Wednesday, May 2, 2007

universos/universes-2007

universos/universes is an installation based on the writings of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Latin America’s greatest writer and one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. His array of references and allusions constituted a true global cultural system that has been influential in art, literature, film and music. In his story "Pascal's Sphere," Borges contemplates the possibility that "universal history is the history of a few metaphors". Several of Borges' favorite metaphors and narrative devices are intended to call into question visual perception--the mirror, the labyrinth, the dream, the aleph, the trompe l'oeil -and they are also used to signal Borges' great theme, the illusory nature of knowledge itself. For Borges The Encyclopedia Britannica was analogous to a "cosmos". To me finding discarded Encyclopedias reflects on the idea of how knowledge changes and becomes obsolete, consequently existing as speculative fiction.

In juxtaposing several circles, I make reference to Borges’ idea of an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose edges are nowhere serving as a metaphor for God, the universe, and human experience. The patterns I use are based on decorations from Ancient Indian Art, Spanish, Italian, Greek and Latin American Barroco decorations and floral patterns.