4 FUNDAZIUN
CHASTÈ DA TARASP
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August 5 – September 18 2022
all images Clay Hernandez, Self Portrait, 2022, video on LED display, 00:01:00, 110 x 62 cm © Clay Hernandez publisher Fundaziun Not Vital, Chastè da Tarasp, Switzerland curator Eric Powell artist Clay Hernandez editor Not Vital graphic design Süsskind SGD edition 400 Thank you to all of my friends and family, every single person that has contributed to make this exhibition possible and to those who have always been there for me no matter what, even at my craziest times because life means nothing if we don’t share it.
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CLAY HERNANDEZ Self Portrait
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Clay I know him for 1/2 of his life 1 very bright star in his face like there is always early tomorrow Not
in Cuba - in Switzerland, in Spain and in Sweden, in France, Lichtenstein and Austria, in America in China, in the Philippines and in Indonesia, in Australia and New Zealand and Chile, Brazil and Italy and Greece, in Germany and England but mostly in the Engadin
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I was with Clay in Indonesia when the pandemic started. We got news every day but were not sure what was happening and the fact that we were in a thatched roof hut with no electricity gave everything another layer of meaning. It became a situation that neither of us could expect or anticipate the next moment. What was an amazing half work half vacation with an open ended ticket turned into something much more complicated and meaningful than either of us could understand. We went from posting pictures of ourselves in the jungle howling back and forth with monkeys to looking at how to best protect ourselves from this new virus with masks and techniques for washing our hands most effectively. Clay is a person who above all rejects and refuses to acknowledge the limits of locality. He is one of those people who is always on his phone. I helped him get a sim card and to no one’s surprise he used up all the data within a few hours. His family is constantly on his mind and he speaks with all of them nearly everyday as if they were in the same room as him no matter where in the world he might be. There has never been a generation of people in the history of the world who has traveled as much as those born after 1980. And no generation that has had to experience such a dramatic change in the available lines of communication and media. Yes he grew up in Communist Cuba. As the son of a well-to-do musician he enjoyed certain privileges that very few could ever imagine. He could have Nesquik and American candy bars. His looks set him apart with his blue eyes and blonde hair and very quickly he found work as an actor. He even claims to have the distinction of being the first bare ass to ever be shown on Cuban television with a walk-on role in a long forgotten made for TV movie. Clay defines himself through his own image and this image is the product of his imagination, experiences, wants, desires, fantasies, needs and fears. Being
born just before the internet and growing into adulthood along with it is a yet to be understood trauma of the modern condition. Coming so close to adulthood just before the turn of the new millennium meant that everything that came afterwards was a completely new experience. Clay is deeply proud that he had one of the first iPods in Cuba. He embraced technology as a way to extend himself outside of the political system that he was born into and he knew that access to the latest greatest devices was a form of power. It was at this time that he began to meet travelers who came from all over the world, but rarely America. He says that by the time he was five years old he already knew that one day he would leave Cuba. It started with hearing about cousins moving to Miami and neighbors who one day would just be gone. The other kids gave him a really hard time and he was bullied for just being so different. This is when he decided to create his own narrative and that eventually this fantasy was going to become reality. Movies, television and music fed this dream and he did everything he could to get as much of it before anyone else. His obsession with pop culture came from his very real need to find a way to cope with the harsh reality of life in Cuba. He eventually settled in Barcelona as a film student. What does freedom mean when you have too much of it? It raises many more questions than answers. Clay was again faced with the problem and pleasure of defining himself. There is a bias that is built into our shared conversation on social-media and high tech telephones that presupposes that it is all just a big waste of time. We so often just assume that all of those people who are deep into their screens are missing out on life and that their mental health and personal development is being damaged. But what if this is all wrong. What if we are all seeking out that
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understanding of the self that has plagued humanity since the beginning of everything. And what if some of us eventually find it. Clay’s position is one that above all rejects the role of the victim. At a time when identity politics is the fastest avenue to acceptance he takes on all issues and insists that he is a citizen of the world. His engagement with social issues is a daily ritual and there is no topic that he would ever shy away from. Racism, the environment, climate change, sexuality, gender equality, violence, social justice, critique of capitalism, genetic engineering, and the future of human consciousness are just a few of the topics that might post his stance on in a given week. He has a firm belief that the future of this planet is not only in jeopardy but with full certainty doomed within his lifetime. How can anyone go on with life if they have fully accepted this hopeless fate as reality? His reaction is to be fully immersed in the moment free of distance, time and space. I’ve never met a single person who is so completely disaffected by location. He can be himself anywhere and with anyone. His studio is his iPhone so he can make his work anytime and anyplace. In a similar way that street art entered the gallery in the 1980’s with Americans like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat taking to canvas and jumping into a dialogue that goes back to the renaissance, Clay’s video works are paintings. The format and scale relates to the human sized proportions of the viewer. They are works that invite you to stand in front of them. Just big enough that you could step into them like a low window. Their duration, each one minute long, is sympathetic to the act of looking. It is about holding your attention but never taking it for granted. The viewer looks into the field that they offer and is greeted by the artist’s face looking back with an inviting stare. It is a look that is both affirming and questioning. Yes there is certainly judgment but also acceptance and the reassuring feeling
that comes with repetition. If you remember that scene from “Taxi Driver” when a young Travis Bickle is looking into the mirror in his studio apartment and asks, “you talkin’ to me?” The camera is a surrogate for the mirror and the viewer is privileged with another layer of autonomy and invisibility. The subject and object merge into a single plane of focus. Mirror, lens and ground collapse into something much closer to that first reflection in the water that Narcissus fell in love with. All of our phones have two cameras. One is for looking out, making views, capturing the vastness of nature and freezing moments as memories, not so different from the first Kodak box cameras. The front camera is more like a third eye. The word selfie might sound fairly cute but its function is far more meaningful. With the push of a button anyone can have a full on out of body experience. Yes artists have been painting self portraits for quite some time and photographers have also gotten in on it too, so what makes these works any different? Clay’s self portraits present that act of introspection itself. Entering into his installation you are confronted with an immediate silence that is so much in contrast to the vibrant colors and dizzying visual effects of the works. The viewer becomes the focus of the artist’s gaze and they are being looked at just as much as they are looking. Each screen is an extension of Clay’s very personal state of consciousness and as long as they are powered on he is present.
Eric Powell
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FUNDAZIUN
CHASTÈ DA TARASP
f u n da z iu n
Not Vital Chastè da Tarasp
7553 Tarasp