para la versión en español, toca aqui
para la versión en español, toca aqui
Madness is a show that reminds us, in a humorous way, that human perception is never objective.
Madness proposes the use of photography to criticize or challenge one of the basic notions of photography: that
it produces images of reality.
There are always many layers of meaning that our mind creates between reality and our interpretation of it. To
show this distorted perception of reality in our show (and that's why the name of the show is Madness), we think
the viewer has to start by realizing that the photos themselves are not objective representations of the things
they portray. A photo is always limited in time, space, angle, light, etc. Then there are physical layers between
our minds and the photos: there is the glass, the air, the light, and all the biological processes that occur from
our eyes to the brain. Then there are all those mental layers that help people re-interpret what they see. Information,
cultural attitudes, genetical and hormonal tendencies, memories, preconceptions, etc. play a significant role in
this process. And finally, in the case of this particular body of work, there are the titles of the photos which
we, David and I, carefully created to give the spectator a final twist of meaning. In other words, we wanted to
make obvious that our perception of reality is never static, and that one of the great characteristics of art is
that it can play with the viewers interpretation.
While looking at these photographs, you, the viewer, have two obvious options: one is to use the information in
the photos and titles to try to understand what David and I meant in each shot; the other is to become aware of
your own process of reconstruction of reality, and use it in a conscious way instead of letting it "just happen"
as it usually does. That way you can infuse your own meaning into each picture. This will show you that art is
always destroyed and recreated by the eye of the beholder. The final version of each photo would be therefore not
in the paper but in your mind.
The show is here to remind us, or make us aware, that it is not only we who inhabit reality, it is also reality
that inhabits us.
Cuauhtli Arau (10 May 1999)
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