Another Finger on the Wound

By Lizet Fraga Mena. Researcher and Curator of Contemporary Cuban Art.

Cat. Another Finger on the Wound, Galería La Acacia, Havana, May 31–June 25, 1996.

Modernity imposed upon creators a revaluation of all artistic assumptions and languages established throughout the centuries, leading them to question the very axiological nature of art itself. Postmodernism, in turn, traveled equally complex paths; in its play with negation, it reconceptualized notions of time and space through the use — at times arbitrary, at others highly deliberate — of appropriations that endowed works of universal art with new interpretative nuances, transposing their settings and protagonists into novel and contemporary situations.

Thus, the use of recognizable or readily identifiable images with an inquisitive and questioning spirit implied not only a reunion with historical and artistic cycles — reminding humankind of its own existence in the present — but also the possibility of recontextualizing messages, of affirming that creative and imaginative perspectives know no limits, and that the characters of a work or story may themselves become objects of “artistic reincarnation” at the close of the twentieth century.

It is within this creative proposition that Rubén Alpízar’s work is situated.

Within his oeuvre there is, at times, an evident irony accompanied by profound reflection. The religious theme, so recurrent throughout his work, serves merely as a pretext for the analysis of broader concerns. It is therefore not a questioning of religion or of the gods themselves, but rather of human conduct and the problems that envelop mankind in the search for selfhood, for truth, and in the very relationship with others. The iconography employed thus becomes a communicative vehicle that opens the door to understanding his own symbolic language through images drawn from universally recognized subjects such as The Last Supper. Only this time, the apostles have Christ himself as the central dish. Within this theatrical representation one may imagine the struggle for “survival” in a modern world in which some human beings ultimately end up “devouring” others.

Within this system of conceptual interrelations — generated between the explicit and the suggested theme — and formal relationships arising from the use of citations, the viewer’s confrontation with the resulting artwork becomes a confrontation with oneself, as though standing before a mirror that, instead of projecting our outward appearance, reflects an intricate inner world. The work Image and Likeness plays with this notion by dividing the image into two halves, one of which is Christ himself. Once again, the readings may be as broad and paradoxical as that of man created in the image and likeness of God, or conversely, the rupture of that resemblance through human behavior estranged from the divine, creating a barrier between the two halves precisely where the glass is shattered.

This young artist possesses a clear command of what he wishes to express and how to express it. Endowed with extraordinary technical mastery — especially captivating in his wood works — he guides us through complex interpretative paths with subtle humor and exquisite formal treatment, drawing us toward the work in search of that which lies beyond what is apparently being told.

It is there that we begin both to know and to know ourselves; where powerful and scourging realities sometimes emerge and wound us deeply. It is there, too, that we ourselves become Saint Sebastian and bleed, realizing that Alpízar has once again known how to place another finger upon the wound.

Lizet Fraga Mena.
May 1996