RICARDO SANDERS
Sculpture Found Object Assemblage Installation Video Performance
The Disgusting Cycle 2009
Ricardo Sanders
Bachelor Visual Arts / Superior School of Visual Arts
Irony does not exhaust Sanders’s work. It’s implicit in the visual qualities of his way to represent a discussion which is more direct than what satire twists. Spontaneity, the acidness, puerility, stupidity or brilliance, nothing is referred; everything is there to be seen in color volume and texture. His language patents the validity of representing reality with bad manners. Aldo Guerra
Pollo # 3 2003
Mixed messages
Variety of media mak e these exhibitions an interpretive exercise by Robert L. Pincus ART CRITIC September 21, 2006
Teeth get your attention in Ricardo Sanders' art. So do eyes, because both are oversized. They look doubly dramatic because these teeth and eyes, along with other features of the figure, are executed in high relief, in wood, with a chain saw. And as the method suggests, Sanders, who lives and works in Tijuana, is intent on creating work that emphasizes rawness over refinement and emotion over elegance. This is a first solo exhibition in Tijuana – or in the region – for the artist, a native of Guadalajara who did some of his training in Germany. The selections in his show at Galeria H&H, “100% Mexican Beef,” are a hybrid of painting and sculpture; they are mounted on the wall and pictorial, but rife with texture. The relief elements in plywood sit atop a jute or burlap surface on which he paints words and fragments of words. The imagery veers toward caricature, suggesting influences such as Dubuffet, Keith Haring and contemporary cartooning in the Matt Groening mode. Sanders’ overriding passion is for social commentary with a sardonic streak. Most of the other socially critical works don’t have as much bite. “The Telemarketer” is funny, in a sneering way. The lone figure looks as if his work has made him deranged. He’s surrounded by the word “statik” (German for static). His ears are swollen red appendages and he’s excreting blood, in the form of red twine, from his rear. But Sanders’ cartoonish likeness doesn’t convey true anguish so much as a comic version of suffering.
Traffic Jam 2007
100% Mexican Beef 2006
Traffic Jam 2007
The Dog The Priest and his conscience 2006
SCUBA-CYCLI’N 2008
RICARDO SANDERS born in Guadalajara,
Jal, Mex. 1976. Attended a residency in Bad Nauheim, Germany at Skulpturen Park in 2003. Bachelor in Visual Arts from the Escuela Superior de Artes Visuales in the city of Tijuana. Winner of the “Jovenes Creadores� Scholarship awarded by the State Fund for Culture and the Arts of Baja California in 2006. His work has been shown individually and collectively in Germany, United States and Mexico. He has participated in various Art fairs such as ArtKoln (Germany), ArtDC, ArtMiami and ArtLA (USA).
Self-Portrait, Video 2006
ART EXHIBITIONS individual
2010 Same shit, different day -The Disgusting CycleKunstRaum Köln, Germany.
Scuba-Cycli’n
Latitud 32 Tijuana, México.
2009 Politically incorrect KunstRaum H&H
2007
Ricardo Sanders
Galerie Mach-Art Bad Nauheim Germany.
Köln, Germany.
2006 100% Mexican Beef Galería H&H,
2004
Tijuana, México.
Ricardo Sanders Neue Arbeiten
Galerie Mach-Art Bad Nauheim, Germany.
2003 Skulpturenpark
Bad Nauheim, Germany.
Galerie Café Kaktus Friedberg, Germany.
2002 Latitud 32
Tijuana, México.
Scuba Cycli´n, invitation 2010
ART EXHIBITIONS by group 2010 No Name KunstRaum Köln, Germany.
2008 Fábrica de Pólvora N.A.M.E Galeria Tijuana, México.
Double Feature Casa de la Cultura Tijuana, México.
L.A. CETTO Tijuana, México.
2006 La Posada III
Galería H&H Tijuana, México.
Colectivo UAN Entijuanarte Tijuana, México.
Tzopantli ICBC Tijuana, B.C., México.
2004 Kaleidoskop VIII Galerie Mach-Art Bad Nauheim, Germany.
Ahí viene la playa Café Latitud 32 Tijuana, México.
2009 Silly Season KunstRaum, Koln, Germany.
South of the Border I KunstRaum H&H Köln, Germany
2007 Otras cosas Casa de la Cultura, Cortijo San Jose México.
Tijuana Crude Ex Convento del Carmen Guadalajara, México.
