Tandem Project by
Andrés Michelena - Richard Garet
April 23 – May 4, 2022
“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It speaks, and yet says nothing.”
– William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Richard Garet and Andrés Michelena have shared a friendship dating back to 2006, always marked by mutual respect and admiration. Transfixed by the concept of emptiness (or the perception of absence), both Garet and Michelena frequently call the subtle nuances of space, matter, and subjectivity into question. This subjectivity is the dividing force that artificially separates a ‘primary’ signal from a nebulous pool of minute perceptions. The two artists seek to disrupt this barrier by foregrounding the subconscious, offering a glimpse of the totality from which all signals emerge and eventually return. Interweaving text, image, movement, and sound, Revealing meditates on immateriality and manifestation from a phenomenological yet poetic point of view.
Suspended from the gallery ceiling, Garet’s 30 Cycles of Flux is an object sonore that paradoxically is unlistenable. An oscillator emits a 30 cycles wave (right below human beings’ hearing range) to activate speaker cones, which in turn move strings in a constant flow, subsequently producing a kinetic visualization of the wave. The dissolution of an audible vibration can initially be traced by an echo, though the entirety of its gestation gradually becomes undetectable to the human ear. Capturing vibrations that would otherwise dissipate into the space covertly, each string marks a sound we cannot otherwise bear witness to. At the intersection of absence and presence, we instinctively strain to hear these sounds; This active mode of listening allows the “white noise” that lies dormant in our subconscious to infiltrate the initially perceived silence.
Michelena’s Loop Whole accepts the notion that principles of logic follow an already extant reality. Using the preordained architectural logic of the gallery, Michelena acts as a collaborator, activating contours of empty space with thread. Inside of the contour, Michelena punctures the walls, articulating barely perceptible phrases. Each poetic gesture is an accumulation of voids. One such aphorism—“residual space”—aptly defines this subtractive process, demarcating what is left after other parts have been taken away. Like an engineer dampens background noise in a recording, the modern gallery aesthetic, commonly referred to as the white cube, eliminates visual distractions from the art object. The green exit sign is one such ‘distraction’ that many modernists would desire to have next to no visual impact upon an exhibition. Michelena appends the phrase “misplaced space” to the exit sign and outlines it with thread, defying the white cube’s prescriptively discrete nature. The very notion that it is possible to create a space entirely devoid of character is controverted by Michelena’s interventions; the cryptic boundaries and recesses do not mythologize the gallery space, but in fact, distill the invisible logic of its configuration.
When viewed together, 30 Cycles of Flux and Loop Whole relay Marshall McLuhan’s emblematic proposition: “The medium is the message.” The content does not blind us to the characteristics of the medium, but instead imparts its most imperceptible traits. The artists necessitate a careful mode of observation, entreating spectators to look rather than see; to listen rather than hear; and to search for something real, just out of our realm of perception. Each sense is heightened by the absence of stimuli. Like eyes adjusting in a dark room, gradually the invisible and silent things that live among us come into focus.
Text by Betty Alice McGhee
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Revealing -Lo infrasensible según Andrés Michelena y Richard Garet
Por Félix Suazo
"Revealing", proyecto colaborativo de Andrés Michelena y Richard Garet, sorprende gratamente por la extrema pulcritud de su puesta en escena en la Piero Atchugarry Gallery de Miami. Una vez en el espacio expositivo, se tiene la sensación de estar en una cámara al vacío, flanqueada en sus extremos por sendos muros negros. Casi al fondo, gravita un dispositivo aéreo con 14 cornetas y cuerdas vibrantes. En las paredes y esquinas se advierten líneas trazadas con cordeles y clavos. Finalmente, se descubren palabras y frases breves con las letras contorneadas por puntos incisos. Eso es todo. No hay nada más.
Pero para ser exactos, detrás de un gesto mínimo siempre hay "algo más". Justamente, de eso trata el proyecto de Andrés Michelena (Caracas, 1963) y Richard Garet (Montevideo, 1972). Aunque por caminos distintos, la trayectoria de cada uno de ellos converge en la observación atenta de los fenómenos cotidianos, buscando resaltar aquello que suele escapar de la experiencia inmediata. En este caso, ese "algo más", viene del vacío aparente y del espectro infrasónico. Ambas cosas son omnipresentes y sin embargo imperceptibles.
Las cinco intervenciones de Michelena, adscritas a la serie Loop Whole, delimitan y acotan áreas de atención soslayadas o inadvertidas: bordes, señales, aparatos, fisuras. 30 Cycles of Flux, título de la propuesta de Garet, ofrece indicios temblorosos de una actividad sónica que ocurre por debajo del nivel audible. Ambos procedimientos conducen a una conclusión similar: estamos rodeados de energías y campos que no percibimos. El vacío y el silencio son parte de lo existente aunque sean invisibles o carezcan de sonido. Consecuentemente, la experiencia sensible trasciende lo que podemos ver y escuchar. Basta con prestar atención al entorno.
