Artist’s Mission Statement

Visual activism, construction, deconstruction, cynicism and satire are the five themes of primary focus in my most recent endeavors. The artworks that come from these themes primarily intend to mesmerize and engage the audience.

Currently I find myself working on what I consider the visual activism part of my artistic language. The series Terrorism Is A Friendly Reminder Of How Much We All Love Each Other: is created using the maps of some of the countries that have been victims to terrorist attacks. Black wax and blood red acrylic are very significant for they represent chaos, turmoil and the blood shed caused by these attacks. These works call to question the ability of humans to interact and understand each other on multiple levels; that being anything as simple as learning to share natural resources to ethnic differences, etc.

Another process on the same theme is the idea of rearranging the myriad of images that bombard us on a daily basis through the media in order to make political statements. This is visible in Who Do You Love, Who Do You Hate Target Practice, Ultra Queer Who Do You Love, Who Do You Hate Target Practice and The Roulette Of The House Of Love And Hate. These works allow viewers at the exhibition venue to interact directly by using darts to strike the images they think are positive or negative. Therein lay the construction and deconstruction themes. I construct the artworks and the audience deconstructs them, forever changing their appearance and liberating me of their final look. With these artworks and many more still to come, the audience can take away with it a more memorable experience while at the same time alleviate the sterile and serious act of experiencing fine art in galleries and museums. For the past two years I have been on a mission to refresh the atmosphere of fine art and allow it to be a more tactile and rewarding experience for the audience and for myself. This is just the beginning…

The theme of construction is not only related to the geometry of the woks, but more importantly to the realism attained. For me, the images have to be painted as realistic as possible so they can take on a life all their own. I want the audience to see the 3-D quality in the images and feel a connection in relation to their own body and mind.

On another level is the explorative side of my work. These are the expressionistic works such as Stabbed In The Back; “Has Never Been In Love” Series. They come from very personal interactions with people who have really altered my sense of perception. These works incorporate individuals with dark masks because in short, they portray the double or sometimes multiple personalities I’ve encountered among the many acquaintances and relationships in my life. These artworks in many aspects are very general statements about contemporary society.

For this project I am submitting a work that relates very much to the Visual Activism side of my work. The artwork is titled: “The Superpower That Was Dissolved By Capitalism.” This work was developed with the idea of office workers or “worker bees” as I like to call them, North American nostalgia, and China as a major player in the future of world domination. The basic idea on visual terms is based on the metaphor of the toy wagon that has fallen victim to an accident on the great plane that is the circular flag of china. As seen by many the future of business is no longer in the hands of the US businessmen but in those of the Chinese laborers and manufacturers that flood the market with their goods. In turn, this overwhelming production of goods so aggressively consumed by North America is creating a massive wealth for China. The future is for all of us to see and as we all know from history, superpowers always come to an end only to be replaced by another nation.

Finally, I use satire and cynicism to try to understand humanity on a personal level. Ultimately, if the artworks are not fun to make and to look at, why bother? I hope these works, even though they deal with very serious issues at times, in the end elicit an unexpected grin, the occasional roll of the eyes, a jaw drop or crinkle between the eyes but all in all are exciting to look at, interact with and discuss.

R. E. SANCHEZ
Miami
July 24, 2006

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