Untitled (Practice Stage) 1989 oil on paper, (4 pieces), 200 cm x 140 centimeters. François Vallee Collection, Rennes, France
In a childish way, I thought that with an encrypted language I could circumvent censorship and the sophisticated apparatus of an autocracy, trying to denounce the emptiness in the political-ideological discourse of the historical moment. As a protest attitude. The strategy developed and eventually evolved into a broader investigation into ‘the language of power’ through design and architecture, which transcended geographical borders, becoming the main focus of my career. In the work the message does not appear hidden, but rather explicit. The austere forms of the Cyrillic alphabet recall the acronyms of state institutions, as well as the origin and ideological content of Soviet indoctrination. The exaggerated volume and the colors of the ideograms evoke the formal strategies of a socialist graphic propaganda (Russian, Chinese or Korean), of the 20th century. In the style of the radical messages that dominated the national idiosyncrasy. All the suspicion in my aesthetic discourse was diluted by the same official institutions that I was trying to dismantle. The state used my own works to demonstrate tolerance and supposed ‘freedom of artistic expression’ in the cultural context. Including my own works in official exhibitions inside and outside the island. The work uses abstract language to try to deconstruct an idea or ideology. Power, in this case the state, complements the discourse, disabling any gesture of nihilism.
-Glexis Novoa 2022