RODRIGO HERNÁNDEZEdited by Rodrigo Hernández Design by Santiago da Silva Published by BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE Foldout publication with 4 pp. 198 x 280 mm (folded), 380 x 560

RODR IGO HERNÁNDEZ

What is the moon? - Sketch for the installation

2014

mixed media on paper, 21 × 30 cm

What is the moon?

2014

installation, Bonnefantenmuseum

What is the moon?

2014

installation, Bonnefantenmuseum

What is the moon?

2014

crystal-clear polyurethane

What is the moon?

2014

crystal-clear polyurethane

The silver cord

2014

Oil on wood, 30 × 25 cm

Las últimas horas

2014

oil on wood, 30 × 25 cm

What is the moon?

2014

técnica mixta sobre papel, 42 × 29,7 cm

What is the moon?

This is the most recent presentation of a cycle of projects reflecting on the writings of the Belgian painter René Magritte.

In the particular case of ‘What is the moon?’, the installation draws inspiration from one of the paragraphs of “Les mots et les Images” (The words and the images), a text that first appeared in the periodical La Revolution Surrealiste in 1929:

“The borders of objects in reality touch each other

as if forming a mosaic”

Along with the installation, a publication has been released including contributions by artists, writers and curators who were invited to submit a text or image free of any formal provision. These contributions are presented in dialogue with my own drawings, stories, dreams, sketches for sculptures and collected quotes. The thread connecting these different fragments is elusive and demands a certain playful willingness from the reader. The result is a composition of words and images that explores concepts such as perception, authorship, message, imagination, ambiguity and representation; close to the ventures of Dada publishing experiments.

What is the moon?

Publication

Edited by Rodrigo HernándezDesign by Santiago da Si lva

Publ ished byBOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE

Foldout publ ication with 4 pp. 198 x 280 mm (folded), 380 x 560 mm (unfolded), Risograph print, Edit ion of 500

Con texts and contributions from:Paula van den BoschTaocheng WangAbraham Cruzvi l legasRené DaniëlsEmil iano ValdésKenya HaraThomas GeigerDaniel Garza UsabiagaAna NavasOlivia DunbarRené MagritteJo-ey TangRita Ponce de León

hi tao! do you

know what this

stands for?

hi rodrigo,

this looks

tricky. I don’t

understand because

it mixes "wind" and

‘rag’ together.

RA

IHA

N

Higher E

ducationO

h, how em

barrassing! I am w

earing both contacts on the sam

e eye!

Spring D

anceP

ersonally, I hate to dance.

Slum

ber Party

Well�

well I’m

sorry for not having more problem

s! B

ut I plan to.

It’s Only a T

estY

ou are pretty cute without your glasses on.

The G

entle Art of L

isteningO

urs is not to reason why. O

urs is but listen and try not to cry.

Hom

e Again

There’s so m

uch that we haven’t done.

I thought we’ve done everything.

I didn’t mean that. I m

ean like�

well, I haven’t even taken you

to my favorite surf shop, or to check out m

y favorite band.

TH

E META

PHO

R O

F TH

E SPIDER

In the Bhad

rayaka U

panishad there is the metaphor of a

spider sitting at the center of its web, issuing and reabsorbing

its threads in concentric circles, all held at one point. This im

-

age occurs in several Upanishads since it points to the basics

of the Indian world-view

: unity in diversity. The spider’s threads

symm

etrically expand into a visible circumference, and though

there are divergent lines in between and varying distances

to be spanned they can all be traced back to the central point

of the web.

The yantra is a dynam

ic symbol w

hich reflects the same

three metaphysical concepts em

braced in the analogy of the

spider. A

geometrical

figure gradually

growing

away

from

or towards its center, in stages, until its expansion or con-

traction is complete, the yantra has around its center several

concentric figures

which

continue to

expand or

contract

as precisely as a spider’s web, not only as bridges betw

een

different planes, but also as symbols of unfolding or gather-

ing energies. The figure’s periphery is a square enclosure w

ith

four doors

opening tow

ards the

four cardinal

directions.

