OSTRAKA
This series of small paintings, called “Ostraka”, attempts to deal with the definition of cultural identity in a world where ostracism prevails, but where the key words of the future are syncretism and miscegenation.
The "Discovery" of the New World resulting in a cultural clash has been my point of departure. I had a special interest in the particular point of view the Europeans had of the American Indians and how they have transmitted it to the Old World through their illustrations. The perspective on the New World superimposed by the outsider, has transformed the Indians into cannibals, their Gods into devilish idols, and their fauna into cruel monsters.
I am particularly interested in how, through history, certain groups of people have imposed their gaze upon other groups of people until they have almost obliterated their genuine cultural discourse.
The “Ostraka” are cultural Fossils. They refer to archaeological fragments to respond to the impossible task of explaining or understanding a culture from an outside point of view across time and space. It is a way of predicting the collapse of any totalizing/totalitarian discourse. This archeology of future time suggests the mortality of our own civilization.
More could be said about the subject, in particular about the metonymic aspect of the image and the fragmented identity of self.