RODRIGO IRIARTE RIVERA

Welcome! Please, don’t come back (unless you want to)

Throughout this experience, many things have happened. I have found myself wondering, wondering constantly about what is going on; with my classmates, with me, with everyone. I tried to portray my doubts constantly through art. It is clear now, that, my common thread being Personal Journey, my art path is also a journey; a pretty hectic one. I explored different techniques; personal experiences proper to those times influence my perception of the world. You will definitely perceive this.

At the moment in which I will decide to look back upon the artworks, you are now going to see; I hope to see a person full of white thoughts and memories; someone that maybe took some stuff pretty seriously and maybe shouldn’t have. That is so fun. I am able to identify a pretty clear change in what I thought at the beginning of tenth grade, and what I think now; I still love flowers and cats, but I don’t see myself anymore in my portrait. That is what growing is all about. Scary… who knows where we will all be at the end. Let this serve as a reflection of our inner thoughts and how they evolve after we process them… I invite the audience to try to interpret the most out of symbols and issues, even if the media by which this exhibition is done. It is not a showcase of only myself; is something about humanity; in which we explore fundamental elements in one another.

This is not over because this course has ended. I will continue to use art as a medium for my emotions; almost a diary. Maybe you will see something of my works again, maybe not… Later!

Specificities and recommendations:

This website is divided into parts:

The introduction --> which has already been seen
SOME ARTWORKS --> Where the great majority of works are portrayed through a grid system. If the user wants to take a closer look at the piece it can just click on it.
1. The information display is only the Title and some other facts; if the user aims to understand the piece through the artist's eyes it can keep scrolling.
I am here but wasn't there before --> A section dedicated exclusively to a specific artwork.
Through my eyes --> Where the user can read some texts the artist has written in regards to the works in this exhibition.
Additional resource --> A poem I did for a long lost artwork.

**Disclaimer: Due to the circumstances we are living right now, some of the pictures of the artworks do not reflect the fullest possible extent that what was intended to show. It is a sad reality but one we are trying to make the most of. So, thank you.

SOME ARTWORKS

Is this where it ended or where it began?

Measurements: 70cmx30cm Date: (September 2018) Technique: Oil on canvas Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

Certainty (?)

Measurements: 22cm x 17cm Date: (June, 2020) Technique: Digital Collage Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

Where thoughts lay tired

Measurements: 22cm x 17cm Date:(March, 2019) Technique: Mixed (Cast, intervention, cardboard, acrylic paint)

Dignity for SALE

Measurements: 250cm x 500cm Date: (September, 2020) Technique: Intervention Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

A reality of what is constructed

Measurements: Varied (the art-piece is composed of several prints of) Date: (November, 2019) Technique: Mixed (print over acetate and yarn) Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

Do you want, or do you love to change? … Do you change?

Measurements: Varied Date: (January, 2020) Technique: Mixed (Print over acetate, oil over acetate, acrylic over acetate) Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

What might show vs what will, right at the end

Measurements: Varied Date: (February, 2020) Technique: Water Paint over canvas Author: Rodrigo Iriarte Rivera

I am there, but wasn’t there before

Please keep scrolling for this piece

~I am there, but wasn’t there before~

This artwork is composed of several gifs and accompanying, specific photographs, depending on what is shown in the gifs. Due to this nature, it is relevant to showcase it in a different manner.

Through my eyes:

Is this where it ended or where it began?

When asked to portray myself I could only reflect many of my past experiences and an honest exaggeration of some of the elements that I considered to be part of my identity. When I reflect on this 2-year-old work I see a boy concerned with troubles that seem to have somewhat faded away; they were and are very real issues now that they are painted here and explained through several symbols. When looking at this piece I see where I come from, what have I improved, and in what things I have deteriorated. That is what a personal journey is all about.

Certainty (?)

I love flowers and cats. I like the aesthetic of vintage illustration and what it might mean. What I wanted to transmit certainly is the lack of certainty. The lack of certainty, in hindsight, I felt about who am I and what is the role of the elements I like in defining what I am and with that, what I can say. It is truly an unsettling work that serves the purpose of what I was feeling. There are some components that are relevant and, an evolution from previous pieces is evident: the simplicity of it is very attractive to the eyes of those who want to seek more in less...

