Constructors of Meaning: Reveling the Backstage Work

Claudia Pedraza Len

History of Design
November 29th, 2016
Where have you been? What have you done? What have you seen? With whom have you
talked? Tones of information enter through our five senses all the time. We register them,
sometimes we store it, sometimes we discard it. Julia Mehretu, Marc Bradford and Matthew
Ritchie reconstruct all that information. They take different kind of stimulus important from
their life history and reorganize them. They create their own language, their own meaning.
In form of a maps with Julie Mehretu and Marc Bradford, or in form of an art game for
Matthew Ritchie, they disintegrate pieces of their reality and arrange it again in their way.
Common objects are pulverized and brought back to life by this artists, just like a phoenix.

It can be said that this is something that most the artist does: take inspiration from the
reality that surrounds or the current events to do their pieces. There is one aspect that is
particular of those artist and differentiate, they recognize themselves as constructors of a
new reality. This can be seen in Mehretus work when you identify a recognizable place in
her map, but now it is transformed into a new place. In Bradfords pieces using billboards
he uses, which are very important in a political way, to construct his maps. In Ritchies work,
who in a more playful manner gives new values to the poker cards.

Another objective of focusing this exhibition on the construction of new meanings, has the
intention to make evident for the viewer the creative process that an artist goes. Nowadays
there is a tendency to prefer the immediateness of everything. People want their lives to
be easy and gratifying, ignoring that big creation pieces have a process like the one these
artists have: selecting interesting stimulus for them and working hard to get the desired
results. For this purpose, there will be presented to videos, one in which people can see
how Julie overlays the maps she uses, and another one of Bradford looking for his billboards
and selecting them, and Ritchies process of construction of his cell piece.

In Julie Merethu large-scale pieces, it can be seen different sizes lines, some are wider than
other, some are larger than others, some are straight, some very convoluted, some are
identifiable places. The colors used, give the pieces a vivid appearance. The common factor
among her works is the use of lines, and the apparent disorganization that seems to be in
there, which can make the viewer feel lost and finding difficult to find a place to start
understanding her pieces. For this exhibition 3 of her works have been selected: Back to
Gondawanaland, Easy Dark and Citadel. The three of them have something in common,
they are maps constructed from other maps.

Mehretu was born in Ethiopia but has lived in the US since she was seven. Even when she
has this multicultural background, she conceives herself as an American, and moves around
the world as an American. You have all this experience that determines who you are, and
you cant change that too much. You can only get to know and understand yourself better,
and evolve and try to grow. (Sollins, 172). She has well defined which is her place in the
world as and from this place she gives a meaning to all the things she has seen, creating her
own visual language of marks, lines and spaces. Her work is more like a private practice; she
defines herself as an internal artist.

The first thing that calls your attention un Bradford work are the squares. All colours square:
black, blue, white, red, yellow, pink. Some of this squares are remnants of found posters
and billboards. They are organized in a way that represents a map. The colours selection
and organization can never be equivocal. The use of black in specific areas gives highlight to
the rest of the colours. Each square is different from the other, each one has their own
identity and work together to make an vivid composition. This can be clearly seen in three
of his pieces: Potable Water, Los Moscos and Scorched Earth.

Bradford was born in Los Angeles, where he had lived his entire life. His mother owned a
beauty salon, where he worked sometimes. He grew in a supportive realm, where his
decisions were respected, even when they were not aligned with the social and cultural
stablished behavior expectations. Once I looked out to the hair salon and became
interested in the environment around me, everything that I had been trying to talk about
was already there, speaking and having dialogues. (Sollins, 130)
In the neighborhood of Los Angeles that he was raised, he finds the inspiration he needs for
his works and also some materials. The conversations I was interested in were about
community, fluidity, about a merchant dynamic, and the details that point to a genus of
change. (Sollins, 130) He is always establishing a communication bridge between the public
and the private. He takes the information that surrounds him to his private studio.

The bodyguard will give people a poker card at the entrance of the exhibition. He will not
explain anymore, just to keep it for the Proposition Player hall. In the exhibition, this will
be the hall, in order to create expectations and mystery about the game to be played.

A game in an art exhibition. Thats not something that you expect to encounter when you
go to art places. The game uses simple poker cards, the installation also has TV and
computer displays. Seems colorful, seems attractive, it invites you to participate. The slogan
of this show is You may already be a winner. That increases the interest to go into it,
everybody wants to be a winner. But all this playfulness is not opposed to the profundity of
meaning that is involved in the whole idea. While the instructions are explained, people
discovers that theres a well-organized system of meanings and ideas involved. This is
Matthewss Propositional Player game.

