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If I were to mention one
word that defines Ariel Tejera’s work, I would use
“melancholy,” or perhaps, “suspension”; suspension of
time and space, classifications and tensions, images
from past relationships, intermingling curves, remains
of older senses that are lost in current days, voices,
drizzle, fragile clouds. Colors fill the figures (wicked
fish, gentle bubbles, and guitars: broken hearts). It
feels good to inhale the breeze of fall while I am
outdoors, but I am not a bit distracted. I know I’ll
write a simple story, “a con-fused critique,” a
nostalgic riddle that reminds people of literature and
art. By putting together piece by piece, I observe the
transformation. Incomplete fragments dissolve into the
canvas, the paper, or the computer screen, like water
for chocolate, as though they did not have any other
choice.
“Were you a real fisher
before?”- I asked Ariel Tejera during my short visit,
and he confirms that fishing indeed had been one of his
favorite hobbies for many, many years. “Fish are like
our emotions, always trying to slip away,” says he. It
is not “painting” as such but the act of “fishing” what
interests Tejera. Fishing dreams, memories and emotions
comes to be the center of his artistic practice. Tejera
is a fisher of sensations. Dear friend, I truly
apologize for the inconvenience: I forgot to ask
questions about the specificity of the tangible objects.
But, there is no need to worry. At this point of the
play, it might be more useful for us viewers to
reconsider the value of inventive “attitudes” rather
than their final products. So, what about you? Are you
still trying to conform to the pattern of the world,
instead of fishing your blue moons, secret passions,
open strings? Strait is the gate and narrow the road
that leads to the place. Make sure you find it!
The pictorial motifs in
Tejera’s work may confidentially be pointing toward the
artist’s behavior. His e-motions open up new routes for
exploring the art of painting, not as a record of
inactive emblems and symbolic icons but as an
opportunity to capture (to fish) the impulses awakened
by or contained within them. From this perspective, we
can say that his work reaches a performatic level,
making our attention deviate from the painted “flat”
surface to the sphere of his personal life; a field in
which Tejera uncovers his discerning will by means of
collecting richer visions and by choosing to be a
hard-working person, an industrious man.
Dinorah P.R. |
