Event 4: Singular Spaces

This photographic exhibit was composed of photographs of Spanish art taken by Jo Farb Hernandez.  These original works were created without any sort of architectural or engineering planning.  The pieces are often very colorful and fanciful, marked by "incongruous juxtaposition," basically just putting things next to other that don't make a lot of sense.  The most interesting part of this exhibit for me was hearing about how each artist chose to work within the confines of their own space, whether it be their home, garden, or neighborhood.  This mixture of life and art makes these works much more personal for the artist and the viewer, and I think working in your own area adds not only a personal touch, but also ties the art in with the artists' culture and surroundings.

 The first photograph that stood out to me was this one to the right, created by Julio Basanta Lopez in 1933.  This picture is depicting the Western entrance to the city of Epila, Zaragoza in Spain.  This scene is incredibly colorful, with whites, blues, reds, greens, you name it.  I also noticed the large number of crosses that can be seen in this picture, and that made me think of the Spanish Inquisition.  Whether the Spanish like it or not, religion has played a huge part in the country's history, and they have always been a predominantly Catholic country even in 1933.

 This next piece created by Peter Buch show a monumental building in the shape of a head in La Pobla de Benifassa in Castello, Spain.  Another very colorful and unique image that is a monumental building for the Spanish.  I cannot quite figure out why, but the color and the uncomfortable face on the structure really caught my eye.  Here, they have transformed an important building into a work of art that depicts a monster-like creature peeking its head out of the ground.  Such a subtle bit of re-design, and the building now has a completely different meaning, with its influence now spanning across the globe.



This image here is another photograph by Julio Basanta Lopez.  In the same location of Epila, Zaragoza, Spain, this is a picture of just a few of the demons that are resting above the entrance gate to the city.  This distinctive grouping of demons is actually at the southern end of the gate, and as you can see there are 2 angels and a demon.  Next to these three, there is also a figure dangling from a hangman's noose, but he was only recently added in 2009 or 2010 and has since been removed. I was originally very disturbed by the person dangling from the noose, but then I remembered what I learned at my Catholic High School, where religious people whether they are Christian, Jewish, or Islam, all agree that suicide is the gravest of sins.  Keeping that in mind, I now understand the presence of the noose, alongside all the other religious paraphernalia.

This final piece was cool to me, because I thought these towers that they were creating were amazing.  As you can see in the picture, these are wooden towers build from skinny poles of wood which were carefully designed, but again, without any architectural or engineering planning behind them.  The tower on the left is even supporting a man's weight!  The fact that they had the capability of creating these towers without any real advanced knowledge really inspired me.  I thought this exhibit was good, but I wish it came with more information and backstory behind the works.