homo superior

Mixing Media and Modes at Jardín Oculto

In typical Buenos-Aires fashion, the scene at Jardín Oculto’s opening last Thursday seemed to be just getting going by the time I had to leave. A bit of a mad mix, the show includes photographs and sculptures by Fabián Ramos as well as large-scale paintings by Federico Lanzi.

I started upstairs, where I had the luck to meet none other than Lanzi’s therapist looking over his paintings. (Here’s another characteristic peculiar to Buenos Aires: More psychotherapists and psychologists per capita than any other city in South America.) Of course I thought this would serve as my window into the story behind the works, but apparently she doesn’t do therapy and tell!

We did spend some time just looking at the acrylic canvases together — and they do need time and space — noting how recognizable figures emerged from the swirls of colour. At first I completely missed the horses in the big blue painting, which later seemed to jump out at me. It’s amazing how a few steps forward and a few steps back can make all the difference. It’s a good reminder that art often requires more than just a quick walk-through.

Downstairs I had the chance to talk to Ramos, but not before having a good look at his photographs and sculptures, and not before plenty of questions had formed in my mind.

Interested in both clothing and architecture, Ramos likes to take things apart and put them back together. He says that he works as a kind of stylist, dressing up mannequins in a melange of clothing articles, fabrics, accessories, and objects before photographing them.

The faceless mannequins — faces replaced by fabrics or foodstuffs — appeared almost Bedouin-like to me. The notion of full-body coverage suggests a kind of protection from the elements, working well with the background settings.

And amidst all those crazily-clad mannequin photographs on the main floor of the gallery, Ramos included a series of modernist sculptures.

Made of wood, metal, and neon lighting, the sculptures contrast starkly with the look and feel of the photographs. When I asked him about the disparate nature of his two media, specifically why he put sculptures next to photography and vice versa, Ramos said he likes the way sculptures emanate ideas and symbols, playing with time and space. In the same way that each mannequin in a photo functions as a collection of ideas conveyed through objects and clothing, the sculptures do something similar in a more spatial and yet more abstract way.

Back upstairs one more time, I quickly caught up with Lanzi to ask him about the sensation of movement in his paintings, and the horses of course, which seemed to appear out of nowhere. He said the horses represented movement — not only moving from one physical location to another, but from one mental state to another, like bolting from the dark analyst’s office into the bright light outside.

Text and photographs by Carla Harms

Fabián Ramos: Pulpa Triagulito
Federico Lanzi: Fuerzas Invisibles
Through Dec. 11

Jardín Oculto Galería
Venezuela 926, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tuesday - Saturday
2 PM - 8 PM