ON SITE: SANTIAGO CUCULLU (MF Ziggurat)

April 24, 2008–January 4, 2009

Source

Cucullu is an image scavenger that mixes high and low culture, forming new relationships with an amalgamation of symbols. Cucullu’s process at once references the historic use of montage and collage found throughout Modernism, as well as the sampling process of today’s DJs.

The artist begins with a process of discovery and exploration, increasing his visual vocabulary by taking pictures of the subtleties and social dynamics present within his surroundings. Cucullu then isolates the source imagery (historical references, characters from works of fiction, pop culture, the cityscape of Milwaukee, and his imagination) from its familiar context. He transfers these appropriated images of people, places, or things into wall drawings, watercolors, prints, sculpture, or other media, alongside other images—in no certain order or hierarchy—through an intuitive collage process. The images, interconnected through patterns and/or colors, become part of a new complex whole.

In a 1961 Architectural Design article, the critic Lawrence Alloway proclaimed: “Junk culture is city art. Its source is obsolescence, the throwaway materials of cities, as it collects in drawers, cupboards, attics, dustbins, gutters, waste lots, and city dumps.” Cucullu depicts such little explored areas of Milwaukee in this work, but his free-form tendencies between other sources create ever-more complex relationships: Within his jumbled imagery lie seemingly mundane details from his surroundings, references to abstraction and other painterly conventions, which invite multiple entry points into the work of formal appearance, function, and cultural significance.

Materials

Cucullu’s wide range of materials show how an artist today may create work in different sensibilities, without giving preference to one medium over another, but such methodology also has historical precedents. In 1913, the influential poet and writer Guillaume Apollinaire stated: “You may paint with whatever material you please, with pipes, postage stamps, postcards or playing cards, candelabra, pieces of oil cloth, collars, painted paper, newspapers.” Referring specifically to works by Picasso and Braque, his writing later found resonance with other artists in the Cubism and Surrealism movements who utilized a variety of materials on one surface. Not limited to a two-dimensional surface, Cucullu fluidly uses a wide range of media throughout his installation.

Cucullu uses store bought contact paper, street debris, blankets, wooden props, and other readily available items with a casual manner. His installations include wall drawings and sculpture that are temporarily constructed for the individual space. Just as transient as the vinyl wall drawing, which will be torn down after the installation, the sculptures take on multiple forms from one location to the next. The cardboard and contact paper piece Mr. Slocum's Fascination with Radical Politics was originally shown at INOVA in 2002, reconfigured for a show in Houston, and now returns to Milwaukee to take on a completely different form. Specifically for his On Site installation, Cucullu had structures carefully designed, built, and painted to support his video works; they not only serve a utilitarian purpose but interconnect with the existing architecture.

On Site: Santiago Cucullu (MF Ziggurat)

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