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Burning Bridges - Diego Singh |
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Written by Joe Dirosa
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A pair of eyes is often present in the work of Diego Singh. Disembodied, floating and simultaneously reminiscent of Bowie, mysticism and commercial Ad's for vibrant eye shadows. "To look into one's eye's is to glimpse the very soul of a person", in the case of Singh's works that cliché might actually carry its weight. In these works the "eyes" may not be literally those of the painter gazing back at the viewer in some lurid attempt at flirtation or interrogation but instead, an invitation to stare back. To "lock eyes" is a shared experience, you can only take away as much as the other person allows; the power shifts constantly. The title of the show "Burning Bridges" addresses this point; all bridges require two shores, two points of departure merging over open water. That space in the middle, floating, undecided and sometimes raised for passage, is crucial to understanding Diego Singh's new body of work.
Consisting of sculptures and large-scale paintings, "Burning Bridges" is Singh's second solo exhibition at Fredric Snitzer Gallery and quite a departure from his first. The previously muted color palette of graphite grey and deep dark magenta's has exploded into neon hues of pink, yellow and green. His compositions have abandoned the steady hand of his more illustrative pencil works and gone down the path of artists like Baselitz or (oddly enough) even Picasso. Singh's sculptures, classical busts in spirit but not form, sprout fingers and feet as if straight out of Picasso's five prostitutes in "Les Demoiselles d' Avignon". These odd little busts sit atop traditional clay sculpting stands painted in abusive spray-painted colors dissected with random planks and rubber gloves. The works in general are peppered with violent images, "Billy clubs" wave around freely, held by invisible or rubber clad hands, guns pop up as do weeds and other invasive plants. Painted neon and fluorescent tubes become a potentially seedy attack on the retinas with the history of "light sculpture" as its enemy: Dan Flavin as channeled by "Star Wars" light sabers.
Portraiture is the aim of Singh's overall practice, these unruly elements; violence, disjointed figuration, androgyny, color wars etc., are his new arsenal; having matured from hermetic fantasy worlds into the even odder realm of reality.
Singh's works are in a duel; they have come to the middle, shaken hands, been blindfolded and sent marching in different directions. I hope they never turn to face each other.
Hernan Bas,
Miami, December 2007.
Fredric Snitzer Gallery
2247 NW 1st PL
Miami, FL 33127
T.305.448.8976
F.305.573.581
www.snitzer.com
Diego Singh was born in Argentina , studied at the Kennedy University in Buenos Aires and worked at the National Center for Scientific and Technological Investigation (CONICET) from early 1999 until 2001 in the linguistic and aesthetics department under the directorship of Dr. Graciela Maturo. Selected group exhibitions include: Hanging by a Thread at The Moore Space, Miami; I feel mysterious Today at the Palm Beach ICA, Lakeworth; Drawn In Drawn out at The Florida Atlantic University, Pinata Party at Gavin Brown's Enterprise, New York, For All for noone at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, among others, He has held solo exhibitions at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo and Fredric Snitzer Gallery in Miami.
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