May the bridges I burn light the way / Ferran Martin
The Cave @ Big-E Studio
5300 NW 2nd Avenue, Little Haiti, Miami.
786.222.7536
info@glexisnovoa.com
Opening reception, Wednesday, May 23, 2012, Thursday, May 24, 2012, 7:00-10:00 PM.
Exhibition dates May 23 – June 06, by appointment only.
Throughout the years, in videos, installations, and the fallas from his native Valencia, Ferran has been working at intersection of modernist concepts and traditional craftsmanship.
For example, at the Popiashvili Newman gallery in NYC, Ferran produced two site-specific installations dedicated to his parents: To The Height of My Father (2009) and Granada (2012). These works playfully responded to the constraints of a gallery space located below ground level: In the former, he lowered the height of the ceiling to uncomfortable dimensions while, in the latter, he transformed the standard concrete floor into an ornate wooden patina with burnt Moorish decorations. Through these tactics, he situated the body of the viewer within a network of art historical discourses while also insisting on the material dimensions of bodily experience.This approach is also evident in video works that document the artist walking through various urban and natural environments while wearing a mirrored cube on his head. In dialogue with minimalist concerns regarding phenomenological experience, Ferran moves the conversation forward by inviting viewers to consider modernism as a lived experience in spaces beyond the parameters of ‘the white cube.’ In this context, his transposition of fallas into an ‘art context’ enacts a significant reversal as Ferran brings this communal tradition, to which he is personally connected through his father’s expertise, to a new public. With the construction of each falla, Ferran has to deftly adapt to a new physical situation, he has an incredible wealth of craft, sculptural, and building skills. He is also adept at working with various practitioners, as this tradition deeply rooted in collaboration.
via glexisnovoa.com
