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Vessel Gallery

April 18 - May 26, 2013

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471 25th Street Oakland, CA 94612
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No Mirrors in this House No Mirrors in this House, porcelain, wood, glass by Juan Santiago
Vessel Gallery is delighted to present the works of Juan Santiago. This artist has ambitiously composed a multiple medium installation that seamlessly takes the viewer on a stark and remarkable journey through the vast human emotional landscape. Santiago redefines tools of the contemporary artist by challenging what we know to be traditional materials, fusing an engulfing experience. He creates vignettes of stop-action movements by sculpting ever so subtle movements of gesture in his figures, and assembles intensely evocative landscapes. No Mirrors in this House "How does one traverse a landscape of love and loss? This question was the catalyst for this body of work, which unites my intuitive artistic processes with strong, conscious intention. For the past year and a half, I explored an interior narrative that was inspired by the characteristics of figurine mold of an Asian woman. Her face, expressionless and static, looks to me both stoic and content, as if no amount of time or pressure could alter her composure. Her overall posture seems unassuming enough, yet it provokes in me lots of questions about her place in a hierarchy – is she bowed down by a power greater than herself, or is she the very source of the power I sense? Through the process of slip casting she becomes a blank canvas. Layers of drizzled porcelain slip create a flowing, candle-wax effect that dresses her completely and in so doing removes all associations of culture, class and religion, even muting her gender. By forgoing the addition of color and glazes, I kept the focus on her “values” as revealed by simple light and shadow. Random molds inspire in me visions of irregular terrains that are landscapes both natural and imaginative. The combination of geometry and organic forms suggests connections between otherwise unassociated objects. Moving around and through the “landscape” changes the viewer’s perspective and reveals these points of connection. I connect that to the way, traveling an emotional landscape can give us new awareness of ourselves and our relationships. Think of concepts like “transition” and “acceptance” as both mental states and geographical locations. The conceptual and the concrete set up an echo, and in the echo you can hear, I hope, an emotional, wordless meaning that provides clarity and understanding. In this work, the narrative of love and loss takes shape as both an intimate and a confrontational experience. Catharsis is achieved in the act of making. It may come to the viewer as well those who allows the experience of the work to reveal an inner psychological terrain of their own." - Juan Santiago