Often, solo shows explore a single theme, a visual language, or an artist’s universe, so they’re inherently coherent and compact. But continuing on the subject of Berlin shows and the importance of observation, I just wanted to share a few impressions of Taína H. Cruz’s second solo with Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, where the variety of imagery, motifs, aesthetics, formats, and languages will spin your mind out of its orbit (and in a good way).
So, when we think of painting, particularly representational or figurative painting, we usually consider observation an important part of it. People, locations, events, objects, everything gets observed, contextualized, and then represented on the surface. But as we all know, our observation goes beyond the real world and is nowadays often focused on the screen. And it’s this idea of visual abundance, its overwhelming intensity, that influences how and what Cruz chooses to paint. Insisting on the traditional medium of painting, she claims that these recent paintings “touch upon things the internet cannot.”
Alongside observing networked image culture, Cruz’s work thematically draws on African American and Caribbean traditions, folklore, and mysticism. Not by referencing or quoting what exists, but by channeling the personal, what’s culturally embedded in her. Occasionally that’s done by adding a character or narrative, but more often by shifting the ambiance towards the occult. By doing so, she adds ambiguity and spiritual depth to otherwise unassuming reference images, conveying identity as fluid and evolving. Something that gets built up and transformed through life rather than something fixed or imposed. And in that light, the almost mischievous, fragmented, snapshot-like display of various things seen becomes a manifestation of this idea within the Pixie Theatre. —Saša Bogojev
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