Making Things Whole

Our perspective on life is constantly being influenced by external factors. External influence has the capacity to sway the way we act, think, and feel. When it comes to what externalities we assimilate and make part of our beliefs and daily lives selectivity matters. Ana Rendich, an Argentine-born artist based in Virginia, is in tune with these external complexities and how to transform them into the paintings and sculptures she envisions and creates. 

Process 

Study, small work.

The way Rendich presents her artwork is selective, and it all begins with her unique creation process. Much like dissecting information, she is discerning on what matters to her first subconsciously, then consciously. She connects with her inner narrative to turn it into art. This process honors her strong sense for the creative process behind every piece. For Rendich, specific themes come to mind and act as primer for her creations.

She explains:

The base of my art is bringing presence through absence. There are different types of absences: not only physical absence, but also the lack of the fabric that could make us better human beings. All these have created the need to incorporate other elements, according with the sensibility of each piece, like the use or wood, metal and paper, besides oil, silicone, etc. I enjoy immensely the closeness with my materials, the tactile and physical connection too. It takes time to find materials that work with the guiding nature of my process. For example, I often visit lumberyards and I seldom find something that interests me. It takes time to find a piece of wood that I feel I can grow and work with.

Aesthetic 

Semilla, mixed media.

Some of Rendich’s works look like candy on the wall, especially her sculptures. Her use of color acts like an added element of surprise that blends in beautifully and intentionally. There’s structure to the color itself, which creates boundary-like effects on the paintings and sculptures. Where each space is defined within the whole. Almost portraying a sense of individuality to the piece itself and its shape and shade in relation to the rest, including the exhibiting wall space. 

“In both my paintings and my sculptures, color and shape are secondary to the overall composition. They are not separate elements—both form a symbiosis of the whole work. When I make an artwork that contains individual pieces, I always keep in mind that each piece belongs to the other part, and that the space that all the pieces occupy together is what makes the work,” Rendich comments. 

The use of color creates contrast within and around its outer space. Each shade does this in a non-restrictive way, as the edges are soft, yet it makes the viewer aware of the effect. The raised clear surfaces on the resin sculptures do a beautiful job at encapsulating an area and keeping it contained through an almost clear boundary. Every piece is timeless yet frozen in time, as it exists individually first, then in relation to one another - even in the sculptures she showcases as pairs.

Deeper Meaning

Untangling Single Vision, oil on linen.

In her latest exhibit, Untangling Single Visions, at the Quirk Gallery in Richmond, Virginia, Rendich showed how simplicity can unfold. Yes, a single idea can connect through shape or color in art, but these components, much like thoughts themselves, have the power to transform. All it takes is influence, perspective, and time of fill in the absence of what not yet exists in our minds.

She notes:

My creative process is very personal and internal. In general, it is about something that awakens in me and it is then that I have this need to create the work based on a deep-rooted sentiment that came to me. What influences me most probably is the absence of consciousness, the lack of empathy. All these “ingredients” that make us less human…so I need to bring some light, not with the intention of preaching or judgmental, but to reflect and contemplate in our humanness.

When closely observing her sculptures, you begin to appreciate the depth and complexity, much like our own thoughts. This to me is saying that when we unravel a thought or vision, it naturally can lead to more context, more information, more knowledge, to make that vision richer and whole. It provides us with perspective or that consciousness Rendich refers to. It is what we gain here that shapes us to continue becoming who we are meant to be as part of our human journeys. When we open ourselves to these possibilities, we become better versions of ourselves by becoming more aware of the world overall. 

As an example of how Rendich’s mind incites her creativity, she shares thoughts on her current projects:

Right now, I am making a couple works based on an event that happened in Argentina. In September 1976, 10 adolescents were abducted by security forces in the city of La Plata near Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is called the "Night of the Pencils" because they were students between 13 and 18 years old. Six of the 10 were never seen again. I grew up with violence, and the disappearance of human beings has created more questions than answers. I want to investigate visual ideas involving human loss through violence, bringing hope and healing joined together by our common humanity.

