Kendall Art Cultural Center

OPENING: Friday, Feb 7, 2020

6:00PM-11PM

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RELATIVISMO DE PECADOS Y VIRTUDES

Francisco Bernal

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by Camila Luna

Im·mi·grate

verb

To live permanently in a foreign country.

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Art is proof of humanities’ potential for brilliance, confirmation of our budding capability to awe, inspire, move, and transcend. Art makes society, therefor society is influenced by artists. Artists pull inspiration from their lives, the world around them, therefor an artist’s work is an extension of his life, personal life experiences are a reflected within their works. It can be argued that the evolution of artistic style, figures, mediums, experiments within artistic movements are a culmination of intimate moments within the lives of every artist. Many artists have an innate ability to see beyond their generation and understand societal problems within their respective contemporary times. Creating innovative, controversial works that are later on accepted as master pieces. This ability to pinpoint and discuss controversial issues make art a tool in influencing society and causing ripples of change. In many ways’ art and by default artists simultaneously document their lives along with the society they live in while influencing future generations. What inspires and influences them in turn is the world around them and the feelings they experience as they live their lives. The human condition is not a tangible thing, neither are the feelings evoked when looking at a work of art. 

 

An artist’s ability to inspire and document lies in his or her ability to observe, process, categorize, and express his or her views on the world they experience. Immigrating and assimilating into a new environment is one of the many psychologically altering conditions that are as much of a tool as oil and canvas when creating a work of art. Not only an influence for the artist but also a ripple of influence within societal norms, views, and perspectives. The works of art oftentimes become a commentary on life, society, and political situations among others.

 

A picture of Francisco Bernal would be incomplete without taking account of the experiences he accumulated immigrating from Cuba to Spain, and the other cities and countries he traveled in order to settle in Mallorca. An imperative focus within Bernal’s works are his roots, the first works of art where he explores themes and objects that are not ideally beautiful. His work revolves around objects that are not typically seen, what has disappeared and has (delete has) aesthetically become uninterested to society. Bernal wants the audience’s glance to stop and take in the visual weight of oftentimes discarded objects, objects they very regularly interact with. These objects are meant to create a sense of nostalgia creating and remembering different stories and histories, reflecting within the footprints left behind by their ancestors who once valued these objects hoping to capture their true value. Within the series of works being exhibited, the artist takes the audience on a journey simply by using scissors meant for shearing sheep. Utilizing these objects, he attempts (it would be more concise to delete attempt and just say he symbolically undresses but I don’t know if that’s part of the point) to symbolically undress the audience. It’s possible to conceive each work of art as an individual frame within a series of animated paintings. The objects are the same within all the paintings but the narrative changes diametrically.