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THE HANDSTAND |
DECEMBER 2002 |
 ..JOSE BEDIA, ARTIST,SYMBOLIST, Elson
Artist-in-Residence Project: Last winter,
Jose Bedia was artist in residence at the Addison USA
were he created a site specific installation. Bedia's
work reflects his interests in Afro-Cuban and Native
American religions. His art cuts across media, from
drawings to large-scale paintings on canvas to
installations. Bedia's installations often depict
elongated, silhouetted figures with text that he paints
directly on gallery walls, and he has one presently at
the RHA where his art is on show in the large 1st Floor
Gallery. Bedia first studied art with the interest of an anthropologist, of which he says in an interview "I thought I had to be initiated to understand.... but after a while I changed my focus...There is an almost archetypal relationship between Native American religions and the African diaspora originating in Angola and southern Zaire (Congo)" The Kongo people had a notion about the deity of the sea which is asexual and they think of Nature in concepts as: lightning;the ocean's turbulence; the silent mountain; each with primordial powers. As an islander - he was born in Cuba - he takes an integral interest in the concept of boundaries between man and his nature and the world. People, he says, are basically waiting for something to happen, but they are alternatively afraid of change and look for others than themselves to effect change.Therefore we need to learn and look for cycles and it is vitally necessary to constantly incorporate more knowledge in our minds. Metal, from ancient times has been the signal of man's progress. At the RHA he has two large canvases on the subject of the aircraft carrier, the artificial island man has now created, from which he breaks the boundary between himself and far distant lands - the foundering of such a vessel is the symbol not only of a physical catastrophe but also a catastrophe to thought in itself by an adverse spirit. Mankind, he observes, gradually developed a different relationship with the progress of maritime travel and distance; his awe became an invocation to a sexual deity, inaugurating the sea as a woman (Kalunga) - and to cross that sea the invocation must anneal all possible danger, getting the sea "on your side"...or disaster must strike.The wake of the ship is the broken umbilical cord of your voyage trailing behind you which actually drags your mind in reverse of the direction you move. He is interested very much in the international differences of geometric perspective, mental and physical that nations display...the Oriental, for instance, being the reverse of the European in the matter of outlook. And also the abundant evidence of the polarised philosophical constraints deeply embedded in our minds since our tribal origins. Man is
symbolised in the instances of belonging, or wandering,
by the dog. The binding of the dog by training in
obedience that fetters him to a life source is
nevertheless contrasted with man's constant passage
toward his death. The wandering dog is man treated as an
outcast by society, but one step onto a beach or in
subordination brings him within a strange social network.
Jose Bedia symbolises the crafty tricks of man in this
dog, fox or coyote. In recent
years, Cuban-born Bedia has enjoyed an international
following, including a retrospective at the Museo de Art
Contemporeo in Monterrey, Mexico, and a commission at the
Birmingham Museum of Art. His work is in museum
collections worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of
American Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the
Fogg Art Museum.
...jimmy meaney ...Abstract Wood Sculpture ...Comhairle,
4,The Parade, ....From 6th December 2002
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the feared
destination that is not a diminutive of perspective but a
giant horror of mystery.Bedia's integrates symbolism and
ritual through a combination of objects and dramatic,
gestural painting.
