To be or to pretend

Fragments from Performing Life by Cristina Vives (…) Act III. To be or to pretend In this series Adrián sharply defines the “face” of his subjects. It is the studio “portrait” that will perpetuate the ideal image summarizing his research. Here the photographer indulges in certain liberties. The flower vases and fruit bowls were transported to his study, transformed by the artist into ideo-objects and represented with all the resources allowed by tautology: flowers on top of flowers; fruits on top of fruits; fruits and flowers on top of fruits and flowers; plastic materials coexisting with Murano glass; linen or plastic bedspreads. Everything is possible in this cultural mixture that their owners – main authors of such a stage decoration – have created to please their aesthetic tastes; therefore, everything will be possible for the artist, whose interest is to magnify them. It is under these controlled circumstances of light, framing, top definition and neatness in the details that the represented is modeled up to certain limits. And if I say “up to certain limits” it is because the artist maintains strict respect for the real nature and the capacity of meaning of what he photographs. I refer to the fact that the photographic element in this case – flower vases and fruit bowls as protagonists – remains as preponderant and dignified in the artist’s studio as in the original house environment, confirming the saying that a good portrait is one that succeeds in capturing the psychology of the character, his inner world. These images of inanimate objects are the climax of the process. They concentrate their history, their ethics and their aesthetics, whether original or derived. There is no doubt that they are the best elliptical face of the ones they represent. The careful images in these photographs, whether we want it or not, give us pleasure and satisfaction. Nothing makes us reject their contents with prejudice. These images incorporate an additional decorative value to the one already possessed by the object itself, only exacerbated. Again Adrián intelligently manipulates the cognitive capacities of the photographic image and disarms our intention of assuming a critical attitude toward the represented. The truthfulness of the document, the subjectivity of the critical judgment and the ambivalence of the aesthetic taste are clearly questioned principles in these photographs, which do not intend to deny or validate the preferences of the individuals because the senses on occasions excel judgment.