¿Qué pasa si vemos al sol directamente? Los reflejos del gran astro iluminador permiten apreciar las cosas, los colores y los tonos. La iluminación producida en los objetos por el sol los hace visibles a nuestros ojos y permite establecer una relación de carácter múltiple con ellos. Es paradójico que el exceso de iluminación, reflejo del sol, haga que nuestra vista se obnubile y que aparezcan campos ciegos. La luz es al mismo tiempo: fuente de claridad y razón del ocultamiento de un campo de la visión. Jason Mena explora la intervención del sol y de su luz en la vida del sujeto-persona urbano y contemporáneo. Esta exploración sucede a partir de su vivencia como paseante, flaneur, al experimentar las  calles de San Juan en un día soleado. El acontecimiento de su exploración urbana sucede en la serie de fotografías Blind fields. “La fotografía recoge una interrupción del tiempo a la vez que construye sobre el papel preparado un doble de la realidad”.[1] Este doble de la realidad produce un sinfín de cuestionamientos formales, filosóficos, antropológicos, místicos, y socioeconómicos.

Las formas abstracto-geométricas del espectro de luz constituyen constelaciones luminosas formadas en un campo indiscernible entre la luz pura y la claridad que ilumina el resto de los elementos de la composición fotográfica. Esta imagen produce una fuerza pregnante en el observador que reflexiona acerca de sus elementos: la luz, el sol, el cielo, el espacio, la arquitectura, el paisaje urbano, los sistemas económico y político, los mitos. Una reflexión permanente es aquella que opone a la cosmología y a la cosmogonía. Para la ciencia el sol es un gigante de gas que emite luz y calor que se ubica en el centro de un sistema planetario inmerso en un universo. Para la fenomenología de la religión “es un hecho que el régimen diurno del espíritu está dominado por el simbolismo solar”[2];  desde la antigüedad, la divinidad ha estado relacionada con el sol: el dador de vida, el dios creador, el que permite el crecimiento y el movimiento en la Tierra.

Un espacio de luz pura ocupa gran parte de la composición de las fotografías; contrasta con los elementos discernibles: los edificios del banco, del gobierno y los monumentos. Estas construcciones son elementos arquitectónicos arquetípicos de la sociedad capitalista. Representan las instituciones del poder económico y político, la conmemoración de una identidad nacional y el hecho histórico del Estado-Nación. En algunas de las fotografías de esta serie es posible apreciar distintos estratos temporales en el estilo de la construcción, espacios consecutivos de estética diferenciada. En palabras de Friedrich Nietzsche “una civilización es ante todo la unidad de un estilo artístico en todas las manifestaciones de la vida de un pueblo”.[3] ¿Podemos hablar de una civilización latinoamericana cuando claramente no hay una unidad estilística en nuestra cultura? ¿Tenemos la seguridad que la realidad científica es unívoca? ¿Cómo sabemos si la realidad que se nos presenta es un mito? ¿Podemos confiar en las instituciones políticas y económicas si a plena luz aparecen ocultas? Me inspiro en que el mensaje de Jason Mena se refiere a la verdad oculta en la luz; a esa parte que no podemos ver de los edificios del poder, cuestionando su certeza o falsedad; a esa parte indiscernible de nuestra civilización. ¿Qué podemos ver en la luz?

[1] Roland Barthes. La cámara lúcida, 22

[2] Mircea Eliade. Tratado de historia de las religiones, 124

[3] Friedrich Nietzsche. Consideraciones intempestivas. I. Davis Strauss el confesor y el escritor. , 1

Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico, San Juan

ArtPulse Magazine – July 10 - September 27, 2009

By Carla Acevedo Yates

Continuing their ongoing support for emerging visual artists in Puerto Rico, Lexus presented the winners of the 2008 Lexus Grants for the Arts at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in San Juan. The exhibition featured works from artists Jason Mena, Camilo Carrión and Denise Santiago Rodríguez. The yearly exhibition at the MAC has clearly become one of the most anticipated contemporary art shows on the island, showcasing contemporary art trends and emerging as the heartbeat of the island’s young artistic production.