En un mundo hiper-retinal y ruidoso, el contacto con esta clase de fenómenos puede ser inquietante. Vista y oído están tan acostumbrados a las imágenes impactantes y los altos decibeles que funcionan con dificultad en ambientes moderados. Consecuentemente, la ausencia de contenido visual y acústico (según la etimología asignada al vacío y el silencio) plantea una pregunta crucial. ¿Qué hacer cuando desaparecen las imágenes y los sonidos?
Dos aspectos concatenados se manejan en este proyecto. En primer lugar está la cuestión del contacto físico con un una situación concreta, perfectamente compatible con la experiencia corriente de cualquier individuo, ya sea en calidad de espectador o en su condición de sujeto activo.
En segundo lugar está la noción de obra, construida fuera de los parámetros del objeto único, delimitado en el espacio. No hay cuadros ni esculturas solo un dispositivo electrosónico, cuerdas y textos. La obra es en realidad un modelo situacional, concebido para activar una relación particular en un espacio específico donde "el sonido se ve" y "el vacío es tangible".
De pronto, todo adquiere sentido. La materia se manifiesta. El silencio es una ilusión. El vacío existe. La nada cobra cuerpo. El todo es literalmente "Todo". No estamos solos.
"Vemos" que hay ruido en el silencio y constatamos que el vacío también tiene cuerpo. Las condiciones son favorables para especular, pero en realidad estamos ante un hecho simple y prodigioso, como cuando una imagen fotosensible se nos revela por fin en el cuarto oscuro. En la exposición Revealing, Andrés Michelena y Richard Garet nos ponen en contacto con una realidad alterna, infrasensible, que también nos concierne.
Mayo, 2022
(English version)
Revealing -The infrasensible according to Andrés Michelena and Richard Garet
By Felix Suazo
"Revealing", a collaborative project by Andrés Michelena and Richard Garet, is pleasantly surprising due to the extreme neatness of its staging at the Piero Atchugarry Gallery in Miami. Once in the exhibition space, one has the sensation of being in an empty chamber, flanked at each end by black walls. Almost at the bottom hovers an aerial device with 14 horns and vibrating strings. On the walls and corners, there are lines drawn with strings and nails. Finally, words and short phrases are discovered with the letters outlined by incised dots. That's all. There is nothing else.
But to be exact, behind a minimal gesture there is always "something more." Precisely, that is what the project by Andrés Michelena (Caracas, 1963) and Richard Garet (Montevideo, 1972) is about. Although along different paths, the trajectory of each of them converges in the attentive observation of everyday phenomena, seeking to highlight what usually escapes immediate experience. In this case, that "something more" comes from the apparent vacuum and the infrasonic spectrum. Both things are omnipresent and yet imperceptible.
Michelena's five interventions, assigned to the Loop Whole series, delimit and delimit areas of attention that have been overlooked or unnoticed: edges, signs, devices, fissures. 30 Cycles of Flux, the title of Garet's proposal, offers trembling hints of sonic activity that occurs below the audible level. Both procedures lead to a similar conclusion: we are surrounded by energies and fields that we do not perceive. Emptiness and silence are part of what exists even if they are invisible or lack sound. Consequently, sensible experience transcends what we can see and hear. Just pay attention to your surroundings.
In a hyper-retinal and noisy world, contact with this kind of phenomena can be disturbing. Sight and hearing are so accustomed to shocking images and high decibels that they function with difficulty in moderate environments. Consequently, the absence of visual and acoustic content (according to the etymology assigned to emptiness and silence) raises a crucial question. What to do when images and sounds disappear?
Two concatenated aspects are handled in this project. Firstly, there is the question of physical contact with a concrete situation, perfectly compatible with the ordinary experience of any individual, whether as a spectator or as an active subject.
Secondly, there is the notion of a work, built outside the parameters of a single object, delimited in space. There are no paintings or sculptures, just an electrosonic device, strings, and texts. The work is actually a situational model, conceived to activate a particular relationship in a specific space where "sound is seen" and "emptiness is tangible."
Suddenly, everything makes sense. Matter manifests. Silence is an illusion. The void exists. Nothingness takes shape. The whole is literally "Everything." We are not alone.
We "see" that there is noise in the silence and we confirm that the void also has a body. The conditions are favorable for speculation, but in reality, we are faced with a simple and prodigious event, like when a photosensitive image is finally revealed to us in the dark room. In the exhibition Revealing, Andrés Michelena and Richard Garet put us in contact with an alternate, infrasensible reality, which also concerns us.
May, 2022