“I am the camera. My hands the mechanical levers, my eyes the prism and lens, my energy processes negative capability through painting, scratching, and drawing while using line and light to deconstruct and re-construct the mysteries of the visual image as I create self-portraits on this celluloid material of emulsions.”
~Rey Parlá
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Pages 8-9: Rey Parlรก Studio, Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Concrete Freeze Frame, 2016 31.5” H x 25.75” W x 2.75” D [ 80.01 x 65.40 x 6.98 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 7
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Borderless is an exhibition of dynamic works using photographic materials and one-of-a-kind Chromogenic prints originating from Rey Parlá’s handmade kinetic “motion paintings,” the rigorous results of his early experimental filmmaking investigations to re-evaluate cinematic and photographic conventions of non-narrative forms. Rey Parlá works like a painter and is inspired by the foundations of photography, but is not limited to the use of one specific tool or resource. He replaces the canvas for expired large format photographic negatives to create what he calls, “Scratch | Graphs.” Guided by intuition, Rey makes small paintings, concrete abstractions that he processes into unique photographic prints where the medium itself is the subject.
Rey’s actions contribute and push forward in the tradition of artists he is reflecting on to expand the canon of avant-garde experimentation. Influenced by photography and film histories, Rey references artists such as Georges Méliès, Man Ray, Len Lye, Stan Brakhage, Tony Conrad, and László MoholyNagy and many others who often time radically contradicted the current view that photography or filmmaking must only depict the natural world.
Parlá is interested in re-mixing technologies and unconventional materials in the creative process to explore and analyze his production of visual images using the art historical canon of photography and film as mediums up to today through improvisation in order to learn how his experimental constructions work compositionally and have an effect on the viewer.
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Pages 12-13: BORDERLESS Install at HappyLucky no.1, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Rey’s lines reference his interest in how artists throughout history have used many kinds of different tools to draw lines on earth, caves, film, ceramics, and computer screens to explore the points and paths of the human body and mind in motion. Parlá identifies his visual “freeze frame” imagery as concrete abstractions where he plays with and investigates the absence of perspective and depth of field in a visibly tangible form with pictures previously not in existence.
Rey figuratively and literally uses these borderless creative options and transcends his visions into photographs or “scratch-films” on par with concrete painting. Scratch ~ Graphs are Scanography related photographs. Celluloid acts as his medium and a raging metaphor presenting the core qualities of photography and film: light, space, movement and time.
Rey plays and experiments to create a co-existence between analogue and digital photographic processes, materials and tools, producing a “new re-mixed media art,” not limited to the use of the camera, and not discarding it altogether. Parlá uses the photographic enlarger, light sensitive papers, the scanner as a camera to register the form, materiality and haptic quality of large format photographic negatives: 4x5”, 8x10” as well as motion picture stocks in Super 8, 16mm and 35mm films. Rey scratches the film, paints it, deconstructs the layer, makes abstract collages, and also draws on 8 x 10” contact prints that he produces in the dark room. The negatives are painted with his hands and digitized. He then slightly morphs and subtlety manipulates the images to create photographic artifacts that are fluid, indefinite, and open. Rey embraces continuous change, intuition, and adaptation as part of his transition from one medium to another by mixing emulsion with pixels to make visual poetry.
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Borderless is an image that was first made with my hands over a period of time. The image is constructed in the same way as when a writer faces a blank page, intuition and the Muses flow out through the use of paint, drawing, scratching, rubbing, scraping, sanding, and morphing the celluloid emulsion, a different kind of writing engaged directly with the film negative’s surface as a material in itself and co-existing with the mutable possibilities and experimental creative options lent by both analogue and digital tools to produce a visual compromise between the mediums to arrive at a picture that represents itself in the world for the first time with the right to evoke its own meaning and individuality.
