unsettled primaries
Unsettled Primaries (2014) is a hybrid, web-based project conceived by Mariángeles Soto-Díaz in collaboration with participating Venezuelan artists and the Torrance Art Museum and El Museo del Barrio. For this collective event realized in summer 2014, artists located in and outside of Venezuela were invited to interpret a series of conceptual instructions that correspond with the primary colors of the country's flag. Using abstraction to respond obliquely to the flag's politically charged history, Unsettled Primaries reappropriates primary colors from reductionist readings and signals a multiplicitous, collective reflection on color's power and the fluidity of meaning. [ read more ]
The Venezuelan flag features horizontal bands of the primary colors, yellow, blue and red, occupying equal parts in its rectangular composition. It is said that Francisco de Miranda, the Venezuelan transatlantic revolutionary known as “The First Universal Criollo” who initiated the process that would lead to the independence of Venezuela and Latin America, conceptualized the Venezuelan flag for independence after exchanging ideas about color theory with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Europe. While this is only one myth among many surrounding Miranda's inspiration of primary colors for the flag, the story still resonates with Miranda's interdisciplinary and philosophical interests, which are well documented in his extensive journals chronicling encounters with Europe's leading intellectuals, artists and politicians.
For this project, Mariángeles Soto-Díaz invited Venezuelan artists to choose and interpret a set of open instructions to make an abstract work with equal distribution of primary colors. The instructions were meant as a productive challenge to the artists, particularly in light of the volatile political climate in Venezuela today and especially the many conflicts surrounding the use of the national flag in recent years.*
This experimental abstract project is a proposition put forth to think through many questions: Is it possible to reconcile formal and political meanings on a plane of simultaneity? Can color help us activate a shared experience of ambiguity and nuance, or are the established "universal" primary colors, an essential discovery in color theory, always mired in nationalism or flag-waving for Venezuelan artists? Is viewing art through the screen of a computer while imagining its materiality in real space a new kind of phenomenological experience? For individual artists, can a simultaneous performance of instructions interpreted in different parts of the world feel like a collective gesture?
Unsettled Primaries explores the potential of making something charged, tired and familiar new again, examining settled meanings. As in past projects directed by Soto-Diaz under the umbrella of her entity Abstraction At Work, Unsettled Primaries rests on the underlying premise that there is a conceptual and ambiguous border in the notion of abstraction that encroaches upon and even overlaps with symbolic representation, underscoring the uncomfortable fuzziness and fluidity of meaning in subject matter.
NOTE
* In 2013, as the two major candidates for presidential elections dressed in primary colors, government officials forbid the opposition from using them in their campaign despite the fact that the flag and its colors in various configurations were being used by the incumbent presidential candidate and precisely in that context. The rationale used by government officials was that using primary colors was an inappropriate use of patriotic symbols as per the Constitution passed in 2006 revising the Ley de Bandera Nacional, Himno Nacional y Escudo de Armas de la República Bolivariana Venezolana and/or the Supreme Justice Tribunal's own judgment.
Participating Artists
Venues
1. Activate Primaries
Arrange or paint equal areas of primary colors on a substrate. Any materials. Any substrate. Document. Activate or deconstruct by using one or many actions: caressing, slashing, covering, cutting, nailing, chewing, ruminating. Try to put it all back together again, however provisionally. If you can't, don't be afraid to laugh.
Juan Pablo Garza (VZLA)+
Sin titulo en tres acciones (Untitled in three actions)
acrylic on foam
61 x 41 cm
2014
Dulce Gómez (VZLA)+
"Who’s
Afraid
of
Red,
Yellow
,
Blue
and
Rubber
Band?
acrylic
on
paper and rubber band
26
x
17
cm
2014
My interpretation, "Who's Afraid of Yellow, Red, Blue and Rubber Band?" alludes to Barnett Newman's iconic work "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue." I was interested in both Newman's use of primary colors and the use of the verb "fear" in the title, and decided to add a rubber band to the modest-scale work, one that is used to hold together bolivar bills. It is well known that heavy duty rubber bands have been used in protests to sling rocks over barricades and into the ranks of the police and national guard as response to the rubber bullets, repression and more generally to protest the asymmetrical civil war being waged by both armed police and paramilitary groups, but here, as well as in other works I've done in the past, I am using the rubber band to activate the composition and suggest other meanings; the rubber band joins the other color bands while evoking a feeling of elasticity. My response is itself a way through doubt and fears that also accompany one's process in the studio.