What might show vs what will, right at the end

“I don’t want to explain this one. I would like the audience to just look, is that ok?” What does this tell the audience? Look at the contrast between them. The idea of degradation and rootlessness. I’ve seen; you probably have seen it too.

Dignity for SALE

Recent events had definitely made me angry; not only towards specific people but towards the community as a whole. There was/is a manifestation of complete ignorance of values and what is right to do and what isn’t, it was as if one could just sell everything away for the cheapest price, even dignity. I simply could not and can not believe it; it is really toxic to feel like so many people around you are toxic. It serves as both an outcry of the people who are misbehaving and the people that surrounds them. To create awareness and to make us question ourselves.

A reality of what is

To show what composes our brain processes so rapidly. Playing with colors, shapes, and angles; it is a fun take on organic shapes. It is amusing how one segment of the piece can be so unsettling on its own, or how beautiful, but when to put together is fun. A lot of thought and imagination went into establishing how to showcase both organic and inorganic shapes within the same object. The image is of my orchid named Medea. A flower I hold dear to my heart due to its beauty and the conditions in which an orchid grows, you see, an orchid’s flowers fall off, completely. For a long time, the plant might end up looking like two lonely leaves (which is offensive considering how beautiful it was before), but that does not mean it has died, it means that maybe the conditions around it are not right, not necessarily the flower is the one that is “broken”. I relate to that.

Where thoughts lay tired

This is a sculpture that intends to be a replica of a journal I have owned through tough times for the past five years. When it was first gifted to me I wrote about the most trivial things; it got progressively more deep and darker. I used to sit down and let it all out in the pages that compose it; I allowed the words to drip with the same ink they were written with. The messines and how it is constructed on the outside versus on the inside is a very telling contrast that can be easily related to the person who used to journal on that notebook. It is an essential object in regard to my experiences and development as a human being who was had fairly regular experiences. Isn’t odd?

I am there, but wasn’t there before;
During this pandemic; I came to the conclusion pretty early that, in order to maintain certainties, certain (redundant but accurate), I had to change my spaces. I started using new places in my house. I used them to reflect on the situation. Some of them I started using them to relax, others, due to the situation, like the clothing hanger, I used because I now hang clothes a lot more.

resource: poem

I am a child. It’s 2011.

My teacher has just shown us a clip,

A radio, that wasn’t killed by video,

Almost drove someone to kill.

When was it built?

where was it built?

Vietnam? Peru? Malaysia?

Poor workers, poor families, poor countries

But, who cares? The world is ending at noon

With every movement, with each

Moon stage, with each day.

The age for anxiety,

Shortened…

Until, the 12th of the 12th of 2012,

Maya predictions, laid back.

Has anyone felt alive since then?

Hush! Hush! They’ll hear us.

They’ll hear me.

Slick, the world got hit.

Hit forward missed.

How was it? How was it, huh?

Growing up not fucked up in a not fucked up world.

How is it? How is it, huh?

Laying responsibilities to

Those still too young

To know

Answer me, please.

I’m begging you!

Is it worth it?

Since before I can remember

Violence , pain, conflict and you, yes, you,

Have caused, well, forgive me dear God,

But all you “aim” to vanish.

Is it really fair,

Grabbing your hair

in disgust?

Calling us selfish, useless, ruthless,

Idiots and morons, when we already

Call ourselves that?

Please! The least you can do is

Try! Try even a little!

Be more creative,

Like you are asking us to be.

Everything is a mess

Everything has been a mess.

So…

Aren’t we trying hard enough’

Haven’t we exhorted every last fume?

Burn outs without having burned

Not enough to fight racisms,

Sexism, xenophobia, refugee crisis, climate change,

Poverty, human needs, unfairness, and all of

Their poisonous implications,

At the same fucking time

What’s good, or the bad is that we can’t surrender.

The whiteness, lust, and the black ink of death,

The three moments in a human’s life,

Have merged

Youth, me, all of us now fee,

Go through and undergo

Every little piece of it in

One month, one week or a day

Hooray for that!

Hooray for the astronomical rates of

Anxiety, depression and suicide.

Hooray for the struggles

And hooray for a 3 in 1 deal…

Thanks

Thank you.

My e-mail: ririarte@colegiotilata.edu.co

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