From the moment the door was unlocked at the Lexus Gallery on opening night, the sounds from Jason Mena’s Language of the Spheres, a three-piece sound installation, drew the attention of most of the visitors. The work consists of three white fiberglass covered spheres emitting sounds based on the language Solresol, created by Francois Sudre in 1827. The three spheres speak to each other in random intervals of low frequencies based on the musical tonal scale. The language is visually represented through the vibration of a thin layer of water on the surface of the spheres. Mena comments that “this obscure language uses the combination of these tones to create words that communicate in an abstract way. If we knew the codes, we could decipher what the installation was telling us, therefore making the artwork actually speak.” More than visually representing sound through the vibration of water, Mena is appropriating language and manifesting alternative ways of communication that alter our perception of object, sound, space and time.

Camilo Carrión’s project “The Construction of the Everyday,” attempts to transpose the medium of engraving into contemporary artistic practice. A video, photo-collages and drawings on lint were displayed. Everyday scenes, objects and familiar images are represented, evoking a multiplicity of views on daily life. Carrión suggests that the project “subscribes to the questioning of the basic conditions that traditionally define engraving such as: register, support, permanence and repetition.” The work Approaches to Dust stood out for its collection of drawings on paper made out of lint which were taken from the artist’s dryer. Subject matter and medium converge as particles absorbed by clothes worn by the artist serve as the support to speak of the objects that surround his daily routine.

Denise Santiago Rodríguez presented a series of large-scale photographs entitled “Forget Me Not,” a journalistic approach to the elderly population in Puerto Rico. The images depict the actions of four elderly people in their daily routines. According to Santiago Rodríguez, the images are meant to “transport the viewer into current spaces and highlight the vitality, joviality and dedication of these characters, that despite their age, continue to maintain a positive attitude towards life.”

Carla Acevedo Yates is a freelance writer based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She holds a B.A. from Barnard College/Columbia University in Literature and Art, and pursued independent studies in photography in Paris.

Puerto Rico-based artist Jason Mena appropriates popular marketing tools, such as billboard and aerial advertising, to influence the way we perceive our surroundings. Mena uses these communication platforms to promote new ideas and provoke critical thought by inserting carefully chosen text where a company’s logo or catch phrase is typically seen. In doing this, the artist draws our attention to our passive consumption of visual imagery generated by branding, and subverts this persuasion to consume.

During the 2008 Bacardi Artisan Fair, Mena arranged to have an airplane flying overhead and trailing a banner with the powerful text TODO ES MENTIRA, which translates to “it’s all lies.” The flight lasted approximately thirty minutes and took place over the Cataño distillery in Puerto Rico where it was seen by a crowd of over 117,000 people. The somber tone of the banner is coupled with a certain ambiguity, allowing the viewer to attribute his/her own meaning. The artist has also used this phrase on billboards, thus challenging advertising’s imposition on our subconscious.

Mena was born in New York in 1974 and received his B.F.A. from the Escuela De Artes Plasticas De San Juan in Puerto Rico, where he currently lives and works. The artist has had a solo show at Sagrado Corazon University’s Salon de las Artes in Puerto Rico and was nominated for the Emerging Artists Brugal ARCO Madrid 09 Acquisition Award.

Posted by Rebekah Drysdale at September 18, 2009 12:00 am

www.dailyserving.com

www.jasonmena.com

Branding Ideologies

Everywhere we go, it seems that advertisements are progressively invading our public and private spaces. We are constantly being bombarded with messages trying to persuade us to consume a certain product or brand. Billboards hovering over crowded highways are a perfect example of this effort in mass consumption. According to Guy Debord in The Society of the Spectacle, “the concept of the spectacle, taking the form of advertisements or propaganda, is a social relationship among people mediated by images.” The image consequently becomes the propulsor of urban conversations and discussions. The artist Jason Mena tries to do just that. In his photographic series Urban Landscapes, Mena appropriates the billboard, a space usually pertaining to advertisers, and transforms it into an active platform for the promotion of  ideas.

