Andrés Michelena: A Retrospective Look

By Raisa Clavijo

A darkened room houses an enormous sphere full of smoke with texts taken from the Bible and the Koran floating over it. On the walls, acrylic boxes and mirrors reflect the sacred ancient words. Andrés Michelena (Caracas, 1963) has returned with a new concept, the fruit of his tireless genius. OOPSS!! (2007) is part of the latest creation of an artist, whose work has passed through many different media and techniques, encountering dissimilar moments from both a formal and a conceptual point of view; all of these factors being of equal importance. We must now analyze his career retrospectively.

Michelena started on the path to artistic creation through Architecture. From the outset he was attracted to the profession influenced by its familiar environment. After having pursued studies in this field for several semesters, he entered the Ventrillón drawing workshop at the Universidad Central de Venezuela which at that time was led by the caricaturists Pedro León Zapata and Ramón León. This experience made a lasting impression on him and he then decided to study Fine Arts. In the mid-eighties, he entered the Instituto de Arte Federico Brandt from which he graduated in 1989.

His first solo exhibition “Opus Nigrum” (1990), inspired by Marguerite Yourcenar’s novel of the same name, would symbolically define the direction of his work. Just like Zenón (one of Yourcenar’s characters), Andrés Michelena’s work would always be based on an eternal search for various means of expressing himself and making sense of worldly phenomena. Andrés Michelena’s understanding of his surroundings has been nourished by an ongoing interest in the esoteric, the mystical and the spiritual. Throughout his life he has been involved with astrology, santería and charismatic Catholicism. He has read Krishna Murti and more recently has begun practicing Zen Buddhism.  In this respect he says: “I think it is something innate within me. I believe that is where we find the reason for and the meaning of life. A human being can move in many different spheres, but there is something which envelops it all; it is the search for the meaning of our actions and of everything inherent in life. In that quest I have passed through different stages.”

With the series “Opus Nigrum”, Michelena tried to represent spirituality as symbolized by the intangibility of the atmosphere. To do this, he used as a basis some of the works of Goya, el Greco and Rembrandt in which the artists were able to capture the atmosphere. He does not try to reproduce or appropriate the works of these grand masters; rather he draws from their teachings as far as composition, the use of light and technical skills are concerned. “These are works which show the origin of the universe as a violent disturbance, where there were tremendous surges of energy, where there were incomprehensible forces at work.”

The next phase in his work was motivated by a book of XVII Century alchemical engravings compiled by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola. Michelena produced a collection of etched engravings based on many of the works contained in the book. The medium for these pieces were bronze plates which were subjected to very high concentrations of acid. The series “Alquimia” (Alchemy) emerges from these plates. With this series, he clarifies many of the ideas which had begun taking shape starting with “Opus Nigrum”. Although on occasion he appropriated images from the book, the end result was completely different from the engravings which served him as models, since the acid, applied in high concentrations, was often uncontrollable. Furthermore, the title of a new piece completely replaced the significance of the model, thus creating a new concept, a new idea and, although it bore the mark of the original, it had its own identity.

With “Alquimia”, the author experiences the alchemical process firsthand. The first alchemists searched incessantly for the philosopher’s stone with which to convert common metals into precious metals. Eventually they discovered that the true meaning of that metaphor was in the human spirit which as it evolves, is purified, perfected and transformed.  For this series, the artist used himself as raw material. As a result, his work gained in force and content. The results of these experiences, which mentally and conceptually transformed this creator, are evident in his subsequent work.

In the mid-nineties, the birth of his daughter Inés, and life with her, brought a freshness to Andrés Michelena’s work. The creative process went from being an intimate, solitary experience to involving those around him. The themes became more recreational. His pieces then drew from Picasso, Moore, Paul Klee, Calder, Tamayo, Lam, amongst other vanguard artists whose works he had come to know in childhood. In his paintings from this phase the author starts with abstract forms and minimal use of key elements, challenging the spectator to build, to construct the image and then find its analogy to some known form of reality. His work became more elegant and decorative without sacrificing quality. These pieces showed him it was possible to undertake life with less pressure and less solemnity. He now confesses that he likes to return to that phase when he needs to clarify his ideas.