Susana Reisman (VZLA/CAN)+
By default
animated gif of digital drawings on computer
variable size
2014
As an artist and photographer I am consistently moving between our analog, physical, three-dimensional world and that of the virtual, digital, through-the-screen two-dimensional one. This entails capturing light and color and translating this information via the computer into prints. This translation occurs in a world of additive primary colors – RGB (red, green, and blue), my primary colors by default. This image is a result of those two worlds colliding – through printing and scanning – allowing the messiness and inaccuracies of translation to be reflected.
2. Occupy Bands
Make a rectangular work in which horizontal bands of yellow, blue and red occupy equal parts in its composition. Visualize the colors' generative potential if you were to enact all color permutations. Imagine the borders of each hue dissolving as they become the next. Contemplate the kernels of possibility as you let your favorite band occupy the air and your entire body.
Ricardo Alcaide (VZLA/BR)+
Boundaries (sequence)
mixed media
2014
For Occupy Bands, my starting point is the representation of primary colors, the triad of the Venezuelan flag, as spoiled, vulnerable and symbolically altered. In this interpretation of the original layout, I used modified, faded, twisted hues that replace the colors recognized in the original flag. A wooden frame defines the boundaries for each color. Even properly built, the frame still allowed the colors to expand and accidentally merge underneath the limits.
Ricardo Alcaide (VZLA/BR)+
Boundaries (sequence)
mixed media
2014
For Occupy Bands, my starting point is the representation of primary colours, the triad of the Venezuelan flag, as spoiled, vulnerable and symbolically altered. In this interpretation of the original layout, I used modified, faded, twisted hues that replace the colors recognizable in the original flag. A wooden frame defines the boundaries for each color. Even properly built, the frame still allowed the colors to expand and accidentally merge underneath the limits.
Susana Reisman (VZLA/CAN)+
Not every color within each band is the same
archival pigment print
14 x 20 in
2014
I began by creating a rectangular image simulating the colors of the Venezuelan flag. I have to admit that I have grown to be a bit averse to these colors. I then decided to zoom into the image in an attempt to see the make-up of each of these bands of colors. Yellow, blue and red are made of equal sized pixels and yet not every color within each band is the same. This image is a result of my imagining new political alliances and leanings spreading among the Venezuelan citizens. I wanted to suggest a misalignment in ideologies, a dissidence from within.
Fabian Salazar (VZLA)+
Green Insurgency: Make a bow and make it tight
To Candido Millan, for his teachings on color.
embroidery, fabric needlework, fabric (cotton, linen, synthetic fabric), silk ribbon, embroidery floss (mercerized Egyptian cotton floss)
Yellow: 32 x 31 cm
Red: 32 x 28 cm
Blue: 37 x 35 cm
2014
Though mostly driven by the DIY instructions, my idea for this project was to blend all three sets of instructions. I felt that the second set of instructions allowed me to think through the erasure of color boundaries which allowed me to add green as a primary color. Even though green doesn't belong to the RYB system, it is a part of the four primary colors in psychology. I chose to work individually on each of the compositions using remnants of cotton, linen, felt and synthetic fabric, creating objects which I embroidered and put green ribbon on diagonal form to create a kind of chromatic interference. My immediate association as I visualize the RYB triad is in fact the Venezuelan flag, and I have always felt that its exact symmetrical horizontal color bands communicate a sense of immobility and stagnation, and that stagnation generates in me a kind of irritation or unease. The superposition of color bands is my response to the need to displace hegemonic classifications that maintain their continued relevance through negation of all dissidence.
3. DIY primaries with someone in mind
Make an abstract work with primary colors and come up with your own instructions. Dedicate it to someone, as quietly or as boldly as you wish.
Emilia Azcarate (VZLA/ESP)+
TOP: Sudoku (problem)
acrylic on wood
20 x 20 cm
2014
BOTTOM: Sudoku, (solution)
acrylic on wood
13 x 13 cm
2014
instructions:
9 colors (primaries and secondaries) represent each of the letters that make the word V E N E Z U E L A. To play, complete the empty squares without repeating the color/letter on the horizontal columns or vertical or within the subdivisions of the 3 x 3 squares.
Juan Pablo Garza (VZLA)+
Haz una obra con colores primarios a partir de una prenda de ropa usada (Make a work with primary colors using worn clothing as a starting point)
acrylic on canvas on t-shirt
33 x 22 cm
2014
instructions:
Haz una obra con colores primarios a partir de una prenda de ropa usada (Make a work with primary colors using worn clothing as a starting point)
Jaime Gili (VZLA/UK)+
World Piss
Music by Fela Kuti "Viva Nigeria"
Recorded by chance on the video, it was playing on @resonancefm independent and artist run radio station from London.
2014
statement:
The red is from a real painting that was being painted in a real studio. All other colors are watered down, all except the red which seems solid. The yellow comes from inside the body of the artist. And the world is still not in peace.
