Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: The sculptural practice of Adrián Villar Rojas (b. 1980, Argentina) threatens to fissure the continuous façade of our reality through its uncanny insinuation of parallel temporalities. His construction of monumental ruins amalgamates disparate forms ranging from the organic to the aggressively industrial, and his large-scale works are rendered more enigmatic due to their calculated destruction. His use of unfired clay produces a decaying aesthetic that alludes to the fragility of narratives traditionally imbued in monumental forms, thereby calling attention to the tenuous nature of memory and history. By producing works abroad that are intentionally oscillatory and endowing them with familial, and often morbid, titles (ie. My Dead Family; The Murder of Your Heritage; Before My Birth), the artist alludes to the pervasive ambiguities in Argentina’s political atmosphere that perpetuate the elusive nature of its recent historical past. Regardless of his active participation within an international circuit of contemporary art, Villar Rojas’ enigmatic and ruinous aesthetic remains driven by his latent historical inheritance.
Author: Mina Juhn
Language: English
Topic: Art, Politics, and Modernism
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W797139973