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Borderless, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 15
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Everything Dissolves, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 17
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Listen To Your Universe, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 19
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Endless Distance, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 21
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Shaped by Desire, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 23
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Reconfigured Truth, 2016 45.5” H x 36.5” W x 2” D [ 115.57 x 92.71 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 25
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Free Fabricated Alternative Fantasy, 2015 26.25" H X 20.25" W X 2.5" D [ 66.67 x 51.435 x 6.35 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 27
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[ Droste Effect Recursions ] Photographed micro-abstractions of optical feedback loops
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Luminous Clarity, 2016 35.5” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 90.17 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 31
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The World Inside, 2016 30.125” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 76.51 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 33
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Screen Capture, 2016 30.125” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 76.51 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 35
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Loop Fragment, 2016 30.125” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 76.51 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 37
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Interchangeable Response, 2016 30.125” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 76.51 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 39
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Random Wave, 2016 30.125” H x 24.125” W x 2” D [ 76.51 x 61.27 x 5.08 cm ] UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 41
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Pages 44-45: BORDERLESS Install at HappyLucky no.1, Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Invisible Cities, 2016 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 43
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Deconstruction via Re-Appropriative Osmosis, 2015 H xW41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IN D [ 129.54 H xx 104.14 104.14 xW5.08 x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT [ PRIVATE COLLECTION ] BORDERLESS • 47
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Shaping Lines into Light, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT [ PRIVATE COLLECTION ] BORDERLESS • 49
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Ultra-Scratchitti, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 51
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The Life of the Eye, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 53
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S.E.P.I.A. [ S = Scratched. E = Etched. P = Post-post modernist. I = Intelligent. A = Architecture ] 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 55
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Infinity Passes through Them, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 57
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The Delights of Seeing with Eyes Wide Open, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 59
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Inevitable Frame, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 61
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Integral Constructions, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 63
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Dual Soliloquies, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND[ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 65
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The Great Dynamic, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND[ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 67
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Dodge & Burn, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 69
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Pushing and Pulling Time, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND[ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 71
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Lines Playing by Intuition, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 73
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Gray vs. Grey, 2015 H xW 41" W D x 2" [ 129.54 x 5.08 cmD] CM ] 51" H51" X 41" X 2" IND [ 129.54 H x 104.14 W x 5.08 UNIQUE C-PRINT BORDERLESS • 75
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Rey Parlá is a Cuban American visual artist working in photography, painting and filmmaking. Parlá first received recognition for his “motion-paintings” at the 12th Annual Miami International Film Festival: The Avant-Garde Returns, presented by Harvard Film Archive Curator, Bruce Posner. Parlá’s time based media works are short Super 8 film documentaries he then hand-painted, edited, and collaged after shooting his brother José Parlá and friends during their creation of many mural projects in Miami. Early exposure to Hip Hop culture and its environment drew him to photography and filmmaking. Parlá has received Honorable and Special Event Presentations for his films:
Rumba Abstracta, Sporadic Germination, and The Revolution of Super 8 Universe: A Self-Portrait at several film festivals such as: The Anti Film Festival, The Alliance Cinema, Milan International Film Festival, Flower Film Festival, The Central Florida Film & Video Festival, The Independent Feature Project, El Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte Roma (MUCA Roma), The Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives, and The Cuban Alternative Film Festival in Little Habana. From 2007 to 2010, Rey co-produced and was co-director for the travelogue;
The New Grand Tour, a project exhibited in Hong Kong (2007), Beijing (2008), and at Bryce Wolkowitz’s Gallery in New York City (2010), which produced two exhibition monographs where Rey presented his poetry, photography, and manifesto in collaboration with artists: Suitman (aka Young Kim), José Parlá, Rostarr, Deanne Cheuk, and Davi Russo.
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Previous Pages 62-63: Rey Parlá Studio, Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Early in 2011 curator Helen Homan Wu of Opalnest Independent Projects presented SONIC ARCHITEXTURES, an experiential art event with a new film by Rey, entitled: Emulsions, Glitches, and Scratches in a live sound and image performance with MERCE (Maria Chavez and Shelley Burgon). In May of 2012, Rey travelled to Habana, Cuba with French artist JR and his brother José Parlá for their collaboration during the 11th Havana Biennial with
The Wrinkles of the City: Habana, Cuba project as director of photography for their documentary and book with Damiani and Standard Press covering the mixed media murals they completed during a one month stay. Parlá has collaborated with performance artist Natasha Tsakos in Miami Beach, Vanessa Gocksch of Intermundos, and Ralph Falcón of Murk Records. Critical theorist, filmmaker, and collaborator; Michael Betancourt, has written specially about Rey’s film work. Parlá has also lectured at Savannah College of Art & Design on experimental time based media and photography. Parlá’s work is in various international private collections and the Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Collection.
~ Born in Miami, FL. 1971 Education 2004-07 B.A. in English Literature, Florida International University, Miami. Certificate in Film Studies, Florida International University, Miami.
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Pages 66-67: Rey Parlá Studio, Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
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BORDERLESS • REY PARLÁ This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition: Rey Parlá • Borderless, at Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery under the Direction of Liane Fredel, curator and owner. May 6th to May 29th, 2016.
Published by Happy Lucky No. 1 Gallery & Parlá Studios, LLC. 734 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11216 Phone: 347 295 0961 http://www.happyluckyno1.com
Text / Photography / Art Direction REY PARLÁ Designer / Production Manager JOAQUIN JUTT Editorial / Proofreaders REY PARLÁ JOSÉ PARLÁ JOAQUIN JUTT
Cover: Bordeless: 45.5 x 36.5 x 2” and Backcover: Listen To Your Universe: 45.5 x 36.5 x 2”
I dedicate this project and monograph to my dear family: Mika, Remi, Otono, José, and Dalia, for all your love and patience, and to the loving memory of my father; José Agustin Parlá, whose passion for books, history and ideas he imparted to me. I am always grateful to my friends and extended families. You will always have my gratitude. Special thanks to the bridge makers, collaborators, supporters, patrons and assistants; my hats off to you.
~ www.reyparla.com
© 2016 PARLA STUDIOS, LLC. Member of the Artists Rights Society New York and the Design and Artists Copyright Society in the U.K. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical - including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system - without prior permission in writing from the publishers and author.
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