The concentric lines of the yantra define its volum

e and cre-

ate rhythmic unity, relating w

hat they unite or divide to the

center, the point of integration.

Un zorro viene caminando por la

calle y se tropieza con un perro.

Le dice: “I’m sorry” Y el perro le

responde: “I’m Perry”

An object can make one think there

are others behind it:

The visible contours of objects

in reality touch each other as if

forming a mosaic:

A content could be expressed through

the action or its result: “writer”

could be represented by a hand

holding the writing instrument or

with the drawing it makes:

Why have people come to favor

rectangular forms? One possibility

is the fact that if we break a big

leafy object into two pieces using

our two hands, we get a straight

line, while a second break results

in a right angle:

1)

2

1

4

5

8

Screen Shot 2014-07-28 at 2.01.51 PM

the gaps that fill a dreamless sleep.

expand against a supple gaze.

the softened ground situtates.

the dazed expression of memory.

to be weighted like clouds.

to name every rotation would take so much time.

that nobody has.

like I do.

6

7

2

René Daniëls, Untitled (Two ‘I’s

Fighting over one Point), 1982,

collection Bonnefantenmuseum,

Maastricht

DEAR Rodrigo

Thinking quietly about DUTCH FLAT THINGS

IMAGINARY MOVEMENT

WHAT IS THE MOON

Piet Mondriaan LAYING OUT Victory Boogie Woogie

Colored tape provisionally LAID DOWN during the phase

of RETHINKING

Forever opening up to

MULTIPLICITY

VIBRATING geometry

“It is now known that

the world is not FLAT,

but SPHERICAL”

Hilma af Klint seeing

the INVISIBLE

MOON on the water

Metaphysical MAN

Like a make-believe bird hanging in

a make-believe sky, I see the room

from above. I enlarge the view, pull

back, and survey the whole, then

zoom in to enlarge the details.

3

7

Danton

2014

rice paper, wood, china ink, other materials, 188 × 145 cms

Spettacolo

2014

rice paper, wood, ink, other materials, 72 × 40 cms

Maxcanú

2014

crystal-clear polyurethane, 55 ×35 cms

Sometimes something happens

2014

installation, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam

The dial of a watch is also said to be its face

2014

paper, ink, wood / paper, lack / paper, plaster, wood-powder

Sentimental reasoning

2014

tempera and golden leaf on wood, 32 × 25 cm

Looking forward is also looking back

2014

oil on canvas, diptych: 24 × 30 cm each

Dutch Flat Things

2014

installation, Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie

Dutch Flat Things

2014

installation Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie

Dutch Flat Things

2014

installation, Open Studios Jan Van Eyck Academie

Dutch Flat Things

2014

one-off, cardboard, paint, 8 small objects

14.8 × 21 × 2 cm

Maastricht Thinking Diagram #1

2014

técnica mixta sobre papel, 23,5 × 29,7 cm

A Sense of Possibil ity

2013

installation, Weingrüll , Karlsruhe

A Sense of PossibilityRoos Gortzak

- Is your work about ‘mariachi’?- How do you mean ‘mariachi’?- You know this thing filled with sweets that you are supposed to break open with a stick?- Ah, you mean a piñata...

It’s Sunday night and I am with Rodrigo in the gallery. We are not having this conversation, he tells me about it. It was an exchange he recently had with another Dutch woman, a fellow research artist at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. It reminds me of the interview Marcel Broodthaers had with a cat in 1970, which starts as follows:

- Est-ce que c’est un bon tableau celui-là, qui correspond à ce que vous attendez de cette transformation toute récente qui va du Conceptual Art à cette nouvelle version d’une certaine figuration pourrait-on dire?- Miaou.- Vous croyez?- Miaaaaauoaaaauo, miaaaaauo, miaaaou.

