CORRECTION1988-1999
FROM THE CORRECTION TO A NEW REALITY

In the last three years I have been working with the idea of correction in my work. The idea of rectifying something that exists through a correction to create a new reality, even if that which exists can be correct, permits me to establish an ample and profound dia1ogue with the "problem" of painting.

I understand painting as a problem to be solved.

At this point in time it is difficult for me to understand painting in a manner other than from a profound questioning of the act of painting. I believe that painting can only make sense if we are capable of reconsidering it in another way, which implies a strong concept, a unique process and a new result.

From these premises I try to consider my work.

Strong Concept

A strong and clear concept of painting, without pre-established strategies, permits me to work from and with freedom. From here I understand that actua1 reality is complex and demands, among other things, something that I believe is important: an equilibrium between a hard intellectual concept and an intuitive-irrationa1 positioning in front of the work.

Unique Process

I understand that painting means "to paint" in the most elementa1 sense, and from here, confront the work from a creative position that accepts all its consequences. I would like to avoid, if that is not the express intention, falling in an elaboration of painting that causes it to become an artisana1 object. Neither should painting become solely an alchemica1 question.

If it is possible to reconsider painting anew, it is important to approach it from a unique process. All work requires its own origina1 technique.

New Result

The ultimate aim is painting understood as a new reality. Painting should not become an end in itself; I understand painting as a means to an end. To create a "new reality" through painting, implies creating a new pictoria1 space that is autonomous because it possesses its own laws which permit it to function as such. In this space there exists a game of the pictorial, of the optica1, of the virtual, of deception ...etc., on a bi-dimensional plane.

With this consideration, I am striving in my work towards the idea of destroying in order to construct by a correction, (the moment when I consider myself to be painting is when I work on the canvas with an electric sander, destroying that which exists and creating a new rea1ity, given by the use of the machine). The sander is important in the process of execution because it allows me to take a step back from painting, to paint as though outside painting. It prevents me from controlling the process, a1lowing fate to play a role, and it creates a crude atmospheric space which moves the work away from the precious. Painting matter appears, but as a negation, resulting in an empty texture; like anti-matter.

The idea of chaos a1so appears in my work, within an order which makes this chaos function. The idea of the wall and graffiti, (graffiti as an idea, not as a forma1 expression), express a rea1ity that surrounds me. My paintings principa1ly come from visions of the street.

New York, Fall of 1998