As the image continues to substitute social interaction in contemporary society, the role of art seems all the more important in everyday life. Jason Mena’s images are nothing but forceful, as they display urban scenes where advertisments spaces are replaced with carefully chosen texts that make the viewer think. Photographs such as Todo es mentira (It’s all lies), depict a billboard with these words towering over a busy avenue during rush hour traffic. These images, alhough conceptually concrete, are merely proposals for actual urban installations. Some other examples of texts include Blah! Blah! Blah! or This Space Was Intentionally Left Blank. What is the artist really trying to say? Perhaps the space in the billboards is left open ended for the viewer to formulate their own suppositions. What seems important is that the artist is using the medium of the billboard against its very purpose. Instead of trying to condition the masses to think alike, to take part in the mass consumption of products, he is attempting to provoke in them critical independent thought.

By using the structure of the billboard as a support for artistic expresion, is Mena trying to make a statement regarding the relationship between marketing and art? It certainly seems that way. Not only is Mena promoting his work with the medium most appropriate for this purpose, but he is also branding a very particular ideology. The concept of branding is a practice commonly used in contemporary marketing. Branding or “burning” a product into the consumer’s mind is a strategy by which the corporate world markets a product to potential consumers, turning the critical public into a passive consumer public. This concept seems all the more relevant as art is linked ever more with its commercial aspect.

The revolution of the art fair has also played an influential role in transforming an artistic concept into a valuable thing-in-itself, as art dealers sell artwork just as trade shows sell products. Gallery spaces are increasingly becoming just another store where you buy just another product for your consumption and instant gratification. You can go in, pick what you like and take it home. There are no visits to the artist’s studios or any conceptual interest of the sort. Art becomes just another commodity that people acquire to gain prestige or decorate their homes. Consequently, the ideas that motivated the work eventually get lost in the commercial transaction. The next step is inevitable. The gallery space as we know it has begun its demise, as art is taken out into the public realm.

Just as Jenny Holzer uses posters and large scale public spaces to develop her artwork, Mena also takes art out of the gallery and into the public space. One project that resonates with the concept of public art is Making it Public, an intervention where the artist gave away t-shirts at the 2009 CIRCA Art Fair. Using the art fair as a stage, people wore t-shirts displaying messages such as Unhappy is the land that is in need of heroes and It’s all lies and bluff, texts taken from German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. Taking into account the current economic and political climate, these messages take an appealing twist. If we start to think about these texts in its political context, we begin to question (as viewers and participators of the work) our immediate political environments. Are we aware of the illusory nature of political discourse? Do we need to take on a particular political cause to be actively engaged in our social and economic destinies? And if we do, which ones are worthy of our involvement? As public space is ever more dominated by the mass media, be it through T-shirts, billboards, or gas pumps, we have become passive consumers of the prevailing ideology. By the evolution of Jason Mena’s work we see the emergence of a new public space, one where ideas and concepts can be freely discussed.

On the whole, Jason Mena’s images can be thought of as mediascapes, as they directly influence the way we perceive our surrounding realities. Although Mena’s advertisements remind us of political or commercial slogans due to their rhetorical nature, their purpose is actually very different. Instead of trying to make us concerned with consumption and the capitalist drive of the mass media, we become implicated in the construction of new ideas. The concepts behind advertising are destroyed to lead the way to the branding of ideologies. Jason Mena’s imposing images remain not only a spectacle for our eyes, but one for our minds as well.