It is not the content that made me think of it but the form. I remember another story Rodrigo told me this autumn when we were having drinks at my balcony and talking about his work. It was a story by meditation guru S.N. Goenka about a boy who came to visit his blind friend and told him about what he had just experienced:

- I just had a delicious rice pudding!- What is rice pudding?- It is something white.- But what is white?And trying to find a way to describe white he grabbed a white duck passing by and handed it over to his blind friend, saying:- This is white, for example.- So white is soft?- No, no, try again.And touching the duck again from the peak to the back, he said:

- Oh, I get it now: white is crooked!

Having sat down today behind my computer to write a press release for Rodrigo’s show at Weingrüll, I thought it would be more interesting to share these stories with you. Closer also to Rodrigo’s work, which isn’t about getting it, about fixating meaning, but about keeping things open, in a contingent state. For those of you who have seen Rodrigo’s work when he was still studying here at the academy in Karlsruhe, you might recognize certain motives: the white paper cup, the disembodied head, the amorphous objects out of rice paper, the structures referring to architecture. More importantly, you might recognize a certain set-up, a kind of two- or three-dimensional riddle, in which the motives function like letters in an alphabet, although they are never exactly have the same function. The riddle isn’t ever there to be solved. It invites you -or at least in my interpretation- to abstract the arrangements we currently have in place in order to understand one another.

Objective truths are not what we find at the basis of knowledge, but rather a set of agreements that make us believe we have a grasp on the world. It is like the man standing in front of a glass sliding door, who figures in several of Rodrigo’s drawings and paintings in this show. The man is looking at his own reflection, but when approaching it, the doors open and the image disappears. To quote René Magritte, whose 1929 article “Les Mots et les Images” (in which he explores the relationship between an object, its image and the title it is given) is one of Rodrigo’s departing points: “We see the world as being outside ourselves, although it is only a mental representation of it that we experience inside ourselves.”

Last summer, when I was writing a review for a Mexican magazine on Rodrigo’s show in Luzern, Rodrigo sent me a link to a video in which curator Giovanni Carmine says that “thinking is just finding new connections between things that you didn’t think were connected.” I like how this can be seen as a motto for looking at Rodrigo´s show. More recently I discovered an audio work by poet and critic Quinn Latimer for Marisa Merz’s show at the Serpentine Gallery in London. It struck me how much it could have functioned as an audio for Rodrigo’s works. I’l l finish this text here with the last words of Quinn’s piece: “What greets you as your eyes close, what opens, what extraordinarily thing?”

Is That So?

2013

oil on canvas mounted on wood, 29,5 × 25 cm

Divide or Lack of Divide / Iro Space

2013

paper, wood, ink / cardboard, lack

Shiro Space / Aka Space

2013

cardboard, lack

White is Crooked

2013

graphite on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm

Untitled

2013

paper, plaster, wood-powder / leather glove

The net is full of holes

2013

A Sense of Possibil ity

2013

offset print, 10.5 × 14.8 cm

take-away postcards, edition of 1000

Flower poem for a si lent audience

2014

installation, The Ridder, Maastricht

Flower poem for a si lent audience

2014

Maastricht Diagram #3

2013

mixed media on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm

Things are moving2013

oil on wood, 25 × 30 cm

I ’ve rode the crest of a wave / With you beside me

2014

installation, Kunstverein Freiburg

I ’ve rode the crest of a wave / With you beside me

2014

installation, Kunstverein Freiburg

Figura 1

2013

paper, plaster, wood powder, 172 × 53 cm

Kip Salade

2014

rice paper, wood, ink, 70 × 40 cm

A Man, a Plant, a Rietved Buffet

2013

color pencil on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm

œ2013

installation, AdbK Karlsruhe

œ2013

installation view (detail) , AdbK Karlsruhe

œ2013

installation (detail) , AdbK Karlsruhe

œ2013

mixed media on paper, 30 × 40 cm

Maintenant

2013

unfired clay, 70 × 40 cm

after a sketch from René Magritte

Maintenant (Salzburg Hbf)

2013

color pencil on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm

Was ist der Mond?

2012

paper, lack, other materials

Sculptures

2013

series of 9 one-off, mixed media on paper

10.5 × 21 cm, 16pp

published por Mark Pezinger Verlag, Berlin

Pedro2012

installation, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne

PedroRoos Gortzak

A little blue ball. I walk over to it to see the room-installation by Rodrigo Hernandez for Raum für aktuelle Kunst in Luzern from this almost centre, but off-centre point. It is hanging in front of my eyes, like a third eye, but instead of enabling me to see the installation, consisting of six objects that I’m surrounded by, it is doing something else. It is making me feel, to loosely quote Rene Magritte from Les mots and les images (which Hernandez shows in the other room as referential material), that “there are others behind it”. But I cannot see them, which is disorienting. And the little blue ball itself also refuses to be seen - in a similar way to Op Art and Kinetic Art. A gesture of the simplest technology pointing out something about this installation that remains out of reach.

For a second, you might be put onto another track when seeing the material in a separate “documentation” room, usually used for the opening cocktail. There is a table upon which drawings, notes, photocopies of references and maps are placed under glass plates - a second installation by Hernandez. Especially his drawing of the origin of his six objects, obliquely deriving from some of the art works in Harald Szeemann’s When Attitudes Become Form (1969), triggers a detective process. As if it was about finding out that the two empty paper cups, one placed inside of the other on the floor, echoes Bill Bollinger’s “Pipes”, two identical objects placed onto the floor in Szeemann’s show. But soon enough, and luckily so, this map, seen along the rest of the material, refuses to be understood as a conceptual anchor for the installation in the other room and and then escapes its function as text.

The same goes for the “found” objects in the show - which Hernandez prefers to name “re-found”, as he conceptualizes them first and then goes out to find them in the city or in his home-studio. The wooden box, the tin can, the paper cups are emptied out, turned upside down, devoid of the function they once had. Together with his hand-made objects (the above-mentioned ball, a hanging cable, a head) they all seem to have lost the ability to reach each other, and the same feeling infiltrates the way they seem to try connecting with the visitor. In this quasi-dialogue the intention of reading is suspended and the connection to a ground appears lost (in a similar way that the red cable hangs from the ceiling without quite touching the surface). Then we find a head lying on the floor, disembodied, empty, with open eyes and slightly smiling.

Pedro

2012


Pedro (Head)

2012

paper, plaster, wood powder

detail of the installation “Pedro”, o.T. Raum für aktuelle Kunst, Lucerne

2

2012

plaster, 11 × 8 cm


Time Shadows

2012

wood, 50 × 40 50 × 4 cm


2

2012

plaster, 11 × 8 cm


Pedro

2012


Pedro - Document Room

2012


Pedro (Diagram)

2012

mixed media on paper, 29,7 50 × 4 21 cm

Penetration

2012

installation, IAAB Studio, Berlin

The Effect of 7 Foldings

2012

installation view, Poly Galerie, Karlsuhe

Spiral

2012


Spiral: Artistic Markings between WorldsKonrad Bitterli

Light from the north enters through a large, slightly tapered rooflight and illuminates the studio. It makes the walls and even the slightest details of the room appear in sober clarity. The artist Rodrigo Hernández knows how to use this situation of concentration - not, as one might expect, for the presentation of classical painting, but for the wonderfully luminous floor piece Spiral (2011), the deeper meaning of which rests in darkness.

