sgusers9的部落格

Some artists are inspired by nature; Los Carpinteros' latest collection is inspired by a prison.自存倉 The panopticon is a model prison design, allowing wardens to observe the inmates from the central tower. The prisoners in cells built around the tower will not see or know whether they are under surveillance. The central tower is designed in a way that wardens can pass through doors in the tower without making any noise or letting out a glimmer of light. The prisoners live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether they are being watched at any moment. Presidio Modelo was a panopticon prison in Cuba. Built in the late 1920s during the rule of Cuba's dictatorial president Gerardo Machado, it was in use until permanently closed down in 1967. Inspired by the panopticon design, Havana-based art collective Los Carpinteros has created a series of miniature architectures called The Reading Rooms. Made out of fiberboard, each of these architectural structures contains shelf-like tiers that resemble the language of the panopticon prisons. Dagoberto Rodriguez Sanchez and Marco Antonio Castillo Valdes - both in their early 40s - make up the Cuban art duo, established in 1991. The group is known for producing artworks across multiple mediums that poses a witty perspective on different social issues of Cuba as well as the rest of the world. The Reading Room series is one of their signature productions. "Today there is this big debate about the virtual panopticon with the internet," Sanchez says. "Every move you make online becomes transparent to the government. Everything from your banking decisions to leisure entertainment is all under the watch of your government. Your life is very exposed indeed. "We are not only referring to the communist governments in Cuba and China. Even the United States, which prides itself as free, is seeing a great deal of control of her people. Control is a way for governments to survive. There is no real freedom in the world." A few months back, former CIA and National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden leaked classified information on the mass surveillance programs of the United States and British governments to the press. Snowden's disclosure of such sensitive material was a wake-up call to internet users about cyber security. This exemplifies Sanchez's perspective on freedom. In every neighborhood of Cuba, the Committees for Defense of the Revolution is present. As the eyes and ears of迷你倉the government, the organization helps to promote social welfare of the people - as well as report suspicious behavior. Living in the country, even in your own neighborhood, is like living under the panopticon structure of surveillance. "It's actually killing the freedom of its people," Valdes says. "The government is seemingly giving more freedom to its people, allowing them to do more things, giving an image to the rest of the world that they are not so bad. Hypocritical indeed. They are not genuinely setting its people free, but they are just keeping a low profile on surveillance tactics." The artists are not only intrigued by the political reference of the panopticon model, they are also fascinated by the artistic aspect of the symmetrical design. One of its prototypes, Guiro, was brought to life-size form at Art Basel Miami Beach 2013 as an art bar installation. Tweaking the concept slightly, the duo created a skeletal architectural structure resembling that of a Puerto Rican percussion instrument. The Reading Rooms can also be interpreted as a library with book-filled shelves. Standing in the center inside the structure is like standing at the middle of all knowledge, being enveloped in wisdom. Los Carpinteros is also widely recognized for their watercolor paintings of structures or architecture made with Lego. Interseccion is a large-scale diptych painting of a street with pavements and buildings constructed with Lego, while Escalera de Lego IV is an illustration of a cityscape built with monotonic Lego pieces. "Lego is a human abstraction of a constructional element, like a brick that constructs huge architecture. It is something you can build in your own home, a miniature version of different structures," Sanchez says. The artists are interested in building a structure from a simple single unit - for instance, a Lego piece or a brick. Each Lego brick is little by nature, but almost all structures are a result of many blocks. "In Fenomeno Constructivo, we use small blocks of bricks in an almost obsessive-compulsive manner, building a floating island with these blocks and allowing it to grow out in an uncontrollable way," Valdes says. "It can be understood as an illustration of the overpopulation problem around the world." Edouard Malingue Gallery has invited the duo to do their first solo show in Asia at its space at 8 Queen's Road Central until November 23. Admission is free. mercy.lo@singtaonewscorp.com mini storage