Tijuana Crude L A Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
Construyendo la Realidad Colectivo UAN, Esquina de Bodegas Ensenada, México.
2005 La Posada II: Caminante Cambiante Galería H&H Tijuana, México.
2002 No Name Perro azul Tijuana, México.
2001
of
XIII Biennale Baja California ICBC
(Cultural Institute of Baja California Mexicali, Tijuana and Tecate, México.
2000 No Name Instituto Cultural del Norte Tijuana, México.
It’s a Beautifull day to kill you 2006
ART FAIR participation 2009 Art Fair 21 Köln, Germany.
2007 Art DC 07 Washington, USA
Art Miami
Miami, USA
2006 Art LA 06
Los Angeles, USA
2001 Art Fair 05 Köln, Germany.
SCHOLARSHIPS grants and residencies 2006 FOECA
Grant awarded by the Cultural Fund for Culture and the Art one year project:
Functional Sculpture Baja California, México.
2005 Superior School of Visual Arts Scholarshiop for Bachelors in Visual Arts studies
Full Five years Tijuana, México.
2003 Residency Skulpturen Park Virgin Sasquash (superior derecha) The Slut (inferior izquierda) 2009
Bad Nauheim, Germany.
ART work the catalogue POLLO #3 Wood (painted) 134 x 71 x 13 cm 2003
NO GAIN IN DA USA Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 71 x 130 x 12 cm 2003
GO BULL Wood (painted - Acrylic, assembled / Plywood) 109 x 124.5 x 12 cm 2003
GOD AND THE WHALE Wood (vpartly painted) 110 x 30 x 40 cm 2003
Primate Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 81.5 x 60 x 9.5 cm 2003
NOSE Wood (painted) 54 x 33 x 39 cm 2003
HERMAFRODITE GODZILLA Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 152 x 77 x 12 cm 2003
SEXUAL SUICIDE Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 120 x 59.5 x 11 cm 2003
POLITICS Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled ) 110 x 60 x 12 cm 2003
FRUSTRATED ART PIECE Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 122 x 74 x 14 cm 2004
I WANT A PICK-UP TRUCK Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 100 x 80 x 9.5 cm 2005
THE DOG THE PRIEST AND HIS CONSCIENCE Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 100.5 x 160.5 x 10 cm 2006
AVOCADO Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 164 x 122 x 6.5 cm 2005
IT’S A BEAUTIFULL DAY TO KILL YOU Wood (Palm, Wire, Paper, Resin, Jute, assembled /Chipboard) 85 x 122.5 x 19 cm 2006
TELEMARKETER Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 122.5 x 89.5 x 17 cm 2005
DEVOLUCION Mixed Media / Chipboard (Jute, Leather, Cable,Acrylic) 153 x 122 x 26 cm 2006
BLAH BLAH BLAH Wood (Palm, Jute, Paper, Resin assembled / Chipboard) 122.5 x 102 x 15 cm 2006 NO GAIN IN DA USA
PEOPLE STANDING IN LINE AT A BANK WHILE HOLDING A FART Mixed Media (SculpturalAssemblage: wood, metal bars, fabrics) 98 x 62 x 9 cm 2007
100% MEXICAN BEEF Wood, Jute, Palm (Wire, Paper, Resin, Zipper assembled Chipboard) 85 x 122.5 x 19 cm 2006
TRAFFIC JAM Wood, Jute, Palm (Wire, Paper, Resin, assembled Chipboard) 85 x 122.5 x 19 cm 2007
CAUTION SHOULD BE USED WHILE HANDLING HEAVY MACHINERY Wood (partly painted, found objects) 55 x 85 x 30 cm 2008
SCUBA-CYCLI’N Wood, Jute, Plywood (painted - Acrylic, assembled) 152 x 77 x 12 cm 2008
THE DISGUSTING CYCLE Sculptural Assemblage (wood, metal bars, fabrics) 95 x 102 x 10 cm 2003
THE SLUT Sculptural Assemblage (wood, metal bars, fabrics) 121 x 79 x 7 cm 2009
EYES-CREAM Sculptural Assemblage (wood, metal bars, fabrics) 134 x 71 x 13 cm 2009
MOTHER’S TOUCH Sculptural Assemblage (wood, metal bars, fabrics) 98 x 62 x 9 cm 2009
VIRGIN SASQUASH Sculptural Assemblage (wood, metal bars, fabrics) 120 x 51 x 10 cm 2009
My life as an artist may have begun when I carved wooden mushrooms out of tree bran c h e s t o g i v e a w a y a s p r e s e n t s t o m y f r i e n d s s i g n i n g t h e m w i t h t h e i n i t i a l s “W L” ( W i t h Love), signature that I’ve used up to date. Even though I po ssessed a high sensibility towards my surroundings at an early age I practically loitered around through life, not
knowing where to go or what to do; it was until I was 19 or 20 years old that when e v e r I r e a c h e d a c e r t a i n d e g r e e o f f r u s t r a t i o n o r i n s a n i t y, c a r v i n g w o o d w o u l d b e m y
