Raul Piña
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Human Archetypes, or, The Double Intensity of the Sign

Raul Piña's visual poetic language connects with the centuries old "Tolteca" tradition of his native Mexico, and at the same time channels the transcultural experience of his life in London.

His work evolves from ancestral mythology, beyond that of his own culture, exploring nexus and conceptual coincidences by way of the icon.

Piña describes this poetic route through the use of pictorial signs, transcending the two dimensional framework in complex installations that function as footprints for ritual-visual-action. His performances are a "post-tech" ritual, returning the irresistible power of mythology to our one dimensional reality.

Raul Piña's work is deployed as a dynamo that generates experimentation and reflexion on the metaphysical function of the sign/icon. He uses pre hispanic iconography and the images of european and universal culture, but also demonstrates that discovery of their equivalents.

Piña does not make overtly political art, but he denounces the danger of the materialism of our "evolved" societies. His work, like a hall of mirrors, reflects the image of the icon, and its multiple faces. The ghosts and mysteries of the human condition resurface and evoke the poetics of our deeper reality.

 

Based on a text by Gabriela Salgado, Curator - University of Essex Collection of Latin American Art


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