: a landscape-as billboard-as armor, whose vibrant, hot colors the artist camouflages under a cubist shield of steel shrapnel-like casings (not unlike the grey-colored hills of Tijuana--bereft of irrigation, of course)--lest they be corrupted by the unpleasant unrealities of idealism.
The counterpoint to Ruanova's "full metal jacket" painting, SECURITY, is his armor-piercing sculpture, DEFEND (from the ongoing FUCK-OFF Project). Like SECURITY, DEFEND invades and occupies space with a ferocious power and impenetrable posture. It is both an explosion and an implosion--a geometry of chaos which, like fear itself, generates the explosive impulses that lead to violent acts, triggering in turn more fear and so on ad infinitum. Constructed out of metal studs in the form of a monstrous barricade, DEFEND is a metaphor for the destructive forces and the institutionalized violence which converge under pretense of law or tacit consensus, pitting law and order against anarchy and revolution. Paradoxically, it is also the checkpoint that must be crossed so that lessons learned are not continually relearned at the cost of innocent lives.
Daniel Ruanova has been nominated in the emerging artist category for the 2008-2009 San Diego Art Prize.
Daniel will lead an artist's talk and discussion of DEFEND:SECURITY / CONSTRUCTS OF A PEOPLE FEARING SOCIETY on Saturday, March 7, starting at 2:00 p.m.
For more information, please contact Luis De Jesus at 619-696-9699, or email : info@seminalprojects.com
2040 India Street
San Diego, CA 92101
T 619 696 9699
F 619 696 9799
info@seminalprojects.com
www.seminalprojects.com
constructs of a people fearing society
FEBRUARY 14 - MARCH 21, 2009
Artist's Reception:
Friday, February 13, 6 to 9 p.m.
Seminal Projects is pleased to announce an exhibition by Daniel Ruanova, titled DEFEND:SECURITY / CONSTRUCTS OF A PEOPLE FEARING SOCIETY, comprised of a single, monumental steel sculpture installed in the Main Gallery, accompanied by a mural-size painting in the Projects Space. This is Daniel Ruanova's debut solo exhibition at Seminal Projects, which will be on view from February 14 through March 21, 2009. An artist's reception will be held on Friday, February 13, from 6 to 9 p.m.
Based in Tijuana, Mexico, Daniel Ruanova is at the forefront of an important, new generation of younger Mexican artists. Most recently, his work has appeared in Proyecto Civico/Civic Project (curated by Ruth Estevez and Lucia Sanroman) at Centro Cultural Tijuana/El Cubo; Political Mutante Politico at Arcuate Arte Contemporaneo in Monterrey, Mexico; Strange New World: Art and Design from Tijuana at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; War as a Way of Life at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA; and, Viva Mexico!/Long Live Mexico! at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Poland.
Violence has long been part of our way of life and, by many accounts, is one of the most obvious attributes of contemporary American life. Tragically, it has also come to define the Mexican-American border experience, one of the world's most trafficked international boundaries that is at the center of the global debate on immigration, free trade, human smuggling, drug-trafficking, and cultural integration. DEFEND:SECURITY speaks to a growing sense of insecurity--the constant threat and fear of violence, a state of continual crisis--and the idea that violence in the 21st century has permeated our individual lives, psyche and everyday world to such a degree that it shapes not only the way we live but may even define who we are. It has become a part of the status quo, an integral--albeit, subversive--characteristic and component of our normal way of life.
In the past, Daniel Ruanova's works have addressed different forms of "fictionalized" violence (children's toys, video games, comic books), presented in ironic and often humorous, colorful pop assemblages of plastic guns, tanks, and toy soldiers, as well as densely layered paintings whose hyper-graphic compositions suggest our fascination with war and destruction. DEFEND:SECURITY poses an entirely different proposition and critique. It catapults beyond the fantasies and games of the virtual/telegenic/entertainment mediums in order to confront the sobering reality of our desensitization to violence as a whole: aggression and hostility characterized by cynicism and hypocrisy, and a political and moral laissez-faire that result in apathy, discrimination, and outright violence, transforming human beings into victims, potential victims and perpetrators.
In this respect, the forms and conceptual framework that Ruanova engages in his newest works, both paintings and sculptures, are built upon the linguistic and rhetorical ruins of fear and violence. The same overused words and bankrupt language that are routinely co-opted and cleverly exploited of their potential and credibility--enigmatic words and phrases, such as DEFENSE, SECURITY, BE SAFE--classic signifiers and affirmations in the American tradition/myth of freedom and democracy, are reclaimed by Ruanova as the central leitmotif in his paintings. Yet, these new paintings present a different kind of façade: a landscape-as billboard-as armor, whose vibrant, hot colors the artist camouflages under a cubist shield of steel shrapnel-like casings (not unlike the grey-colored hills of Tijuana--bereft of irrigation, of course)--lest they be corrupted by the unpleasant unrealities of idealism.
The counterpoint to Ruanova's "full metal jacket" painting, SECURITY, is his armor-piercing sculpture, DEFEND (from the ongoing FUCK-OFF Project). Like SECURITY, DEFEND invades and occupies space with a ferocious power and impenetrable posture. It is both an explosion and an implosion--a geometry of chaos which, like fear itself, generates the explosive impulses that lead to violent acts, triggering in turn more fear and so on ad infinitum. Constructed out of metal studs in the form of a monstrous barricade, DEFEND is a metaphor for the destructive forces and the institutionalized violence which converge under pretense of law or tacit consensus, pitting law and order against anarchy and revolution. Paradoxically, it is also the checkpoint that must be crossed so that lessons learned are not continually relearned at the cost of innocent lives.
Daniel Ruanova has been nominated in the emerging artist category for the 2008-2009 San Diego Art Prize.
Daniel will lead an artist's talk and discussion of DEFEND:SECURITY / CONSTRUCTS OF A PEOPLE FEARING SOCIETY on Saturday, March 7, starting at 2:00 p.m.
For more information, please contact Luis De Jesus at 619-696-9699, or email : info@seminalprojects.com
2040 India Street
San Diego, CA 92101
T 619 696 9699
F 619 696 9799
info@seminalprojects.com
www.seminalprojects.com
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