I came across this piece yesterday. The simplicity of the piece struck me upon my first gaze. Looking into the piece, I found that this net suspended mixed media installation contains crosses, blown glass funnels and balls, and an assortment of materials ranging from sea sponges to billiard balls. This careful balance disperses toward the edges of the installation. The red color appears to drip down onto the floor below.
It is by a Brazilian artist named Tunga. Known for being generous with his opinion and often loudly outspoken, his demeanor has often been described as prickly. He is of the mindset that our destiny, be it art or madness, is set out and unchangeable. When asked if one could live without art, he had this to say:
"I think a person can live without the idea of art, without the idea of love, but not without art, and not without love... In other words, we don’t necessarily live with poetry, or with art, or with love on the other side. We can certainly believe that we live without it. However, the profoundest existence is existence with the symbolic. That is to say, you sleep, you dream—any human being sleeps and dreams—and in dreams the mode of organizing oneself as subject is very close to poetry. And that’s also where the true nature of love is revealed...
To take this reasoning to an earlier realm, we could say that we do not choose to be born. If there is fatalism, then fatalism precedes us. We are here, we did not ask to be."
But this stance seems contradictory to the nature of the created art. We cannot say that we are in command of our destiny. So, then, can we say that we choose to make art?
"Maybe. I mean, I just make myself available. Going back to Lautréamont, I think we are all artists, we are all poets. Now, some people open themselves up to the self-discipline of practicing this mode of existence, this ascension. The practice of this mode of existence, this discipline, brings us closer to those fleeting glimpses of our essence as human beings. How unfortunate that this territory should exist. How unfortunate that art and poetry should become specializations. But, in fact, they are not specializations but a spice we are all able to produce."
Tunga's work is based in an odd equation of his psychoanalytical ideals combined with science, theater, philosophy, and theological thoughts. This piece represents a red shift occurring in the gallery; a constant contamination of the space through exponential, yet organic increase of the "abstract state of red." It is an odd mix of confrontational imagery and aesthetic enjoyment. It seems to place the viewer at odds with the material Tunga places before him, yet simultaneously allows the viewer to enjoy its visual and conceptual beauty.
Simon Lane on Tunga
Tunga's other works
Further info on Tunga and his current displays
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