Ernesto Oroza
Miami, FL
ARTIST STATEMENT
I'm interested in the
function and use of drawing, mainly in relation to needs, survival and
architecture.
In this case I am interested in the relationship between ritual, drawing, and space. Drawing a hurricane on a stone was like making a concrete house, a bunker. Drawing a hurricane for the Taino people was a rite of protection. My drawing versions a Taino realization (drawing carved in stone) as an amulet of the hurricane goddess that was found about 5 times in different places in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The continuous movement of the line in my version is influenced by the contemporary satellite visualization of the hurricane's movement.
The mechanical reproduction of the drawing through the printing press brings another force, it displaces the drawing as a ritual, but it incorporates another architectural scale and ritual.
Writing is an evolution of ritual drawing, writing is above all, ritual drawing. The first alphabets were systematized ritual drawings and had a ritual function. The form of many of the letters we use today had, in the past, a ritual function of protection or invocation.
In this case I am interested in the relationship between ritual, drawing, and space. Drawing a hurricane on a stone was like making a concrete house, a bunker. Drawing a hurricane for the Taino people was a rite of protection. My drawing versions a Taino realization (drawing carved in stone) as an amulet of the hurricane goddess that was found about 5 times in different places in Cuba and Puerto Rico. The continuous movement of the line in my version is influenced by the contemporary satellite visualization of the hurricane's movement.
The mechanical reproduction of the drawing through the printing press brings another force, it displaces the drawing as a ritual, but it incorporates another architectural scale and ritual.
Writing is an evolution of ritual drawing, writing is above all, ritual drawing. The first alphabets were systematized ritual drawings and had a ritual function. The form of many of the letters we use today had, in the past, a ritual function of protection or invocation.
BIO
Ernesto Oroza’s practice channels the tradition of Radical Architecture into his own analytical employment of contemporary object typologies and productive forces. In lieu of functioning within the realm of manufacturing, he produces and distributes speculative models and research through various publication methods, exhibitions, collaborative practices, documentaries, and unorthodox forays into more conventional modes of architecture, interior and object design. Oroza’s work has been presented at the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands; LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Spain; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; Institut de Cultura La Virreina, Barcelona. He has participated twice in the Saint-Etienne International Design Biennial, Saint-Etienne, France. Oroza has been awarded fellowships by Guggenheim Foundation, HARPO Foundation, and received the Pernod Ricard Fellowship from the Villa Vassilieff, among others. He was Professor at Polytechnic Institute of Design, Havana, and is a recurrent Visiting Professor at Les Ateliers, Ecole Nationale Supérieur de Création Industrielle (ENSCI) in Paris. He has also lectured and developed workshops for various international institutions, most recently the BMW Guggenheim Lab in Berlin. Among his books are: Notes sur la maison moirée. Ou un urbanisme pour des villes qui se vident (Saint-Étienne, 2013), RIKIMBILI: Une étude sur la désobéissance technologique et quelques formes de réinvention (Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne, France, 2009); NO WASTE (London Pentagram Design, 2003); Editing Havana: Stories of Popular Housing (Aristo Bogforlag, 2011); and (with Penelope de Bozzi) Objets Réinventé. La création populaire a Cuba (Ëditions Alternatives, 2002). He is co-editor of the Objects Aside series for [NAME] Publications. He has also published writings in e-flux Journal and Monu–A Magazine for Urbanism.