Santiago Cucullu and Martín Ayos
United States of America + Argentina
Santiago Cucullu and Martín Ayos
Unnamed / Aphorisms to Use During Invisibility, 2015
Seven size 46 cotton parkas used for snow camouflage
Mixed media
The work on view for this show, parkas that announce themselves and destroy the subterfuge of invisibility, is an example of a body of work where a path is formed, dissociating the image from the word and bringing them together to give them their own otherness.
In this instance, after buying a set of seven Norwegian Army-issued parkas designed as camouflage for a snowy environment at a science and surplus store in Milwaukee, Cucullu asked Ayos to collaborate on a work for a 2009 exhibition in Mexico City. The parkas presented the opportunity to think of a coat designed for invisibility in a particular environment that projected a voice in contradiction to itself. They decided that characteristics of the voice should be stylized by another voice entirely and hired a graffiti writer in Mexico City to do the lettering of a set of aphorisms onto the back of the parkas. The jackets act as cloaks for the wearer, where the language and situation form a direct characterization of themselves in a particular instance.
This is only the second time they have been shown but it is worth mentioning that when first exhibited in Mexico City each had a relatively large rabbit’s foot keychain in the pocket to act as a talisman for the wearer. These were each a different size and in different colors. Ultimately they were not allowed to be imported to the USA with the jackets and are excluded from this exhibition.
about the artists
Argentinian born Santiago Cucullu creates multimedia works, including spatially unified installations, wall-sized murals, sculptures, and vibrant paintings on paper, soundscapes with the Ching Suru Radio Hour, and video works. Cucullu emphasizes the subtleties of intuitive pacing and spatial orientation by creating works using a duality of materials and appropriation to trigger memories and experiences that we may encounter as rarified moments. He has exhibited at a number of institutions, including the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; The Whitney Museum, New York; MoMA, New York; The Walker Art Center; and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles among others. Cucullu is currently living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
santiagocucullu.com
santiagocucullu.com
Martín Ayos’s work focuses on a question about poetry as a mode of aesthetic, ethical, and political experience. His writing generally consists of essays, poems, and prose. Ayos’s inclination toward fragmentary thinking (perhaps inherited from the thought of Maurice Blanchot but above all related to this part of the world) has led him to consider the possibility of freeing words from the weight of representation or the object to which they should point. In this sense, his work with Santiago Cucullu continues this path, dissociating the image from the word and bringing them together to give them their own otherness in a sense that is completely different from the usual or academic. Ayos is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
ayos.com.ar
ayos.com.ar
interview