To complement the Matthews Propositional Player, his work The Cell will also be exhibited.
A gigantic sculpture built in a way that makes it look like a cell, full of curved lines, which
gives a lot of movement to the piece. This piece was selected because he again constructs
a meaning for the cells: the universe is a prison and we are standing in this cells.

Matthews inspirational subject matter are the universe, the structures of knowledge and
belief, scientific elements and principles. Matthew Ritchie is an artist who thinks like a
physicist. You're just as likely to get him talking about quantum mechanics Ritchie's
artistic goal is to chart new territories of representation to develop what could be called
an aesthetics of physics. (Goodbody) Most of his subject of inspiration is unknown, so he
has to work very hard to construct it in both, an intellectual and aesthetical manner.

Different interests, different ways to construct their art, and of course different visual
results. But they are all constructors. Constructors of their own meanings.

Mehretus works are composed by multiple layers. She starts with a geometric structure,
and subsequently adds parts of city maps, architectural features such as columns, facades,
porticos, building plans. If a building is from Baghdad or New York or Cairo its not so
important. I dont necessarily reveal which building is from which place. Its more that this
information is part of the DNA of the painting . My interest in using parts of these broken
buildings is that these are elements of our built environment. Its just another
representation of that type of landscape. (Sollins, 162). Looking to the original pieces as
the DNA of her work, that emphasizes the relevance of the original pieces on the
construction process of a new reality.

Bradford transforms the cheaply produced sheets made to attract low-income workers
that are posted illegally on wire fencing around abandoned lots. Bradford has observed that
the merchant posters increase in volume as the economy declines, giving his chosen
material a direct correlation to the state of the nation. Pest control, money wires, cheap
divorce, credit lines, and prison phone numbers (Morgan, 99) Bradford is a political artist.
This can be clearly exemplified with her piece Potable Water, where he is making reference
to the water problems in California. The usage of posters found on the streets to create his
pieces, can only emphasize more his political posture.

He talks about his working process in this way: I collage; I immediately add it right back.
Its almost like a rhythm. Im a builder and a demolisher. I put up so I can tear down. Im a
speculator and a developer. In archeological terms, I excavate and I build at the same time
(Sollins, 137) This makes very clear how he assumes his role as a constructer.
Im interested in reconstructing that chain of evidence that leads you from the one thing
to the other, because theres the real universe, then theres what we see, which is really
just a metaphor (Art 21) In this statement, Ritchie also assumes his role as a constructor.
The information of the universe that we count with is vague, everything is a mystery. His
work follows a group of symbolic characters that play out their stories in a world of colors
and forms that are governed by a set of rules constructed by the artist. (MIT,2002) Since
his matter of inspiration is less clear, he creates his own rules and stories for the
construction process.

Each artist works with the idea of construction of meanings with a different underlying
topic. Even when Mehretu and Bradford make maps, both of them are very different.
Bradford has a clear political orientation and involvement with his community, he stands
behind the unprotected cultures of his community. While Mehretu seems her practice as
something more private. Ritchie is interested in science, spatial and temporary positions,
the universe; he works with the 95% part of the unknown universe. Despite the fact that
everyone has one interest, all of them are constructors. All of them takes parts of
information of the surrounding environment and dissolve them into their pieces.
Sometimes these elements can still be identified, they are part of the DNA, but now have a
different phenotype.
Bibliography

Jeffrey Deitch, The painting factory : abstraction after Warhol, Skira Rizzoli, 2012

Susan, Sollins, Art 21 : art in the twenty-first century 4, Harry N. Abrams, 2007

Susan, Sollins, Art 21 : art in the twenty-first century 5, Studley Press, 2009

Matthew Ritchie: Proposition Player. Art 21, http://www.art21.org/texts/matthew-

ritchie/interview-matthew-ritchie-proposition-player. Accessed November 29th, 2016

MIT List Visual Art Center. Games of Chance and Skill: Matthew Ritchie. 2002.
https://listart.mit.edu/sites/default/files/Ritchie_Matthew.pdf. Accessed November 29th,
2016

Goodbody Bridget. An Aesthetics of Physics. Art on Paper. June 2007. http://www.re-

title.com/artists/Matthew-Ritchie.asp Accessed November 29th, 2016