Spiral could be interpreted using the terminology of painting - as a redefinition of the traditional figure-ground problem, but translated into the third dimension. In an area of roughly seven square metres, several small objects are grouped in a bizarre rendezvous on top of radiantly white tiles. Inevitably, one recalls the oft-quoted comparison of Comte de Lautréamont, the French poet and grandfather of the Surrealists: “(...) as beautiful as the chance meeting on a dissecting-table of a sewing-machine and an umbrella!”, though Hernández’s installation Spiral is of a distinctly more tranquil nature. The six jewel-like miniatures, each set on a ceramic tile, contrast with their gleaming ground in a frugal aesthetic arrangement: a lizard, cast in metal, underneath a plexiglas dome: a stone on a wooden plinth with an opening the size of a mouse-hole: a Red Bull can sanded down to the aluminium base: a book with a white cover, which is actually a plaster cast with traces of drawing on it: a cardboard object on its side, as well as a skyscraper model. A wooden ball hangs from the ceiling on a fine thread, seemingly hovering over the surreal scenery. With only a few elements the artist creates a concentrated layout of objects, a poetically loaded topography of the mysterious.

As clearly as the articles can be labelled, since most of them derive from our everyday reality or emblematically refer to it, a conceptual interpretation in the sense of the narrative capacity of a coherent ensemble is complex, ultimately doomed to failure. This is what the tiled field suggests: to a certain extent it is a plinth, a stage for the encounter between the equally foreign and familiar things. Each one seems to belong to a different world, to contain different stories, or to encourage different readings: a lizard, even cast in metal, could refer to nature, a Red Bull can points towards a popular form of everyday culture, and the small skyscraper could be a metaphor for the progress of civilization. Although small-scale, some of these precious items can be viewed as models; others are life-size, and yet others seem to be both at the same time. With his precisely selected items and their diverse references on the glistening tiles, Hernández, at least mentally, literally lures us onto thin ice.

It is exactly such moments of permanent notional linking and rejecting that characterize Rodrigo Hernandez’s artistic work. Even if it is formally oriented towards Minimalism or Arte Povera, it proves to be absolutely contemporary. His subtle artistic gestures are substantially formed out of the cultural source of his Latin American home, which clashes with West European visual languages just as it does with our profane everyday life. Aesthetic precision and intellectual openness - for Rodrigo Hernandez they are mutually dependent and ultimately result in a subjective voice for a mute message - as delicate artistic markings between worlds.

Spiral

2012


Can

2012

detail of the installation Spiral

Boat in the Waves

2012

detail of the installation Spiral

Ciudad

2012

wood, paint, ink

New Stones

2012

installation, Mucharaum Karlsruhe

Norwegian Wood

2011

installation, Espacio Alternativo “La Esmeralda”

ICE

2011


Rodrigo Hernández

México City, 1983

Studies

2013-2014 Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL

2010-2012 Akademie der bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, Alemania, Prof. Si lv ia Bächl i

2006-2010 BFA Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, “La Esmeralda”, Cd. de México

Grants and prizes

2014 Laurenz-Haus Stiftung, Basel , CH

Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg, DE

2013 Jóvenes Creadores, National Fund of the Arts, FONCA, MX

Jan Van Eyck Academie Stipendium,

Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschappen, NL

Graduiertenstipendium Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, D

2012 Kulturfonds der Landeshauptstadt Salzburg, AT

2012 DAAD-Preis zur Jahresausstel lung, AdbK Karlsruhe, D

2010 International Studies Grant, National Fund of the Arts, FONCA, MX

2011 Graduation Work Grant, INBA, MX

2009 Internship Studies Grant, Landesstiftung Baden-Wurttemberg, Karlsruhe, D

Solo shows

2015 Here is Someone, Kim?, Riga, LV (upcoming)

Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, MX (upcoming)

2014 What is the Moon?, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, NL

Go, Gentle Scorpio! , Paral lel Oaxaca, Oaxaca, MX

Dutch Flat Things, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL

2013 A Sense of Possibi l i ty, Weingrül l , Karlsruhe, D (cur. Roos Gortzak)

2012 Pedro, o.T. Raum für aktuel le Kunst, Lucerne, CH

2011 Interaction of Nothing, Zip, Basel , CH

Penetration, IAAB Atel ier, Berl in, D

Automatic Sculpture, Poly Galerie, Karlsruhe, D

2010 New Stones, Mucharaum, Karlsruhe, D

Ebony, Ovo Space, Mexico City, MX

Group shows (selection)