When he moved to the United States in 1999, the process of adapting to a new environment led to a crucial turning point his work. He did not abandon painting, but he opened himself up to exploring the realm of conceptual art, installation, video art and performance art. He started analyzing new situations from a sociological and anthropological point of view trying to find the answers to many ordinary phenomena. That is how the series, “Dioses sin religión” (Gods without religion) was born. Michelena had started a collection of work in a smaller format than he had traditionally used. “I then started to create a series of characters who were like orphans, entities with no identity. I thought they were gods without religion because they didn’t even have names. I began questioning the existence of a god without religion and I realized that a god exists because there are human beings who recognize him as such and create a series of beliefs and rites around him.”

He realized that in this new context religion was tied to a series of media conditions which turned it into just another consumer product. There are thousands of different sects that emit messages through television, radio, the Internet and in print stating that there is a correlation between the prosperity of the believer and his good relationship with God. Beliefs are converted into formulae for getting money and achieving a better status in life.

He admits that an element which exploded within him at that time, and which gave rise to this series was the realization of how insatiable human beings are and how much they are willing to sacrifice to accumulate the goods in which they think they can find perfection and happiness. That is why, “Dioses sin religión” is a game in which religion is just another commodity. Many of these works were painted using fingers, and are like modern shrouds on which one can barely make out the silhouette of the deity. Michelena placed these paintings inside boxes which combined light, sound and movement, creating a kind of altar where these new gods reside. Inside the boxes, the figures were transformed and mutated. Some works that Michelena called IGod (2006) also stand out in the series. In these he proposes portable gods which a person can carry with him anywhere. The human being often substitutes the phenomenon for the spiritual, thereby keeping only the superficial part of a religious creed. Fascinated, prostrated, awed by the miracle, he forgets that the true reason for religion is the search for a path.

In the installation, Gods to go, (2006) Michelena proposes the idea of a canned god, mocking the completely fetishist relationship that a human being establishes with a religious image, attributing to it a whole range of supernatural powers. This work, in turn, generates an interesting exchange with the receiver or consumer who may wish to open the cans to find out what is contained inside, but who, at the same time, does not want to destroy the work of art which he has acquired, thereby instantly establishing a new fetishlike relationship inherent in the act of consumption itself.

Although the series, “Dioses sin religión” is still in progress, it is important to mention a parallel phase which takes place in his work and which the artist called, “…(  )…”, or,  in other words, “nothing”.  These works have emerged in the last few years, the product of his experiences with the practice of Zen Buddhism. These canvasses attempt to capture what transpires in his mind during the process of meditation. On them the light starts appearing little by little; it begins revealing and shaping forms that would not exist, were it not for the light. He does not ask questions, nor does he impose answers; he merely tries to express the sensations, the images in his mind during the act of meditation. 

This artist’s recent exhibitions at Hardcore Art Contemporary Space (Miami), Kunsthaus Santa Fe Gallery (Mexico), Galería Galou (New York) and his most recent show, “Impermanence” at MOCA Jacksonville (Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art) have revolved around ideas previously presented in “Dioses sin religión”.  One of his latest pieces, Awa, (2006) consisted of an enormous installation in which he placed 108 Buddha heads made out of glycerin soap, hanging from the gallery ceiling as though they were floating on air, creating a labyrinth that the spectator must pass through. The heads contain messages written on paper, but the spectator cannot access them since he would have to use up the soap in order to read the message. Awa is a Japanese term which means “bubble”, an image which often appears in Zen Buddhism. This installation is associated with the idea of impermanence. The mere fact that the medium is glycerin soap carries with it the idea of fragility, of transformation. The fact is that everything in this life is destroyed with the passage of time, even things we consider imperishable will eventually disappear. Awa later gives way to Impermanence, (2007), a video installation in which one of the Buddha heads made out of glycerin is dissolved in a bucket of water. As the head dissolves, the environment in which this event takes place starts to change. The video captures how the water evaporates and leaves a mark in the bucket. In this way the passage of time is documented and included as part of the work of art.

