[Gabriel Orozco: "Mirror Crit"]
[Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City]
Buenos dias,
buenos dias.
[IN SPANISH] The knife is covered with salt.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] "Salt on the knife."
I love Jell-O,
as you can see,
because I always put Jell-O
in my work.
[IN SPANISH] As you know, I am a young artist
and there are still some things that
I can't resolve in relation
to the background or to the object.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] So this work
is called "New York Knicks Celebration Day".
And this was the day that
we were all celebrating.
And you can see the basketball
full with confetti.
Since that day, I was really interested in
the idea of covering objects--
[IN SPANISH] Or covering the objects
and changing their appearance
in relation to a determined context.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] --in relation to a specific context.
[IN SPANISH] The chair that is covered with...
let me see because I just forgot.
[This is not Gabriel Orozco's art]
[It is Maximiliano Siñai's]
The "Mirror Crit" was
an idea I had a long ago
when I was invited to do crits
in universities, post-graduate,
and go to the studios of the students
and talk about the work.
I somehow didn't like that too much,
to do that.
And also I thought I was not so useful for students
to do a crit: twenty minutes,
one-to-one,
and fifteen students in one day.
Somehow I thought about doing all crits
speaking myself as if I was the artist,
and try to explain the work
right on the spot.
[WOMAN, OFF CAMERA] Styrofoam?
[OROZCO] I suppose...
it's styrofoam.
[IN SPANISH] Let's see.
"Cooking Salt"...
I was trying not to have
so much information--
so just to have the image
and try to talk from that.
[IN SPANISH] Obviously this is a t-shirt with foam-chips.
Hung from a barbed wire, it seems
because there is not a hook or anything.
The background is interesting.
They work together well like a painting.
But I don't know if it is doing something to explain
what could be the use of an object like this
or what metaphoric implications it can have.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] I have this image...
One day I have insomnia,
and I was dreaming with sheeps in skateboards,
crossing Fifth Avenue.
And I was counting them all the time.
I was very happy,
because finally I go to sleep
counting sheeps in skateboards.
[IN SPANISH] And that was my kind of interpretation
of those dreams that I had when I had insomnia.
But finally I am more interested in keeping with
the idea of objects in their context
to change them, to alter them
although in this case, clearly, as in others
not in all of them but in many cases
the object that covers the skateboard
is completely foreign to this situation.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] This object...
This material is very exotic
for that situation.
So there is a slightly contradictory thing here, because...
and that makes it more surrealistic.
The artists were, I think, very appreciative
because it's a different way of
learning about your own work.
And everything I didn't say
probably was useful, too.
So it's not just what I say about the work--
it's not about my opinion;
It's about what I miss--
what I couldn't see in the images of the work.
[IN SPANISH] So Max, the artist, is here.
[RESUMES IN ENGLISH] Very good, Max.
[ALL LAUGH]
[MAXIMILIANO, IN SPANISH] Maybe this format should be adopted
in art schools.
It is a great way to criticize a work
when you appropriate it
and talk about it as if it was your own
without knowing the concept
without knowing "why did you make it," right?
Because many people, even me
when I speak about my work
I sometimes intellectualize myself
while the work speaks for itself, right?
[OROZCO] And if I was an older artist,
I will call it, like,
"Eclipse of Sound"
or something like that.
But I'm very young,
and the title is,
"Disco con arena" ["Disc with Sand"]
[ALL LAUGH]