2014 Sometimes something happens, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, NL

A Special Arrow Was Shot In The Neck. . . , David Roberts Art Foundation,

London, UK (cur. Vivian Ziherl and Natasha Ginwala)

Autodestrucción4: Demolición, Thomas Dane Gal lery, London, UK

(cur. Abraham Cruzvi l legas)

Mark P works both ways, FRAC Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, F

ERNTE, Kunsthaus Basel land, Mutenz/Basel , CH

Moules, Oeufs, Frites, The Ridder, Maastricht, NL

Roving Room, Habersham Mil ls , Demorest, Georgia, USA

Van Eyck Open Studios, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL

Dasdasdemdes, NO SPACE, Mexico City, MX

2013 Magic Hour, The Ridder, Maastricht, NL

Six Memos fort he Next. . . , Magazin 4 - Bregenzer Kunstverein, Bregenz, AT

The Carrousel Col lection, 45cbm Studioraum - Kunsthal le Baden-Baden, D

Jenseits des Rahmens, Kunstverein Freiburg, D

Regionale 13, Kunstraum Riehen, Riehen-Basel , CH

Left Eye, Right Eye, V8, Karlsruhe, D

Mark Pezinger Verlag at Pioneer Works, Nueva York, USA

Wood(s), Zwinger Gal lery, Berl in, DE

I don’t know, Vamial i ’s Gal lery, Atenas, GR

The Mystery of Intersecting Paths, HBK, Braunschweig, DE

2012 When Does Something Become.. .?, Walker Art Center, Minneapol is, USA

Regionale 13, Kunst Raum Riehen, Basel , CH

La Distancia es el Material , New Museum of Contemporary Art, Guatemala

Reading Disorders, Kunstverein Kassel , Kassel DE

London’s Cal l ing and It ’s Cal l ing You Gay, Preteen Gal lery, Mexico City, MX

O Tannebaum, Alte Sal ine Hal lein, Salzburg, A (cur. Manfred Pernice)

Five in a Row, deuxpiece, Basel , CH

AutoconßtrukSchön, Arratia Beer Gal lery, Berl in , DE

2011 Les jeux sont faits, Hinterhof, Basel , CH

Übermorgenkünstler I I , Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg, DE

Se Amable, Centro Cultural de Cal i , C

Ovo Host, National Museum of the Phi l ippines, Mani la, PH

Vänster, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, S

SiempreOtraVez, Museo Nacional de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, MX

2010 Jahresausstel lung, Akademie der Bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, D

Observar el Cielo, Café la Gloria, Mexico City, MX

Actos Proféticos, Centro Cultural de Cal i , Cal i , CO

Work in Progress, Alberta Col lege of Art and Design, Calgary, CA

Rules of Casual Sex, Galería de la Esmeralda, Mexico City, MX

2009 ICE, Akademie der Bi ldenden Künste Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, D

Texto es, Espacio Alternativo, Galería La Esmeralda, Cd. de México, MX

Very normal, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zürich, CH

Trabajando, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Oaxaca, MX

Publicaciones

What is the moon?, Bonnefanten Museum / Bom Dia Verlag, Berl in, 2014

How do you do?, VIS publ ications, 2014

A Sense of Possibi l i ty, VIS publ ications, 2014

Dutch Flat Things, Mark Pezinger Verlag, 2014

Left Eye, Right Eye, Charles Nypels Lab, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL, 2013

Marginal ia no.1, harles Nypels Lab, Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, NL, 2013

Sculptures, Mark Pezinger Verlag, Berl in, 2012

Rodrigo Hernández: POT, Fluid Edit ions, Karlsruhe, 2012

Rodrigo Hernández

© 2014

www.rodrigo-hernandez.net

Documents

RODRIGO HERNÁNDEZEdited by Rodrigo Hernández Design by Santiago da Silva Published by BOM DIA BOA TARDE BOA NOITE Foldout publication with 4 pp. 198 x 280 mm (folded), 380 x 560