In the exhibition which was presented until August of 2007 at MOCA Jacksonville, the video, installation and performance, To Zen or not to Zen, (2006) stands out. This work, shown for the first time as part of the series, “Dioses sin religión” was produced in collaboration with Néstor Prieto and Juan Maristany. Through it, Michelena displays his own spiritual practice. The video captures what the author experiences during the act of meditation. Although at the beginning the atmosphere is solemn; as time passes the author moves, relaxes, laughs, and transforms the act of meditation into a dance, into something more routine because, “it is definitely as important to meditate, as to not meditate. When an individual cannot live without practicing meditation, he is then going against the very precepts of Zen, since he is turning meditation into an act of affection, of fetishism.”

His most recent installation OOPSS!!, (2007) is based on the historic and interpretive mistakes human beings have made in tackling sacred texts. Three acrylic boxes are lined up against a wall with the word OOPSS!! engraved at the center. Through the space left by the letters, one can read in the interior fragments from the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran written on mirrors. OOPSS!! speaks of the confusion, of the fallibility of everything created by man. In this respect he would say: “By pointing out the contradictions and errors present in these texts, I am trying to show the possibility of error and to make the spectator view these religions as natural and human processes.”  In the center of the room, an enormous sphere full of smoke reflects on its surface fragments of these sacred texts which are emitted through a projector located in the wall. This sphere is a metaphor for the human mind. Just as ideas float through our minds until we are able to grasp them; in Michelena’s sphere the light initially floats over the surface, until little by little it starts penetrating as the smoke contained inside dissipates. OOPSS!! was shown at Hardcore Contemporary Art Space (Wynwood, Miami) between May and August of this year.

Soon, Shit happens, (2007) Michelena’s video installation, with which he recently participated in LOOP Barcelona will be included in the Vision A exhibition. This showing, to be sponsored by the Instituto Cervantes, will be curated by Javier Duero and will consist of a series of videos which contain a social message and include language as a resource. Shit happens will participate in Art Beijing 2007, InVideo (Milan, 2007), Biennale de Lyon and in Casablanca (Morocco) as part of the 2008 International Film Festival. It is a work based on two murders committed by two American women who killed their children, alleging that they had received a divine mandate to do so. These two events which flooded newscasts a few years ago, served as a point of departure for this piece in which the author finds a parallel between these events and the sacrifice of Isaac as narrated in the Bible. In Shit happens, Michelena imagines the first words these women would exchange were they ever to meet. We are witnessing a period in the history of mankind when, even though there are unbelievable technological advances, many human beings longing for spirituality are returning to fundamental beliefs and primitive behavior.

This quick retrospective look at the works of Andrés Michelena has revealed a fully mature artist, with a great command of plastic media and a special ability to understand his surroundings. In a career spanning almost twenty years his work has been exhibited in Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Switzerland, Great Britain, as well as in the principal cities of the United States. Since the year 2000 he has been participating in international fairs such as: Art Miami, ARCO (Madrid), ARTEAMERICAS, Buenos Aires Photo, FIA-Caracas, Balelatina (Basel, Switzerland), PHOTO-MIAMI, Chicago Art Fair, CIRCA (Puerto Rico), ART DC (Washington), LOOP (Barcelona) and British Art (London, UK). His works are to be found at the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, California), as well as in significant private collections in Miami, Paris, Mexico and Caracas.

 

 

 

 

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All excerpt from an interview with Andrés Michelena, July 2007