ART CITIES:N.York-Iván Navarro

Iván Navarro was born in Santiago, in 1972, the year preceding the coup d’état that ousted Salvador Allende and instated Augusto Pinochet. Navarro is interested in confronting the trauma of living in Chile under Pinochet’s military dictatorship. While the artist recalls from childhood the persistent fear of “Being disappeared”, the fate of many political dissidents, it was not until he relocated to New York City in 1997 that he began to learn more about the extent of human rights abuses in his country, and the subject now forms the core of his practice.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Paul Kasmin Gallery Archive

With his solo exhibition “Mute Parade”, