PABLO DÁVILA: Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space
May 13 - July 9, 2016
Artist opening Friday, May 13, 7 - 9 PM
...
Thus, the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460
meters per second — or roughly 1,000 miles per hour. While going
around the sun it covers the route at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers
per second, or 67,000 miles per hour. In addition, our solar system — Earth
and all whirls around the center of our
galaxy at some 220 kilometers per second, or 490,000 miles per hour.
The galaxies in our neighborhood are also rushing at a speed of
nearly 1,000 kilometers per second towards a structure called the
Great Attractor, a region of space roughly 150 million light-years
away from us... The earth is also moving with respect to the
cosmic microwave background radiation (CBR) at a speed of 390
kilometers per second. (Scientific American, October 26, 1998).
We
tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the
most recent past. We look at the present through a rear-view mirror.
We march backwards into the future. (Marshall McLuhan - McLuhan,
M. and Q. Fiore. (1967). The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory
of Effects)
~
CULT | Aimee
Friberg Exhibitions is pleased to present Ladies &
Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space, a solo exhibition of light
installations, sculpture and architectural interventions by Mexico
City based artist Pablo Dávila on view from May 13 through
July 9, 2016. The gallery will host an artist reception on Friday,
May 13 from 7 — 9 PM. This is the artist's first solo
exhibition in the United States.
Dávila
explores sentience and subjectivity through investigations in
perception, space and time consciousness. His practice takes many
shapes-- encompassing video, electronics, light installation,
photography, conceptual painting and site-specific interventions.
Utilizing a minimalist reductive approach, Dávila traverses
the space in between sensory perception and cognitive understanding.
His poetic gestures trigger a questioning of our expectations in
dealing with the passing of time, and the psychological lens with
which we process events in our memory.
For Ladies &
Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space, Dávila isolates
conventional architectural materials- exposing the essential
fundamental character and high-jacking the intended functionality,
injecting a new reading with psychological, phenomenological,
spiritual and cultural references. With this new body of work, Dávila
makes reference to several distinct (but arguably, parallel)
perspectives of time consciousness. He draws namely from the works of
philosopher and communications theorist Marshall McLuhan, Tibetan
Buddhist practitioner and yogi Milrepa, minimalist American composer
Steve Reich and the aging technology of UNIX timestamp.
Dávila
explains: "Light rays manifest themselves in a way in which our
brain must process what is captured by our eyes for us to comprehend
what we are seeing. I believe we are disoriented in our
comprehension and perception of time and space, I am attracted to
particular objects that confront this deception and speak to me to me
with distinct speeds, aesthetics and spaces."
For Remember
tomorrow, exposed and fixed photographic paper protrudes out of
the top of the enclosed frame covering a photograph of Milarepa's
Cave or Namkading Cave in central Tibet. The cave is where Milarepa
achieved enlightenment in just one life and is a pilgrimage site for
Tibetan Buddhist practitioners. As the title suggests, the piece
playfully calls to question our awareness of the present and our
fascination with the past and future.
Living in time
believing in the timeless is a wall installation in which 32
drumsticks and 16 crotales (small antique cymbals) are mounted in a
horizontal line. The drumsticks are controlled by custom electronics,
driven by the UNIX timestamp, the 32 digit binary code, clock used by
computers all over the world. The internal code of the sculpture
translates the UNIX generated number into a pulse. As each second of
UNIX code is inherently unique, the drumming pattern of Living in
time believing in the timeless never repeats; The UNIX timestamp
will end on the year 2038, and the sculpture will die with it -
a conflation of past-future time.
On the gallery's
main back wall is a minimal yet elegant work titled Oblique
approach. A piece of glass leans against the wall and receives a
projection of light from above, illuminating only the interior edges
of the glass. A volume is created without containment, light passes
through and reflects the room and the observer simultaneously,
inviting introspection and a heightened awareness of the ambient
space surrounding.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Pablo Dávila
(b. 1983, Mexico City) has exhibited at Travesia Cuatro
(Guadalajara), FIFI Projects (Monterrey), FIFI Projects (Mexico
City), Sala Juarez (Gaudalajara), SALÓN ACME (Mexico City),
and at ACME (Brooklyn, N.Y.). He participated in the
artists-in-residence program at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with
Josiah Mcelheny (Florida). Dávila holds a film degree from
Vancouver Film School in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is
represented by FIFI Projects in Mexico. He lives and works in Mexico
City.
Image Credits (from left): Pablo Dávila, Oblique approach, 2016, Glass and video projector; At all times, 2016, Mirror and video projector.
PABLO DÁVILA, At all times, 2016, Mirror, steel frame and video projector, 51 x 114 x 31 cm, 20 x 45 x 12 in, Edition of 3 + 1 AP
PABLO DÁVILA, Prologue, 2016, Acrylic, steel frame, motor, Unique one of a kind, 305 x 203 x .6 cm, 120 x 80 x .25 in
PABLO DÁVILA, Ad libitum (piano phase), 2016, Print on cotton paper, aluminum frame, LED’s, 35 x 158 x 6 cm, 13.75 x 62 x 2.5 in (Triptych), Edition of 2 + 1 AP
PABLO DÁVILA, Oblique approach, 2016, Glass and video projector, 140 x 107 x 48 cm, 55 x 42 x 19 in, Edition of 2 + 1 AP
PABLO DÁVILA, Remember tomorrow I, 2016, Framed C-print, aluminum frame, 90 x 70 x 9 cm, 35.5 x 27.5 x 3.5 in
PABLO DÁVILA, Remember tomorrow II, 2016, Framed C-print, aluminum frame, 90 x 70 x 9 cm, 35.5 x 27.5 x 3.5 in
PABLO DÁVILA, Living in time believing in the timeless, 2016, Drumsticks and custom electronics, 85 x 147 x 13 cm, 33.25 x 58 x 5 in
PABLO DÁVILA, Constant (phase), 2016, Video projection on canvas, 175 x 175 x 5 cm, 69 x 69 x 2 in, Edition of 2 + 1 AP
Current
CULT TURNS 10
10 Year Anniversary Exhibition January 18 - March 2, 2024