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From the concept to the line
By Marcela Römer
Art composition usually starts with a point that turns into a line and then into a shape or plan. That is how, according to the educational standards of the already memorable Bauhaus -and way before that, of course- artists merge their journeys through artistic visions which place them in a world created by all kinds of occurrences.
How an image that will result in a work of art is composed is the analytical task of critics, artists and any spectator who may wish to delve into the subject. That analysis is important and how it occurs is an issue more dependent on the artist himself.
Efrén Candelaria is a very young Puerto Rican with the conceptual maturity of an older and more experienced artist. The poetry of his work is built upon a minimalist idea established in the field of drawing about the situational placement of a work of art. In the gallery’s blank cubicle, day after day the artist manually sketched in black charcoal a specific number of vertical lines, almost parallel at an apparently average height. The work in the space took almost a week until the four walls of the blank cubicle were completely covered with thousands of extremely even lines despite the fact that they were completely done by hand.
Once Candelaria observed his lines and the pieces of charcoal remaining on the floor as vestiges of each one of them, he explained what portion of them would be photographed for the second phase of the project. The photographer and artist (Mariano Costa Peuser) was left with the not so easy task of reproducing the sections of the lines and wall that the artist indicated to him. I mention that this was not a simple task since it was the first time that Costa Peuser worked with Candelaria on this subtle task of trying to photograph portions of what took place without interfering too much (a virtually impossible task) with the artist’s concept. This was done with great skill and subtlety, respecting the original idea.
After seeing the photographic proofs and being in complete agreement with the results, Candelaria covered all the lines he had sketched with white paint reverting back to the immaculate white wall which had seduced him from the start. What would be exhibited at the opening is the fundamental: four photographs in a large format which reveal portions of the drawing done by the artist, a video in which one can view the whole process, and the remains of the charcoal used to compose the entire work.
The artist’s curiosity evidently goes beyond the drawing to the challenge of the space and installation without losing sight of the contemporary need for taking an interest in the process which has occurred to produce it. Drawing, as viewed in the world of art, appears many times as structural support for other arts such as painting, sculpture or engraving. In this case, drawing is the end product, not only the drawing, but also the lines and their physical and tensional relationship with the space which houses them. The curiosity of the artist is both formal and conceptual. From a formal standpoint, his concern revolves around the synthesis of the drawing, the extended sequence of the same act, the repetition of same and the artistic effect that the ensemble produces; conceptually, it is the involvement that these lines provoke in an eminently media-influenced, superficial world. The famous phrase, “less is more,” could be used with precision when referring to the work of Candelaria.
The artist is a contemporary beneficiary of the minimalists and conceptualists, with a legacy that can be glimpsed in his actions. Like a possible admirer of Sol Lewitt, the artist is more preoccupied with the concept than the object itself which is only produced after the idea is conceived. The recently-deceased artist commented in an interview at the end of the 60’s:
“I feel that as an artist I can use two dimensions or three dimensions. They’re equally valid and equally interesting. What I don’t want to do is to repeat old ideas. Ah there’s no point in that. But I think that if you assume the idea of a surface, which I do assume as a wall is a surface, then the wall of a three-dimensional is also a wall and can be used as a vehicle for drawing. ” (1)
The concept of remoteness in relation to the background developed by Lewitt in this interview is taken up by Candelaria in a completely parallel manner. If the idea of the dimensionality of the work was considered in the 60’s as merely an act of reflection on Lewitt’s part, Candelaria actually re-conceptualizes the tension of this remoteness from the material (white wall, charcoal, drawing concept, video of the process) to also present a depictive pretext. If for Lewitt the idea or concept was much more important than the work itself, for Candelaria the work process surpasses and complements the concept and creates a result, in this case photographic, as a consequence of the first two. In defining what the process is and why he takes the time to count all of the lines produced, Candelaria commented:
“It is a completely ‘compulsive’ process, if you remember how I define compulsive. (Process) In this case the specific form is the drawing in its entirety. It is a form that has been developed consistently. That is why by counting them I feel I am experiencing one of those consistent forms which are inherent to the whole, but also from a certain point or process, to the detail. One to one. A concrete detailed experience. To my parallel understanding, it is another way of experiencing the same form but in a different place.” (2)
The compulsiveness that the artist refers to is deceptive; the accounts of the compulsive act come from being carried away by the space in the ensemble of lines. However, in thinking that the concept supports the work in such an efficient way, we notice that the apparent compulsiveness has a touch of strong, constructive analysis combined with consistency in relation to the detail the artist emphasizes (that of counting one by one the lines produced, or better yet, “suffered”, in the process.)
Y…los (And…the), the title of the show presented in Miami during July and August, 2007 alludes to the conjunction with a suspended space (the ellipsis) and a word (the) puts into play those heterogeneous worlds that Candelaria imagines in immense superimposed dimensions.
In his upcoming shows the artist will work in a parental relationship with his mother (Show “Departure”, piece entitled “Origin being something?” New York, September 15, 2007) in a video in which the two of them appear reading from the book of Genesis in the same rocking chair: she in Spanish and he in English. In the other show, (”Hardly Smooth”, Eight Modern Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 12, 2007), he once again takes up the idea of drawing and installation incorporating videos with his actions, literally “taking up” the gallery space.
Efrén Candelaria is an artist who with his minimalist subtlety superimposes his processes on to his artistic results. His actions on the relationship between drawing and space unite the structure of traditional sketches. From a concept to a meditative line, this artist, with a great future in contemporary American production, tries to reveal what can happen with that pristine space of intense whiteness which seduces him to depths that can cause artists to lose the pleasant sleep of a deceptive harmony.
Marcela Römer: Curator and art critic
Published by Wynwood. The Art Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, October 2007
1 Norvell, Patricia “Recording Conceptual Art”, edited by Alexander Alberro and Patricia Norvell, published by the University of California, USA, 2001. Patricia Norvell’s interview of Sol Lewitt, p.114.
2 The artist’s explanation of his work, Miami, USA, 2007.
