Tinta Viva presents a collection of explosive paper works by Mexican artist Federico Cartas (b.1988 Mexico) that strive for perfection in an uncontrolled physical world. Exhibited for the first time in New York. The works, as Cartas explains "requires the integration of physics, chemistry, and trial & error to create “the perfect accident”.
Opening Friday January 26, 2024, at Alchemy Gallery, Tinta Viva will be accompanied by a captivating short film, exhibited as editioned video works, by renowned creative Amanda Demme, documenting the artist’s process from the Ajusco Volcano.
Cartas works with an abundance of unexpected materials including his own blood, Chinese ink, explosive powder, LSD and lava dust from the Etna Volcano in Sicily. Like Arte Povera artists Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz who employed varying materials, including wax, tar, wire, and neon tubes - and also Yves Klein who referred to his iconic Klein Blue as “leftovers from the creative process” - the idea of production and result of the activity becomes Cartas’ artwork.
Symbolically, Cartas mixes his own DNA to present his past and the physical body; LSD to present the uncontrollable effects on humans; and lava dust to represent the ground and eruptions of the Earth - despite the fact these mediums are not supposed to be mixed. Yet,
visually, their combination and subsequent separation in the explosion create interesting textures and patterns when they meet the paper.
Driven by the white ink on the black paper, and the black ink on the white paper, Cartas pictures uncontrolled formations of larger rocks, dispersed dots and scatterings of dappled pattern. On a micro-scale, formations of new rocks on the paper surface are visible. On a macro-scale, it's numerous galaxies and clusters of stars.
The way the materials are dispersed onto the paper is a process of phenomenons derived from the artist's home-made technique set up within his studio located on The Bowery, New York. “To understand the variables we must refer to the energy and power of the explosion in the moment, considering the wind, the temperature of the wind and the aerodynamics of the wind. The explosions in New York are different to those in Mexico City; in Mexico they are different because there is a higher altitude and as a result less oxygen”. As a result of the explosion, the centrifuge force and aerodynamics are disrupted because the explosion and chemicals are separated.
The titles of each work speak to the importance of physics, aeronautics and astronomy. These include Galaxia centrifuga, Horizontal centro con alien, Volcano du Bloody Lava, and Tornado V.2. Both individual artworks and the series as a whole show undulating explosions flowing between diptychs and triptychs - further accentuating this idea of uncontrolled movement.
