Jaime Gili at Cecilia Brunson Projects
Jaime Gili’s new solo exhibition at CBP is a looping exploration of national, cultural and family history
Loop opens at Cecilia Brunson Projects tomorrow. The exhibition, by London-based Venezuelan artist Jaime Gili, found its genesis in the notebooks of his father, recorded during the 1960s as he fled Spain for less dictatorial homes. To this day, Gili is a Venezuelan artist, influenced by Latin American art history as much as by his London-based education, although he has joined the approximately 6 million people from his country who have immigrated.
This theme of the ‘loop’-ing narratives behind Gili’s personal life and cultural background finds its mirror in the works he presents here — works which take for their inspiration drawings and designs which Gili created, but did not finalise, from across his career. Rather than a reproduction or a chronological development, Gili instead has explored how his practice has evolved as a result of the ever changing contexts into which his work is placed. The colourful, contrasting experience which he has created in CBP’s main space as a result of this exploration is something which has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
The theme of reproduction, and of evolution is clear in his work. As he said in a recent interview, he hopes to his work will be remembered for trying to save things for Modernism that was positive for the future. To Gili, Venezuelan modernism was characterised by the way that it was linked not only to its audience but also linked through the various mediums which it embraced, from music to sculpture and architecture to drama.
This interlinking of mediums is something which Gili will be ‘re — embracing’ in a way, with his performance of ‘Loop Pavilion’ on the 25th of February at Cecilia Brunson Projects. This multi-screen video and slide projection uses imagery from several generations of Venezuelan artists, across several mediums. For an artist used primarily to working alone in the studio, on canvases that can only suggest, rather than depict temporal movements, embracing the collaborative form was a learning experience for Gili. The new medium required new knowledge and relearning the decision making process in his own creative mediums.
The works are presented in a hugely striking manner. Hung away from the white walls, these non-traditionally shaped canvases mimic not the white cube aesthetic which has become so popular in recent years for gallery visuals, but the hangings styles of 20th century art fairs, at which Venezuelan artists were once regular attendees. Similarly, the every day wooden floors have been replaced with plush red carpets, a throw back to another time when art fairs are so often held in tents these days. The hang allows viewers to walk through the canvases, not only appreciating their size, but also the complexity of the construction behind the unusually shaped canvases.
The importance of these international connections which once existed so easily is also not lost on Gili. When his father left Spain, he was not just fleeing for the nearest port, but in fact had a choice between a number of countries which recognised the necessity of having industrial workers skilled in basic tasks. In the modern world, despite fast travel and internet connection, it does seem that we are less connected than we once were.
Loop opens on the 17th of February and runs until the 18th of March at Cecilia Brunson Projects, 2G Royal Oak Yard, Bermondsey Street, London,SE1 3GD. Click here to learn more
