JAIRO ALFONSO
Throughout my career, I have been interested in exploring material culture from an archaeological perspective, particularly the multilayered nature of objects, their history and symbolism, in paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, performances, and mixed media works on paper.
More recently, I have started developing a new body of work, reflecting on the relationship we, as human beings, establish with the objects we create, use, and discard. I have been exploring the act of hoarding in connection with the genre of the still life. I address hoarding as “horror vacui” drawings. These works depicts accumulations of objects, devices and accessories from everyday life, piled up, and drawn closely together, so as to flood the pictorial space. Each object is represented life-size. Hoarding as clear sign of consumerism inform this series. I pair the act of drawing with that of consuming goods, which is why I pack these metaphorical boxes with objects of every kind. The title of the works indicates the number of objects drawn in it.
As for the dissasembling series, I focus on a single object which function is that of offering audio or visual information (radios, cameras, tvs, etc…), and the act of dismantle it becomes an anatomic lesson of sorts, which allows the viewer to metaphorical immerse themselves into a new world composed by the history, epoch, ideology, materials and shapes hidden in this artifacts. Therefore from these works I usually extract the objects that become subjects of my videos, characterized by the use of the stop-motion animation.
In 2021 I started developing the series titled Endoscopic Landscapes that are a continuation of the disassembly series. For it, I use an endoscopic camera to capture images of the internal structure of the types of devices mentioned above. I later translate some of those to canvases recreating landscapes of sorts. These obsolete mechanisms brought to a new dimension offer a dystopian vision of useless industrial spaces or abandoned cities that I like to called micro-ruins.
I have started this series by dissecting radios and TVs enssembled in Cuba in the 70s which brands are titled with names given to groups of natives from the Caribbean: Taíno (radio), Caribe (TV), Siboney (Radio). So, I feel like this is a process involving ethnography, archive, history…By reviewing the fossilized episodes and technology of that period this series aims at analyzing the Cold War Era, its objects and notions, also the events and the sensitivity transmitted by the media back then. I feel that this project is part of an obsession of Cubans of my generation to search for the missing information, perhaps in the search for the truth: a utopian enterprise in the post -truth era.
362, 2012. Watercolor pencil/paper. 78.7x159 inches, (three papers of 78.7x 53 inches)
¨494 ( Bergenline Avenue )¨ Watercolor pencil / paper 89.9x89.3 inches . (228x227cm) .This is the result of my residence at Gu@enberg Arts which gave me the opportunity to research the visuality of this mulFcultural avenue of New Jersey.
I took pictures and measures of hundreds of objects in the streets and establishments of Bergenline Avenue to built this archive of 494 life-size elements…
494 (Bergenline Avenue.) 2015. Watercolor pencil/paper. 89.9 x 89.3 inches .
Sylvania (VI), 2019. Watercolor pencil/paper. 27.6 x 39.4 inches.
Sylvania (IV), 2019.Watercolor pencil/paper. 27.6 x 39.4 inches.
Emerson(III), 2019. Watercolor pencil/paper.27.6 x 39.4 inches.
Emerson(IV), 2019. Watercolor pencil/paper.27.6 x 39.4 inches.
TELEFUNKEN(I),2012.Watercolor pencil/paper. 38.4x55.1 inches.
Endoscopic Landscapes. Siboney (III) . Oil on canvas. 60x72 inches. 2022.
Endoscopic Landscapes. Caribe transistorizado (IV) . Oil on canvas. 72 x 60 inches. 2022.
Endoscopic Landscapes. Taíno (V) . Oil on canvas. 60x72 inches. 2022.
Endoscopic Landscapes. Taíno (IV) . Oil on canvas. 60x72 inches. 2022.
Endoscopic Landscapes. Caribe transistorizado (V) . Oil on canvas. 72 x 60 inches. 2022.[WORK IN PROGRESS]
Devices that inform the Endoscopic Landscapes Series
Endoscope Camera; Taíno 74 Radio; Caribe transistorizado TV; Siboney Radio.
Jairo Alfonso is a Cuban-born arFst living and working in New York. He is a graduate from the Higher InsFtute of Art (ISA) in Havana.
Alfonso has been featured in more than ten solo exhibiFons worldwide and in over 60 group shows. His works have been part of important shows, such as Useless: Machines for Dreaming, Thinking and Seeing at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2019); Flow: Economies of the Look and Crea>vity in Contemporary Art from the Caribbean, Washington DC (2014); Cuban America: An Empire State of Mind, Lehmann College Art Gallery, New York (2014); Occupying, Building, Thinking: Poe>c and Discursive Perspec>ves on Contemporary Cuban Video Art (1990-2010), Contemporary Art Museum (USF) Tampa (2013); Poli>cs: I don't like it, but it likes me, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdanks (2013); Killing Time: An exhibi>on of Cuban ar>sts from the 80s to the present, Exit Art, New York (2007); Ba>scafo/ Proyecto Circo. 8 Bienal do Mercosul. Ensaios de GeopoéFca, Porto Alegre (2011); Instrumentaciones (Solo show) at Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Wifredo Lam, Havana (2000), to name a few.
He has parFcipated in various arFst residencies such as The Fountainhead Residency, Miami (2019), Marble House Project, Vermont (2015), GuUenberg Arts, New Jersey (2014) among others. He is also a recipient of a Pollock- Krasner FoundaFon Grant (2017).
His work is part of public and private collecFons such as the Pérez Art Museum Miami; the Museum of LaFn American Art, Los Angeles; the Permanent CollecFon of the Province of Hainaut; the Havana Galerie CollecFon, Zürich, among others.