| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
Art Reviews From our Archive |
September 2006 |
Carlos Garacaicoa
at the ROM until Dec. 31, 2006
By Alidë Kohlhaas
A delicate sense of the poetic, but also a profound sense of desperation and desolation, mixed with irony and satire, pervade Carlos Garaicoa's works as displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). Considered one of Cuba's leading contemporary artists and one of the most highly profiled artist in Latin America, Garaicoa's work is both unique and yet also universal.
On entering the exhibit one is greeted by a group of rice paper lanterns of architectural shapes not usually associated with such objects—the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place notwithstanding. The project is called De la serie Nuevas arquiteturas (Series New Architectures) 2003. In a manner of speaking they hark back to the 1950s, when rice paper lamps were very much de rigueur as a decorative object in the artistic world—or at least on the west coast of this continent where the Japanese influence made them a must have object. Garaicoa's lanterns arouse a sense of wonder, even joy, but also a sense of puzzlement. One becomes immediately aware that this artist has a larger purpose in mind.
The lanterns face a wall covered entirely by a thread drawing, Porque cada ciudad tiene derecho a llamarse Utopia (Because every city has the right to be called Utopia). It, too, inspires a sense of wonder through its delicate rendering of an imaginary cityscape. Here he has created a utopian image that will suddenly be ruptured by Garaicoa's photographs of Cuba's crumbling architectural heritage we get to see later. The artist is, of course, not the only one who works with thread to created shapes and images without weaving. His management of the medium, however, is unique . . .
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