o n l y w a y o f c a l m i n g d o w n a n d d i s t r a c t i n g m y u n e a s i n e s s; i t t o o k m e a n u m b e r o f y e a r s to realize that I was an artist and that what I called a “hobby” was actually my calling in life. As
most
a r t i s t s,
my
first
body
of
work
focused
mainly
on
soul
s e a r c h i n g, r e p r e s e n t i n g a n d u n d e r s t a n d i n g w h a t a n d w h y I w a s w h o
I w a s m o s t l y t h r o u g h s e l f p o r t r a i t s; s o o n a f t e r m y s e x u a l i t y b e g a n to
unveil
itself,
falic
forms
and
in my work; my fascination for
female
genitalia
were
evident
totem poles took up a good part
of my life; the totem pole was an excellent way of representing a n d m a n i p u l a t i n g a n d u n d e r s t a n d m y e m o t i o n s a s w e l l a s o t h e r s,
these were my first steps as an artist, I was now reaching out to a public.
The next stage of my creative life was mo stly stepping out of my o w n f e e l i n g s a n d i n t o m y s u r r o u n d i n g s, r e p r e s e n t i n g t h e s i t u a t i o n s
that were important or a very significant part of my life, shapes of personal situations such as relationships and experiences were surfacing in my work, I saw this act of sharing not just as a way
of letting go of something but I also realized that the dialogue between
the
artist
and
public
has
no
b o u n d a r i e s,
my
experiences
belonged to everyone or at least my acquired knowledge did.
Wo r k i n g w i t h w o o d t r i g g e r e d c e r t a i n e m o t i o n s t h a t i n f l u e n c e d m y work; I
I never bought the materials I worked with, not because
didn’t
want
t o,
but
because
of
my
economical
situation,
the
wood I used was either drift wood or came from trees that were c u t d o w n a n d l e f t t o r o t o n t h e s t r e e t s o f Ti j u a n a , s o i n a w a y I
rescued and resuscitated them, giving them a function once again, so it was inevitable to think that I was doing some type of service
or justice to the environment, soon I began to be concerned with environmental issues with sculptures such as “Dio s y la Ballena” (God and the Whale) which
speaks about the relationship
between nature and the divine, the wood used for it represents the negative human interference over this relationship.
T h e a b s u r d , s o c i a l c o n t r a d i c t i o n s, s h a l l o w n e s s a n d t o p i c s t h a t s i c k e n e d m e w e r e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e o f m y f o l l o w i n g b od y o f w o r k , t h e s e a s p e c t s a re ev i d e n t i n w o r k s l i k e “C o n t a i n s S u l f i t e s ” w h e r e a d e l i v e r y t r u c k c r a s h e s a n d s p i l l s i t s c a r g o , s c r e w s, n u t s, b o l t s
and an apparently toxic greenish liquid covers the road, the reading of the piece also suggests that the truck runs over the spectator and because of this it crashes and flips
o v e r, s o i n a w a y t h e v i e w e r i s p u l l e d i n t o t h i s s i t u a t i o n , i n v o l v i n g a n d e v e n b l a m i n g h i m of the accident; this piece doesn’t only represent humanity as the cause of destruction
and mayhem but unfortunately it also represented my own contradiction as an artist due
to the fact that I was now working with materials that I thought I would never use, toxic resins and metal among them, this was my first step in realizing that the artist does
not
own
himself
and
sometimes
even
betrays
his
own
beliefs
through
the
creative
p r o c e s s, w e a r e v i c t i m s o f o u r t i m e s, w e m u s t r e p r e s e n t w h a t w e s e e a n d t h a t p e r h a p s t h e only freedom we have is when we represent what we want to change and how we want to change it; this stage of my artistic development could be summarized as a critic of our o w n b e h a v i o r, s o c i e t y a n d i t s f l a w s, i t s d e f e c t s, t r a p s a n d d i s a p p o i n t m e n t s.