Esperanza Mayobre (VZLA/USA)+
To Golindano
medium mixed media
5 x 7 in
2014
instructions:
Situate yourself in a place. The place where you spend most of your time even though you have not been there in a long time. Put the color(s) of your flag into the place. (To Golindano)
statement:
I live in a place and I live in a place where I don't live anymore. I cannot say I live more in one than in the other. I became an immigrant.
The patriotic symbols never meant much. The landscape meant more. But strangely I do identify myself when I see yellow, blue, red. It has to be in that order. It cannot be red, blue, yellow or yellow, red, blue or blue, red, yellow.
Ana Maria Mazzei (VZLA)+
Libre Interpretación (free interpretation)
2014
instructions:
Wrap yourself with a large piece of fabric with primary colors. Make other expressive gestures, free interpretation.
statement:
I conceived these photos as three gestures uniting hands, mouth and primary colors. Primary colors for me have been turned into a gag, synonymous with lack of freedom. I have come to see primary colors with a kind of indifference due to the widespread manipulation and authoritarianism with which patriotic symbols have been used in politics in the last decade or so.
Teresa Mulet (VZLA)+
Bochinche
animated gif of silkscreen on cotton
variable dimensions
2014
instructions:
take the word “bochinche”
and repeat it three times (in reference to Miranda’s phrase)
“bochinche” in yellow
“bochinche” in blue
“bochinche” in red
screen-print it
without making a fixed imprint
allowing the superimposition of each color
so as to demonstrate, emphasize, and render visible
the abuse, the repetition of the use of our national symbols,
emptying them of any meaning.
statement:
taking historical facts (anecdotes) as starting point
1_ an anecdote from the fall of the First Republic in 1812, according to which Francisco de Miranda, when apprehended in La Guaira, shouted: “bochinche, bochinche, esta gente no es capaz sino de bochinche” (“ruckus, ruckus, these people are only capable of ruckus”)
2_ on the occasion of the VI International Congress of the Spanish Language, held in Panama in 2013, the journal “El País” from Spain organized a tribute to Spanish as spoken in Latin America. Writers from each Spanish-speaking nation of the New World were asked to choose the word that best described their country. For Venezuela, poet Rafael Cadenas proposed “bochinche” (ruckus, uproar, mess).
on rereading the word “bochinche”
and rethinking the idiosyncrasies and identity of Venezuelans,
which seem to have remained unaltered since the XIX century,
on the contrary, they have become fixed and immutable
its resonance endures; we still
identify with the same word
these two facts make me ask
how to reinterpret the word “bochinche”
in the current sociopolitical situation?
how to make a flag in present-day Venezuela?
Susana Reisman (VZLA/CAN)+
Ex-patria
archival pigment print
7 x 10 in
2014
statement:
This is a less systematic, more improvisational piece, dedicated to Gabriela Montero as I admire her courage in being outspoken about the economic and political situation in Venezuela, and more specifically the violation of human rights.
Luis Romero (VZLA)+
Essay about minorities (Ensayo sobre las minorias)
color construction paper assemblage
27.5 x 43.5 cm
2014
statement:
After reading the instructions initially given, I decided to set my own parameters (DIY)
The initial premise alluded to the proportionality of the two main political factions in Venezuela, and their respective identification with two of the primary colors (blue and red).
I asked myself where to place the minorities not represented by these two factions
- With what color should they be represented?
- Given that yellow is the remaining color of the triad of primary colors; naturally I decide to use it to represent that segment, often ignored.
- I’m interested in seeing how colors act as graphic representations of politics.
- I decide to use triangles in order to break with the rigidity of the background’s rectangular shape.
In the case of the image I titled Essay on minorities, in fields of equal dimensions (blue and red), I place yellow color fields that represent minorities to see how they, in turn, affect the fields of the majority.
Luis Romero (VZLA)+
Exercise of Freedom (Ejercicio de libertad)
color construction paper assemblage
27.5 x 43.5 cm
2014
statement:
After reading the instructions initially given, I decided to set my own parameters (DIY)
The initial premise alluded to the proportionality of the two main political factions in Venezuela, and their respective identification with two of the primary colors (blue and red).
I asked myself where to place the minorities not represented by these two factions
- With what color should they be represented?
- Given that yellow is the remaining color of the triad of primary colors; naturally I decide to use it to represent that segment, often ignored.
- I’m interested in seeing how colors act as graphic representations of politics.
- I decide to use triangles in order to break with the rigidity of the background’s rectangular shape.
Exercise in Freedom is based on the primary color triad. I perform an exercise in freedom applying the same color surface with slight tone variations, in order to generate independent and free interactions associated with the way a color is affected both by shape and by its proximity to another.