Damián Ortega – Mikhále Mason

Damián Ortega at work on “Cosmogonía doméstica” (2013), Mexico City
2016 Production still from the Art21 “Art in the Twenty-First Century” Season 8 episode, “Mexico City,” 2016

Damián Ortega was born in Mexico City in 1967. Being taught and influenced by Gabriel Orozco, Ortega began his career as a political cartoonist when he was 16. These times were dark in Mexico City affecting his political cartoons and how he began to view the government and the world itself. He now makes sculptures that are still influenced by the wit and critique of his past works.

His pieces are constructed of everyday objects that visit political and social implications. He finds meaning in his art through relationships that occur between multiple things or objects. By combining these objects found in the daily routine of our lives, he lightens the political and economic issues that underly our material culture. Many pieces are often suspended becoming humorous diagrams of faces, words and buildings. These visual shifts are also viewed as cultural shifts which again brings out social history and political matters.

*Damián Ortega, Tortillas Construction Module (1998),*
*52 corn tortillas, dimensions variable* *Installation view from “Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today”*
*Photo: David Heald © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation*

One of his pieces is constructed from tortillas, inviting those who see the piece to consider the possibility of using local items and knowledge tp create these types of pieces. It was geared towards allowing he viewer to consider geopolitical issues and to reach beyond the initial and former ways of abstraction.

Cosmic Thing
Installation view of the exhibition “Do It Yourself” at Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2009)
2002Volkswagen Beetle ‘89, metal wires, threaded bars, plexiglass. Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and ICA Boston

This piece is a disassembled, suspended 1989 Volkswagen Beetle. The beetle is an important symbol to the everyday Mexican because it was the city’s official taxi. Using his idea of disassembling and splitting thang the parts by wire. To Ortega, the car parts are pieces with a perfect specific function. The car parts being analogous to the routine and systems of Mexico.

Controller of the Universe 2007 Found tools and wire
285 × 405 × 455 cm
Courtesy of the artist and White Cube, London

These tools were suspended to create an experience about what tools really are and what they mean. They can construct as well as destroy. They come between the user and the object they are either destroying or building. The piece touches on the duality of the universe. The outside of the sculpture is very uninviting and intimidating; the center gives another tone for the viewer. It allows for a point of view that sees the resistance between us and the object we are changing. We can’t control the world, but wit tools we can mold it.

Cosmogonía doméstica 2013 Iron, wood, plywood, brass, aluminum, polyurethane foam, leather, 4 wooden chairs, ceramic dishes, cutlery, glass lamp, light bulb, circular table 175 × 1060 × 1060 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Museo Jumex, Mexico City

One of his most recent known pieces is “Cosmogonía doméstica“. In this piece he built a domestic scene. It contains the contents of a commonplace kitchen: plates, bowls, teapots, utensils that are spun above a wooden table. Everything rotated slowly, half floating, around five concentric circles built into the floor. The piece was to be a a play on everyday life. Subtlety in routine alongside poverty, capital and bureaucracy. Like a majority of his works there is a cartoon vibe in this sculpture.