07/09/2011, 6 pm
The Lunch Box Gallery
310 NW 24TH ST
Miami. fl. 33127
www.thelunchboxgallery.com

Corrosion is aphotographic series by artist Rodolfo Vanmarcke, that was born in 2008 toreference the strength of contrast, the passion for the opposites and theimposition of an aesthetic over another one in order to create a canvas full ofalmost tactile textures, which allow to read between the lines an image that itwas, but that will never be again its original beauty. According to Vanmarcke, the art pieces reject any visual fidelity in theviewer to herald new shapes that go beyond traditional photography, andincorporate themselves into new mixed techniques of visual expression.

Vanmarcke’s series is the result of aparadoxical encounter between the human body (overall, the female bodyphotographed assymbol of glamour and eroticism), and textures that cohabit in our everydaylife, but that nevertheless go unnoticed.

Inhis images, a photograph of a body overcome by an act of sensuality manifeststhe thin line between pureness and impureness, between the natural and what canbecome pagan. At the same time, the sublimation of an idealized body is rescuedand humanized by means of the use of photographed textures that repeat themselveswithin the world of the things: a crack on the wall, a blotch of paint onconcrete, a rusty object, cigarette ashes or even an old and scratched fryingpan. For the artist, all of these symbolize the wear-out of life, theinevitable pass of human time, the filth of routine, and mortality.

As a result of this juxtaposition, Vanmarcke’s series initiates a battle betweenthe beautiful and the ugly, both in their own aesthetical sense, arousing anirresolute debate on the definition of a culprit: Who makes the other dirty? Moreover, who beautifies whom?

Thecombination and interplay of these constituents allow the artist to play withthe somber, the imprecise and the fleeting, where observing the art pieces doesnot only result in an aesthetical activity that pursues delight, but anactivity that is at the same time intellectual as well as sensitive. At theend, Corrosion examines how fears andillusions, delirium, utopias and fantasies become at some point ornamental, andat some other point a reflection of the unequivocal and cruel reality.