Carla Acevedo, 2009

www.dawire.com

www.jasonmena.com

Branding Ideologies

Everywhere we go, it seems that advertisements are progressively invading our public and private spaces. We are constantly being bombarded with messages trying to persuade us to consume a certain product or brand. Billboards hovering over crowded highways are a perfect example of this effort in mass consumption. According to Guy Debord in The Society of the Spectacle, “the concept of the spectacle, taking the form of advertisements or propaganda, is a social relationship among people mediated by images.” The image consequently becomes the propulsor of urban conversations and discussions. The artist Jason Mena tries to do just that. In his photographic series Urban Landscapes, Mena appropriates the billboard, a space usually pertaining to advertisers, and transforms it into an active platform for the promotion of  ideas.

As the image continues to substitute social interaction in contemporary society, the role of art seems all the more important in everyday life. Jason Mena’s images are nothing but forceful, as they display urban scenes where advertisments spaces are replaced with carefully chosen texts that make the viewer think. Photographs such as Todo es mentira (It’s all lies), depict a billboard with these words towering over a busy avenue during rush hour traffic. These images, alhough conceptually concrete, are merely proposals for actual urban installations. Some other examples of texts include Blah! Blah! Blah! or This Space Was Intentionally Left Blank. What is the artist really trying to say? Perhaps the space in the billboards is left open ended for the viewer to formulate their own suppositions. What seems important is that the artist is using the medium of the billboard against its very purpose. Instead of trying to condition the masses to think alike, to take part in the mass consumption of products, he is attempting to provoke in them critical independent thought.

By using the structure of the billboard as a support for artistic expresion, is Mena trying to make a statement regarding the relationship between marketing and art? It certainly seems that way. Not only is Mena promoting his work with the medium most appropriate for this purpose, but he is also branding a very particular ideology. The concept of branding is a practice commonly used in contemporary marketing. Branding or “burning” a product into the consumer’s mind is a strategy by which the corporate world markets a product to potential consumers, turning the critical public into a passive consumer public. This concept seems all the more relevant as art is linked ever more with its commercial aspect.

The revolution of the art fair has also played an influential role in transforming an artistic concept into a valuable thing-in-itself, as art dealers sell artwork just as trade shows sell products. Gallery spaces are increasingly becoming just another store where you buy just another product for your consumption and instant gratification. You can go in, pick what you like and take it home. There are no visits to the artist’s studios or any conceptual interest of the sort. Art becomes just another commodity that people acquire to gain prestige or decorate their homes. Consequently, the ideas that motivated the work eventually get lost in the commercial transaction. The next step is inevitable. The gallery space as we know it has begun its demise, as art is taken out into the public realm.

Just as Jenny Holzer uses posters and large scale public spaces to develop her artwork, Mena also takes art out of the gallery and into the public space. One project that resonates with the concept of public art is Making it Public, an intervention where the artist gave away t-shirts at the 2009 CIRCA Art Fair. Using the art fair as a stage, people wore t-shirts displaying messages such as Unhappy is the land that is in need of heroes and It’s all lies and bluff, texts taken from German poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht. Taking into account the current economic and political climate, these messages take an appealing twist. If we start to think about these texts in its political context, we begin to question (as viewers and participators of the work) our immediate political environments. Are we aware of the illusory nature of political discourse? Do we need to take on a particular political cause to be actively engaged in our social and economic destinies? And if we do, which ones are worthy of our involvement? As public space is ever more dominated by the mass media, be it through T-shirts, billboards, or gas pumps, we have become passive consumers of the prevailing ideology. By the evolution of Jason Mena’s work we see the emergence of a new public space, one where ideas and concepts can be freely discussed.

On the whole, Jason Mena’s images can be thought of as mediascapes, as they directly influence the way we perceive our surrounding realities. Although Mena’s advertisements remind us of political or commercial slogans due to their rhetorical nature, their purpose is actually very different. Instead of trying to make us concerned with consumption and the capitalist drive of the mass media, we become implicated in the construction of new ideas. The concepts behind advertising are destroyed to lead the way to the branding of ideologies. Jason Mena’s imposing images remain not only a spectacle for our eyes, but one for our minds as well.

 Carla Acevedo 2009

www.smallaxe.net

www.jasonmena.com