Gustavo Díaz

At first glance the exhibition looked impenetrable due to the shiny and aseptic surfaces of the plastic material. But closer inspection revealed a complex beauty trapped inside ordinary acrylic glass. That is because Díaz creates magnificent optical illusions with precise laser-cut surfaces and highly detailed handwork.

Take, for example, Mientras Malevich concibe su cuadrado blanco sobre fondo blanco, es atravesado por la flecha del tiempo y en el fondo se escuchan sonidos 4´ 33”, which consists of a large vertical box, protruding from the wall, containing a large number of engraved tablets inside of it. The geometric designs on these tablets have been superimposed with immeasurable layers of squares, lines, and rectangles in agglomerations of varying density, giving the viewer a false sense of expansion and kinetic energy.

But visual wonderment can be detrimental too. Although the artist’s intention here was to pay homage to John Cage’s (1912–1992) seminal sound piece about silence ( 4 ´ 33”), and to the abstract compositions of Russian Suprematist Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935), the visual extravaganza manifest in his handmade bravado pushed away my curiosity to make any type of intellectual connection between the elongated title and the artwork. The problem here is pretentiousness. Long titles like Estrato de estabilidad vulnerado por un bucle extraño con cuadraditos Gödel or La suma teológica de las partes no es igual al todo (orden + desorden >< =1), do not do much for the aesthetic experience, since one cannot possibly verify the scientific truth behind such wild hypotheses. Which probably explains why my favorite piece in the show has a short title: Recta modificada por condiciones climáticas. It consists of small groupings of round mirrors and engraved acrylic that conform one large, organic, and layered wall relief resembling a microscopic view of an intermolecular hydrogen bonding, which is responsible in part for the high boiling point of water. Soothing yet powerful, the work serves to show how transformative chain reactions in nature, usually invisible to the naked eye, can be tamed in the hands of the artist.