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Museo de las Artes Universidad de Guadalajara
Guadalajara, Mexico With support by the Grodman Legacy
June 09, 2022 - September 18, 2022
RE-Construction of Memory
Faced
with the ecological fragility in which we find ourselves, Davis Birks
confronts us with nature as a political and social arena. He shows us
the real estate maelstrom in areas of high tourist impact that
contrasts with the evocation of the lost forest. By way of mea culpa
and denunciation - in a back and forth of introspections that include
his childhood and youth in the United States of America and his
experiences in Mexico, his adopted country- he elaborates different
narratives with which he evidences the anthropocentric thinking that
favors the practice of destructive actions, as if these were already
encoded in our DNA.
Nature - which we are supposed to
worship and respect as a source of life and beauty, or as a divine and
spiritual manifestation - is presented as a punching bag, ready to
receive whatever blow is necessary. In the installation In Memoriam,
we find an idyllic landscape as a remembrance, as a utopian scenario
incorporated into the domestic decoration. From a small kitsch painting
- recovered at a flea market - that is magnified and repeated in a
direct and virtual way, an interior/exterior space is established. As
viewers, we are placed in a simulated environment that awakens
artificial sensations, in a falsified environment in which the natural
habitat is both imitated and denied.
With different material resources Birks revisits his concerns again with La Sala,
a construction in which the flora regains ground. The earth turned into
brick and the dry saplings and grass, as impossible hope, since both
environments are at the limit. In an ironic and at the same time
melancholic way, he places eroded rubble that he proposes as relics
-the result of a very particular archeology that the artist has
practiced for more than three decades- vestiges of a contemporaneity
that consumes and consumes us. He teaches us to love these shards,
which can transmit an aesthetic emotion while functioning as memento
mori to confront us with the finitude of our lives and constructions.
Re-Construction of Memory
includes pieces and installations belonging to three series from 2013
to date. With them the artist reflects on the history of the landscape,
the loss of ecosystems and the finitude of our existence. Illusion,
simulation and art are here the tools that allow us to think about new
ways of relating to our natural environment and consequently to
ourselves.
Laura Ayala Castellanos
Curator Images by: Carlos Díaz Corona, unless otherwise mentioned
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| Installation view of Adjustable Reconstructed Landscape 3, 2022 with curator Laura Ayala |
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| Installation view of works from the Reconstructed Landscape Series (2019- ), with views to the installation In Memoriam in the background and La Sala to the right. |
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| Installation view of works from the Artificial Turf Series (2013- ) |
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| Installation view of La Sala (2012- ) |
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| Installation view of La Sala (2012- ) |
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| Installation view of La Sala (2012- ) |
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| Installation view of La Sala (2012- ) image: Erika Hirugami |
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| Installation view of La Sala (2012- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of In Memoriam (2021- ) |
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| Installation view of Reconstructed Landscape 39, 2022
Acrylic paint on found plywood
Dimensions variable image: Mevna |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 5, 2019
Acrylic paint on found plywood
36 x 69 x 8 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 6b, 2021
Acrylic paint on found plywood
122 x 122 x 3 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 7, 2019
Acrylic paint on found plywood
110 x 110 x 2 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 11b, 2022
Acrylic paint on found plywood
44 x 44 x 9 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 27, 2021
Acrylic paint on found plywood
33 x 35 x 4 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 30, 2021
Acrylic paint on found plywood
23 x 23 x 4 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 37, 2022
Acrylic paint on plywood with painted wood frame
61.5 x 61.5 cm. |
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| Reconstructed Landscape 38, 2022
Acrylic paint on plywood with painted wood frame
61.5 x 61.5 cm. |
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| El Reto, 2013
Artificial turf, cloth fragments, metal gromets and chain
140 x 37 x 37 cm. |
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| Oasis, 2013
Artificial turf and galvanized wire screen with painted wood base
7 x 20 x 40 cm. |
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| Push N Shove, 2013
Artificial turf and galvanized wire screen
118 x 197 x 7 cm. |
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Press/Texts