Every day life became my next concern, simple routines that mo st of us share and not
a l w a y s e n j o y, t h e i n t e n t w a s t o q u e s t i o n w h e t h e r t h e y h a v e a p u r p o s e o t h e r t h a n m a king Jam
the
II”
bullet
“machine’s” are
wheels
representative
incrusted
in
his
turn;
of
face,
this
the
“ Tr a ff i c s e r i e s,
daily
a
Jam”
driver
commute
and
“ Tr a ff i c
in
a g o n y,
becomes
an
a
ever
present stress source, is it worth it? From this point on, the top i c s t h a t I ’ v e b e e n a d d r e s s i n g a r e m o s t l y c o n c e r n e d w i t h s o c i e t y, our
relationship
with
it,
its
relationship
with
us
(El
engaño/
The Double Cro ss –Video-), our attitude and behavior in di-
f f e r e n t s i t u a t i o n s ( M o t h e r s To u c h – R e l i e f - ) , t h e i n f l u e n c e o f the media over our lives (Eyes Cream –Relief/Installation-), our lives as a delicate, beautiful but sometimes disgusting piece of
meat
that
must
exist
(Il
Futuro–Video-)
and
survive
in
a
mo stly aggressive and violent surrounding (The Disgusting Cycle
– R e l i e f - ) o n l y t o d i e a n d l e a v e t h i s w o r l d w h e n t h e e n d c o m e s;
I guess I approached these topics not to be pessimistic but to be aware of our situation and be able to make the mo st of it. Nowadays reaching
as
I’m
working
many
with
individuals
public
as
sculpture,
possible,
trying
concerned to
fulfill
with arts
function to its highest level; communicating and interacting with as many people as possible, art is for everyone and everyplace, gal l e r i e s, m u s e u m s a n d p r i v a t e c o l l e c t o r s c a n s o m e t i m e s b e d a n g e r o u s l y damaging
for
art
if
they
don’t
know
it. Art is a tool we must use to fix
how
to
manage
or
present
a n d r e n e w s o c i e t y, “F i l t r a
M i e r d a - 2 0 0 0 / S h i t F i l t e r- 2 0 0 0 ” i s a M o n u m e n t a l S c u l p t u r e which represents this very function, a welded steel structure that
r e s e m b l e s a w a r t a n k a l o n g w i t h a m e t a l f i l t e r, i n s i d e t h e f i l t e r
a w o r m c o n t r o l s a p r o p e l l e r; t h e c a n o n o f t h e “ Ta n k ” d o e s n ’ t f i r e a m m u n i t i o n , o n t h e c o n t r a r y, i t s u c k s i n t h e n e g a t i v e a s p e c t s o f s o c i e t y, t h e m e t a l s t r u c t u r e r e p r e s e n t s n o t a g g r e s s i o n ( Wa r T a n k ) but
a
firm
and
strong
attitude
towards
d i ff i c u l t
situations
in
which we must not fold, the worm, taken as a symbol of fertility and renewal, eats and f i l t e r s t h e s h i t o f s o c i e t y; d e s t i n e d t o b e i n s t a l l e d a t P l a y a s d e T i j u a n a ’ s P i e r n e a r
t h e f e n c e t h a t s e p a r a t e s M e x i c o f r o m t h e U n i t e d S t a t e s, t h e i n t e n t o f t h i s s c u l p t u r e i s t o p r o m o t e c l e a n s i n g Ti j u a n a ’ s w e l l k n o w n i m a g e o f d r u g r e l a t e d v i o l e n c e ; b u t o f c o u r s e , t h e s c u l p t u r e d o e s n o t t a r g e t o n l y T i j u a n a ’ s “M i e r d a ” , i t s m e s s a g e i s u n i v e r s a l and can be applied to any situation and place; in my humble opinion, there should be a
“F i l t r a M i e r d a - 2 0 0 0 ” i n e v e r y c i t y o f e v e r y c o u n t r y p a t r o l l i n g a n d m a i n t a i n i n g o u r w e l l b e i n g.
Ricardo Sanders……wl
RICARDO SANDERS