Living by Golden Numbers

I met Pablo Luis González a long time ago. In fact, in so far I can remember, he was there with me the day I was born. I have had many conversations with him since those days, especially during the past ten years or so, most of them at odd times and in the most unusual places. A construct of Pablo’s artistic direction has slowly emerged in my mind, which is particularly relevant to this exhibition.

Its title, “Living by Golden Numbers”, hints at something that is central not only to Pablo’s artistic endeavours, but also to his philosophical position, if I am allowed to use such grandiose words. Indeed, Pablo himself uses such words in some occasions, although not that often. Words that many, in this contemporary cool Britain, would think as being pedantic. However, he is not afraid of being called pedantic; he accepts it as a small price to pay for acknowledging that there is a role for the intellect as well in this cool Britannia, and in his art. He uses geometry and modern mathematics as a playful counterpoint to emotionally derived creations and to the sheer joy of the sensuality of materials, forms and colours. However, he has not taken a pseudo-scientific approach to making art, something that he abhors intensely.

He thinks that in this era of Reason, where we look for a scientific explanation for everything, where all space is given to the mind and none to the emotional realm, where scientists has taken the place of priests and priestesses – nowadays seems to be sacrilege to doubt or question their words – there is a stronger case than ever for art, and activity that, by its intrinsic nature, delves into the world around and in us in ways that carries us beyond the boundaries of the mind.

His formative years were spent in a far away country, perched on a narrow strip of land past the Andes, on the south west coast of South America, in one of the hearts of the global periphery. His work has partly arisen from his perception of coming from this periphery, and having walked into the midst of a global society such as Britain. Having moved to England some twenty-four years ago, he has come to realise that the global periphery is no longer solely defined by a geographical position somewhere on this planet. A position on a cultural and economic map is a more accurate way of describing this condition of being part of the periphery; geography is becoming more and more irrelevant with every day that passes. Thus, Pablo explores the gap between reality, what is “here” and “now”, and what we are led to believe we should strive to reach economically, politically and culturally to be one of the “beautiful” people.

The irony of living in this contemporary world is that we are all now part of this cultural periphery. The centre of our global world is, in many respects, and most of the time, extremely difficult to pin down. If we ever manage to reach it, we may well find that, like the eye of the storm, there is nothing in it. Thus, in his series “Obsession”, which began as a word play with Calvin Klein’s “Obsession”, he explores the notion of reality in the Kate Moss’ phenomenon and the supermodel experience. He specifically addressed issues referring to the erasing of the individuality of supermodels for the fashion designers and, by extension, ourselves, the consumers, to unlock and project our own desires and dreams onto the empty vessels that their bodies have become. A process mostly informed by the relentless consumerist capitalist ideology ceaselessly pumped down our throats by the omnipresent media. Kate Moss brilliantly summarised this process in 1994: “And the more visible they make me, the more invisible I become”. Thus, in “ Stop it!” the only sharp image is the spectator’s own reflection in the mirror and a portrait of Kate as a little girl, lurking from behind the silver surface, painted from a family snapshot, an image that has stopped still in time. We have learnt nothing about Kate. I must emphasise the word “explores”, he does not “tell”.

His current work is, in many ways, an exploration of this gap between personal histories and the global village, essentially a-historical, its folds soon forgotten after unfolding. He acknowledges that art is not only different to science, but that it cannot ever act in lieu of it. If any of you expect to see a rational exploration of this dichotomy between a global reality and local histories, you will be disappointed. He would advise if that is what you are looking for in this exhibition, you will be wasting your time. No answers are given, nor has that been Pablo’s intention at any moment. No big gestures or statement will be found either.

He does not claim to be a genius extracting artistic rabbits out of a canvas, a photographic or digital print, or any time based art form. He is a slow worker; some of these works are no more than the product of moments of reflection, some deeply felt, as he has drawn material more than once from his own personal history. On this sense, he has embarked in an attempt to recover the political dimension that underline personal experiences, thus transcending the banality of what would be otherwise no more than mere anecdotes.

This article was written to support the exhibition Living by Golden Numbers held in Art Link Exchange gallery, Hull, in 2000.