The Origin of the Universe
Chaos @ Cosmos
We live locked inside an atomic structure; not because of its size but because of its oneness, since outside of the universe that we perceive, a larger universe exists. The microscopic universe is a small version of the macroscopic universe, only that the visual spectrum of human beings is too limited to be able to appreciate it. When our inner universe connects with the outer universe, it’s the moment when things can be actually rediscovered. As expressed by Octavio Paz in the language of the Cosmos, “if the universe is a text, or tissue of signs, it is then governed by rhythm, so the world is, therefore, a poem; in turn, a poem is a world of rhythms and symbols” (Los hijos de Limo, Barcelona, 1974, p. 95). The universe is structured aesthetically; my role as an artist and as a scientist is to reveal it.
In this artistic research I propose to poetically articulate The origin of the Universe Chaos - Cosmos, as an attempt to sensitize scientists through art, and inspire artists with the science of the cosmos, emphasizing the notion of creative-curiosity. This project is a proposal for an artistic work that invites us to penetrate the transformation of matter - full of energy, strength, and integrity. I borrowed some of the scientific conceptions belonging to the field of physics; namely the theory of Chaos and Cosmos, as evidence for a first reading of the pictorial works, where the integration of empirical and intellectual knowledge of the theories describing the universe stand as a the guideline to arrive at a personal interpretation in the work.
The origin of the universe is conceived merely by the scientific thought through its theories; however, the artistic way of thinking also offers a way of conceiving the universe, one where the cornerstone is the subject, rather than the object. Let us consider a simple way to look at art and science through their thinking style: art is explosive, random, frenetic; it does not obey to rules neither strict limitations. It is to be found in the exploration of different original forms arising from empirical knowledge. I refer to this definition as "Chaos", an unpredictable but determinable system.
In the case of science this style of thinking is linear; science is methodical, rational, formal, systematized. I interpret it as "Cosmos", an ordered or harmonious system. The limits that have been imposed on science in its own creation, is the scientific method […] I believe that the role of art in the process of creation it is essential to observe different possibilities of solution to the same problem, these infinite possibilities to see reality in the art, could open up new realities in the world of science.
Intuition as a tool for knowledge expansion governs the thin line between what we know through our experience and what we project as a potential outcome, without having to follow the same steps every time. Intuition is the way that frees us and strips us of the thought-mechanisms characteristic of the scientific method and the power of rationality, opening up the door to the existence of further possibilities. In order to cross that subtle line between these forms of knowledge, we need intuition to integrate the chaos and the cosmos (order) into our ways of perceiving and creating, thus altering our development and increasing our consciousness as a human beings.
2012 Murano glass sculpture with copper structures and stainless steel. 150 x 170 x 60 cm Location: Berengo studio, Murano-Italy
2012 Murano glass sculpture with copper structures and stainless steel. 150 x 170 x 60 cm Location: Berengo studio, Murano-Italy
2012 Murano glass sculpture with copper structures and stainless steel. 150 x 170 x 60 cm Location: Berengo studio, Murano-Italy
2012 Murano glass sculpture with copper structures and stainless steel. 150 x 170 x 60 cm Location: Berengo studio, Murano-Italy
This series of works are a selection of pieces realized between 1998 - 2013; a production integrated by different residency contexts and workshops starting by Painting in the Atelier (Mexico D.F and Barcelona); Glass sculpture (Murano-Venice) and Etching (Trieste). The underlying goal of these productions was the exploration of different avenues of experimentation with materials, trying to appropriate the technique to transcribe their language.
These works are part of the evolutionary stages of the formal study of patterns and structures guided by my instinct, by mental and emotional states of a particular time and place. These images are an x-ray of the forms which inhabit in the processes of the unconscious mind. The goal was the experimentation of materials and surfaces. The painting formula is a hybrid between the technique of oil painting "alla prima" - in a single session of continues painting, and painting "by layers." The glass sculpture concentrates the potential of the glass transparency and the materiality of the copper sculptures embedded in the glass.
This process enabled to capture the fusion of copper with glass, letting unusual patterns emerge, stemming from gasses encapsulated in the glass due to the high temperatures. The engraving is monotype with a symmetrical matrix for printing. These works unveil the paper’s transparency, transforming each engraving into a "lightbox".
2008 Mixed painting technique of oil, acrylic on wood. r= 90 cm Mexico city
1999 Mixed painting technique of oil, acrylic on wood. r= 90 cm Mexico city
2002 Mixed painting technique of oil, acrylic on glass. 20 x 40 cm Mexico city
2008 Mixed painting technique of oil, acrylic on wood. r= 90 cm Mexico city
This work was produced during two residencies of the time when I lived in Italy. The first was a residency I attended at an engraving laboratory in Trieste, guided by master Vecchiet Franco. There I felt the potential of technique in the development of new ways of expression, I also discovered surfaces that could function as support and printing paper. The great freedom in the surface design and the decomposition in the embedding of the color of the inks through the wide variety of mechanical or chemical techniques, increasingly potentiates the process.
The second residence was at the art gallery and workshop BERENGO, in Murano - Venice, where I worked blown glass. My interest was to continue experimenting with materials. I looked for a material that would give me the same consistency of the molten glass to be applied in the engraving. I started to experiment with honey; I began by impregnating it as if it were the engraving’s ink and I let it rest for several days. I continued doing this process for four months. The properties of the environment, such as temperature, transformed the forms on the metal surface.
In a night of shadows comes the light of hope, allowing the inside of a typhoon to be seen, modeling the transformation of matter: solid, liquid and gas. The awakening of anthropomorphic forms, human qualities, objects and natural phenomena, with a desire to go out from where they had been asleep at the bottom of the sea for so long.
Images are a portrait of the evolution of those forms that are sleeping in the mental processes of the unconscious.
The game of uncertainty in my work is essential… It does not seduce me where will I reach beforehand, but what I am passionate about is discovering where it actually arrives.
The awakening-anthropomorphic forms
2012
Etching technique into monoprint.
40 x 50 cm Trieste-Italy.
I let myself go by the concentration, intuitive design, mental and emotional states of that particular time. What I’m most interested in is the correlation potential of each of the parts, allowing for multiple interpretations to be seen, even what it implies for me as a way to study symbolic forms and structures of the mental processes of the unconscious materialized in each work.
I correlate what I see, what I do, what I live; in meditation, in science and what I experience in my artistic practice. Three paths of knowledge that arrive at the same point, the origin of things. It is noted objectively as a flow of experiences where a holistic integrated knowledge is correlated and generated, something difficult to apprehend via each of them separately.
2012 Etching technique into monoprint. 50 x 60 cm Trieste-Italy.
2012 Etching technique into monoprint. 60 x 80 cm Trieste-Italy
2012 Etching technique into monoprint. 20 x 60 cm Trieste-Italy.
2012 Etching technique into monoprint. 50 x 60 cm Trieste-Italy.
Romero conceives art as a scientific means to explore reality and the human being.