THE HERMIT AND THE JUGGLER

The show of hands is called for here: hands as exponents of mind and labor, hands as exponents of vista and scrutiny. Mike Adrao and Iggy Rodriguez are reunited in this exhibit by a shared passion for drawing and its demands on technique and material. Yet this is less about the spectacle of double-billed dexterity, even if assuredly, both artists have the acumen to exhibit this. Rather,Mano Mano, is an arena cialis viagra combination of pointed readings, of reality conveyed by two perspectives of critique– where one turns inward to escape chaos and ventures to look out; while the other can be said to be immersed in the same chaos and decides to close in on its interiority. And both are political stances indicative of the artist’s recourse to utilize and make sense of discord.

There is a strong catechistical influence to these works, veering to a subjectivity that proffers the material figure as representation of inner or spiritual states. Realism is ascribed by approaching the figurative within the device of the tableau, such that even with distortion and cropping, the image is consciously framed or staged generic viagra mexico pharmacy within the coordinates of the iconographic narrative. The sacred is device appropriated to the idea of transfiguration as consequence: the body is modified and distorted, identities are taken over, and nature is in a state of decline and decay.

Two archetypes may be recalled to aid these existential readings. In the major arcane of the Tarot, the first card is the Juggler, sometimes referred

to as the magician. The Juggler is equipped; his table is laid with the objects of his fancy. His hands hold the tools price comparison between viagra and cialis for both earthly and heavenly enrichment. Yet this is the card that suggests humanity’s existence as actors mindlessly plodding on in situations, where carnal delights are distractions from achieving a higher consciousness. Rodriguez approaches his critique of conspicuous oppression as a circus of absurdities, laying out the victims’ happy complicity with their exploitation. The play of power is most obvious in Coming of Age and Delusions of Grandeur, where the rulers who hold the reins on their playthings have cialis for sale online no awareness of their own perpetual ruin.

The other card is the Hermit, the figure that states existence as a quest in eternal solitude. The Hermit holds both the lamp of enlightenment and the staff of stability. He is certain about his inner path, only that his progress is hindered because he is stuck to the past. Adrao is just as sure of his inward solitary gaze, as he revisits classical and Renaissance figuration and proceeds to reveal the organic and mechanical transmutations within. His Mekanismo and viagraonlinepharmacy-best the smallerDeMekaniko series are intrinsic steps to a process of ‘decomposition,’ where inner lives are bogged down by material concerns, suggesting an existence ruled by maggots and the slither of cold-blooded creatures. These are passive lives lived to clocks with rusty cogs and wheels ticking in reverse.

Hence, the match acted out in Mano Mano addresses and pits the adversaries within, alternately revealed by sleight of hand and careful probing. loss of hearing cialis However, this is just another session, another set of readings. Cards do not carve destinies. For that we look to hands propelled by the conscious will to vanquish the death of the spirit.

-Karen Ocampo Flores

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