Sculpture Installation by Guerra de la Paz
Guerra de la Paz
Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz are both Cuban born artists who were art schooled in the Chicago area; de la Paz at Northern Illinois University and Guerra at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. They met in Chicago in the mid 1990’s, and shortly thereafter moved to Miami, where they still live and work. The two artists began making sculpture and installations incorporating found objects shortly after they moved into their Miami studio. At this point they started to gather random articles of discarted clothing for their installations.
Follow the Leader, Guerra de la Paz have constructed a sinuous line of parading figures, a kind of human centipede, if you will, draped in all manner of retrieved apparel. The line of figures snakes its way around and through the main port of the Grand Center gallery space, culminating in a very large pile of stacked clothing near the reception desk. The affect is as if the wearers of that clothing are disappearing into that pile. No portions of bodies are visible in the construction, but the separate figures are articulated by means of multiple armatures clad in pants and shoes. The clothing employed in Follow the Leader tends toward the flamboyant and colorful, including such elements as leopard skin, paisley, rosettes, superhero pj’s, plaids, stripes, spots, little smiling monkeys, potery, slogans, numerals, and even gold spiderweb design on a muslin cape. Guerra de la Paz wanted only patterned clothing for this project, which means that the preponderance of visible garments are women’s or children’s wear.
The work of Guerra de la Paz, the two artist team of Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz, is based on a combination of traditional disciplines and experimentation with dimension and the use of unconventional materials. It is inspirited by an essential familiarity with the ready-made and the archeological qualities that found objects posses. The result encapsulates an energy that reveals underlying meanings and depicts the significance of mass-produced refuse on our society.
Relying exclusively on materials that part of our everyday lives, they create work with a universal message. Using recycled objects as their medium and the guidance of the unrelenting amounts of information that fuel today’s mass consciousness and its subversive parallels, Guerra de la Paz explores ways to reinvent historic themes and classic icons while commenting on contemporary culture. The artists were just awarded a public commission by the New York Transit Authority for a site specific installation at the Williamsburg bridge.