Concluding Thoughts

Untangling Single Visions, oil on linen.

We have the power to compartmentalize everything, be it thoughts, feelings, perceptions, or even material items. These pieces are part of something greater we have created even subconsciously with all the influence that surrounds us. Everything we experience, like these lovely artworks by Ana Rendich, matter.

For more on Ana Rendich’s work, please visit her website.

Today’s poem reflects Ana’s deep connectivity to humanity, what we lack, and what we need:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

There’s Freedom in Deconstruction

Many times, abstract art is the result of examining something tangible or conceptual, taking it apart, and presenting it in a different manner. Brazilian painter and sculpture artist José Bechara understands how to take complex, external influences from one’s life and transform them into meticulous creations that cause us to question the depth of what they may be representing. He touches on how his work engages with the space where they’re found. “Through the experimentation of different materials and territories in dimensional and three dimensional works. Along the years, I have always worked on paintings, sculptures and installations dialoguing with the space (by building or activating it), memories and time, as well as its impacts on individuals and society,” he says.

Aesthetic

Each of Bechara’s pieces are creatively planned out. The sharp edges, raw materials, geometrical conjunctions, and linear pathways show flexibility within a rigid setting. Each piece takes on such a dimensional stance that it allows viewers to contemplate its many layers and angles, even in the paintings, where the thin lines are delicate mazes that blend with the industrial-like backbone found in the background.

He explains, “Even as a fan of geometry, I like to confront its history and tradition, rejecting the idea of a “perfect form” promised by geometry as we see in art history. Geometry, in my work, celebrates failure, doubt and it hesitates against life, as I believe we do, as humans, every day.” The sculptures instigate a gravitational challenge for our perception of what we already know about art to expand. Many of these pieces act like a rebellion against what shapes should look when combined. They force you to embrace that imperfect perfection, chaos, and closely inspect each linear and material interaction within each piece.

Deeper Meaning

It is the raw elements found in Bechara’s work that makes the pieces even more engaging. The use of oxidation, wood, and subtleties of color allow the sculptures and paintings to hold a level of fragility. There’s a sense of impermanence too, as if everything could change with one touch. One that is tied to deconstructive elements of what is underneath, like looking at the structural bones of a home instead of the facade. 

This narrative takes us back to the original stance of personal dialogue with the external world when looking at his work. One that speaks of looking within to discover what is underneath the surface, and then rebuilding that narrative based on what you find there, first and foremost. Bechara expands on this topic, “I am not a narrator of daily life; I am an abstract artist. However, I am always attentive to the average dramas of existence, especially of the effects social dynamics have in individuals'  lives. The relationship between past and present, work and environment. In a certain way, I believe some of my main questions, described above as failure, inexorability of time, finitude, hesitation and the fragility of daily life, touch on some people’s social dramas.”

Conclusion

The way we look at Bechara’s work can provide insight on our lives’ own twists and turns. At times, things fall apart, literally or figuratively, and that is what his work is asking us to look at sometimes. That necessary curve ball that life throws at us is at times a necessity to regain perspective and rebuild in a different, better way. 

All photos courtesy of José Bechara. For more about his work, please visit his website.

Today’s poem represents the multidimensional aspects of life found in José’s work:

My House is the Red Earth

BY JOY HARJO

My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world. I’ve heard New York, Paris, or Tokyo called the center of the world, but I say it is magnificently humble. You could drive by and miss it. Radio waves can obscure it. Words cannot construct it, for there are some sounds left to sacred wordless form. For instance, that fool crow, picking through trash near the corral, understands the center of the world as greasy strips of fat. Just ask him. He doesn’t have to say that the earth has turned scarlet through fierce belief, after centuries of heartbreak and laughter—he perches on the blue bowl of the sky, and laughs.