Recortes  de hoja de coca sobre pared.
75 x 380 cm
2000


JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES TODAY´S HOMES SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING? es el titulo del famoso collage de Richard Hamilton del año 56, considerado el punto de quiebre en el arte contemporáneo que inicia el arte Pop.

No deja de sorprenderme la importancia de esta pequeña obra que conectó el arte a la realidad a mediados del siglo XX.  En ella el autor pone de manifiesto el confort que en los años de postguerra habían logrado las clases medias en el primer mundo. Es una mirada positivista donde el culto al cuerpo y  el sexo se manifiestan  como parte del bienestar.

 

En ella el autor hizo un inventario de los adelantos tecnológicos en el momento 1957 que hacían la vida mas amable en los hogares.

El título NOWADAYS , la hoja de coca utilizada en este collage y el tipo de letra digital pretenden con ironía actualizar y responder la pregunta formulada por Hamilton  en dicha obra. A los adelantos propuestos por el autor, en dicho collage, se suma el computador, no existente en aquella época, y el consumo de sustancias psicoactivas, costumbre que va en aumento.

Miguel Ángel Rojas

Nowadays

10,000 cutouts of coca leaves on the wall
30 x 150 in.
2000–2001


Just What Is It that Makes Today’s Homes So Different, So Appealing?

I never cease to be surprised by the importance of this small composite image, which compellingly opened art up to the immediate reality, to that positivist spirit of the Post-War period.

On considering this Latin America, always so close to wretchedness and poverty, I’ve always seen Pop Art as a kinder expression of the social paradox in the global setting. When considering our realities, it’s so easy to uncover—like a slap in the face—the chains of poverty in our cities which grow every day with the influx of rural people driven from their homes by the war fed by the drug trade, people who had no other recourse than to try to survive by begging in urban centers, in stark contrast to the many comforts with which people surround themselves in the so-called First World, where the consumption of psychoactive substances grew out of the experiments of the Beat generation and their applications in hipsterism as expressions of a free personality.

The title phrase of Hamilton’s work formed with coca leaves seems appropriate to me, as it speaks to the consumer’s responsibility with regard to the many problems stemming from this practice at the other end of the chain, and hopefully to rethink solutions in the legislation of all countries involved.

Miguel Ángel Rojas
Translated by Michelle Suderman