PELLO IRAZU. (1 x 1) x1
Reiniciar - Retomar - Reiterar 5, 2011. Cortesía: Galería Moisés Pérez de Albéniz
Although this is the third solo exhibition by Pello Irazu (Andoain, 1963) at the spaces on Larrabide 21, the truth is that it is his fourth solo show with Moisés Pérez de Albéniz. Additionally, it would be appropriate to add to this list the shows carried out, with his own work and that of others, in partnership with Txomin Badiola. I did not have a chance to see the first, Habitat, produced in 1997, but the series made up of the next three, Life Forms, 2001, Let It Bleed, 2006 and the enigmatically-titled (1 x 1) x1, is an exercise in consistency in the natural development and evolution of a proposal, based in sculpture, which expands this field not only in terms of the tools and materials used –which include murals, sculptures, drawings and photographs–, but also with regard to the conditions and circumstances which the work imposes for its perception, and the transformation of the space in which it is situates, at the same time as it constructs it.
The note published by the gallery, under the terms of the artist, states that: “The title of the exhibition (1 x 1) x1 refers to the aim to integrate several element triads –three walls in the room, three groups of photographs, three sculptures–, in a single device, ruled by a structure which plays the role of the sheet music organising the group”.
We should clarify, firstly, that the exhibition unfolds on the basis of the journey of a mural in the room, at the same time as the spaces are ruptured by the acute angle arrangement of two of the walls, with visitors’ perception being distorted by an elaborate trompe l’oeil which blurs the background of the drawings with the swatches of colour on the mural and vice versa, at the same time as the harmonious parallel lines, in strong and vivid colours, absorb or devour the photographs, drawings and sculptures which hang from them or come close to them, making up groups whose common denominator is both the motif and the medium for its presentation. Neither is it meaningless that the swatches are interrupted and blurred in order to somehow settle and house the power of the sculptural forms.
Sculptures, the alpha series, are, on the one hand, molten stainless steel chairs, a motif which appeared in the preceding exhibition, Let It Bleed, and which now can be seen in the form of Sillalfas, on photographs treated pictorially, and where, however contradictory it may seem, the main role is played by volume. And colour, I would immediately add, because nothing in Irazu’s work can be understood without that dynamic, vitalising and electrifying power of the blue, red and yellow hues.
It is worth mentioning the game, also using an inverse trompe l’oeil, he applies to a multiple he presented at the last edition of ARCO, which seems to grow and multiply toward the space, while a pair of photographed hands –arranged in such a way that they seem to reflect the shapes they hold in a mirror– seem to offer it to our deceived gaze.
Surprisingly, in an almost didactic wink, Irazu has included two drawings from the late 1980s in the show, which, rather than clarify the many issues examined, allow for their resolution not by means of past mechanisms, but through the mutable permanence of physical forms in relation to the past. They establish a dialogue, therefore, with a huge parallelepiped made with paper on wood and covered with graphite, which is situated on an aluminium and fiberglass base-staircase, which, I believe, marks the beginning of a new period in the artist’s work.
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