 |
| Follow The Leader |
Cement Eclipses is a project that exists on city streets in the form of small, sculpted concrete figures that are interacting with the environment in which they are placed. The pieces are an average of 25cm (about 10 inches) per figure, but the photos of the pieces make them appear quite a bit smaller (and some of them are, in fact, smaller). The little men are made of cement, created from clay and silicone molds, and adhered to different parts of European cities with an epoxy adhesive. Not all figures are the same: some are standing, some are sitting in chairs, some are holding inner tubes around themselves, and others are shaped in a crucifix position. Cordal himself calls these Cement Eclipses "urban interventions".
Cordal's home of Galicia, Spain, is a coastal region which was flattened to be reconstructed into a more modern "city". The use of cement was a very powerful factor in this recreation and is therefore why Cordal chose to use it as the material for these figures. It is a representation of the impact of the human being in nature, whether we notice it or not when we walk on concrete sidewalks and into concrete buildings. Though Cordal has his intentions based off of the rise of the city in Spain, this same concept in the city-boom is basically applicable everywhere. As mentioned earlier in the semester, urban growth has reached the point where over half of the world's population is living in cities and their suburbs. Cement Eclipses is Cordal's way of representing this aspect of the human culture on a smaller scale.
Though these pieces are photographed and documented during and right after their placement in the cityscape, there really isn't much of a follow up afterward. Cordal mentions that all but maybe two or three of the pieces placed during the night will be gone within 24 hours, from street and city cleaners removing them, natural destruction of them in a bustling city environment, or people picking them up and keeping them. These little urban interventions are very much similar to how graffitists portray their art: 1) an idea is thought of 2) a piece is either pre-made or sketched out or envisioned 3) a spot is chosen 4) the art becomes part of the chosen location. In both cases, there is a chance of destruction of the art, either naturally or forcefully by the hand of man. Also like grafitti, Cement Eclipses becomes part of both the counterculture and the protest culture. They are created and placed to make a point; to publicly share/comment on a meaning or a viewpoint or a social issue. Because he is one person and not larger mass of people, this aspect of the project seems to sit more on the counterculture side. However, its public nature, political/social commentary, and placement to both public and private property also place this project into the protest culture.
 |
| Asking for Spare Change |
Though there are some artists who have worked on similar projects, Cordal executes his small cement figures in a very different manner. Slinkachu, who also makes tiny figures and places them in public, is more photographically based and does not necessarily create little scenes for the public to view after they have been set up. Charles Simonds, on the other hand, publicly creates small, clay models of actual demolished buildings, encouraging people to come up to him and explore his ideas and the reasons as to why he is making these pieces. Contrasting Slinkachu, Simonds is very public, but also contrasting Cordal, Simonds wants to speak with people who are curious about his work. Isaac Cordal adheres his figures at night, waiting for people to stumble upon them the next day and figure them out for themselves. Though they may not completely understand the meaning behind them, it no doubt would cause one to think about why this small, 10 inch concrete figurine is glued to the middle of the sidewalk.
 |
| Swine Flu |
Though Cordal occasionally places these little men in very reachable places, such as doorways or ledges or sidewalks, he also has put them in construction areas and demolished buildings that appear nothing more than rubbish piles. Though not quite as obvious to the passerby, these locations seem to say more about the city than the more obvious locations. For example, one of his placements of the figures was into these little holes dug up in the road.
 |
| Still image from video below |
Cement eclipses from Isaac Cordal on Vimeo.
The video shows about three or four of the men, standing defiant in the potholes, with looming construction equipment behind them. It is quite clear that this construction equipment will have its way in the end, but the fact that these men stand boldly to their spots is very reminiscent of Jane Jacobs's "movement" and other riots that we have discussed in the past few months. Fortunately, Jacobs won out in the end, but during the conflict of Moses and the people of Greenwich Village, the people stood strong in their positions against the looming backhoe and highways that Moses represented. The Thompson Square Park riot and the Democratic National Convention riots in Grant Park also held to the same principles of people standing up for what they believe in. Cordal does not believe in the upbuilding of cities, particularly represented by concrete, so he places small concrete men in protest against this constant construction.
Going back to the beginning of the semester, there was a discussion about the ways in which people interact with the city. The very first article by Michel de Certeau, Walking in the City, explored the ways in which people navigated the streets. This mechanical motion on worn down, beaten up paths where each person places their left foot in the exact same spot on the cross walk every morning takes a very human element out of being human. Most people navigate the city going from A to B, not thinking about anything in between. The flaneurs seem to be the only ones who take the time to look; to watch. The rest of us just get to where we're going, not noticing the people that pass us or the things along the way. Cement Eclipses act as these urban interventions to draw us out of the "zone" of 'Current position to destination, current position to destination, current position to destination...oh, there's a small concrete puddle bather. Wait...why is that there? Who put it there?'
So although Isaac Cordal bases his Cement Eclipses on a more human vs. environment idea (there's also men in gas masks sitting by oil stains and a hazmat suited man in a swine flu infected area), they come to mean much more than that. These cement figures symbolize a public protest in the form of art, an intervention in the monotonous daily activity of a concrete city, and, to some extent, a similar idea that Lemn Sissay speaks about in his "Darwin Originals: What if?" poem/video. This may be a stretch, but Sissay speaks of "what if we got it wrong?" in relation to our industrialization and building of cities and "what if our impenetrable defense sealed us in?" (speaking about the city swallowing us and misleading our progress). Though the video is a comparison of the melting arctic and the polluted cities and their relation to one another, and Cordal wants his innertube men in puddles to be experiencing a "global warming", these ideas both relate to the larger picture: over 50% of us are living in these concrete cities and urbanization is at its highest. We are not thinking about the impact of our actions, whether on each other or on the environment, and maybe, as Sissay poetically states, it's "the small things that make great change". Perhaps these small things come in the form of miniature concrete men.
 |
| BP |
No comments:
Post a Comment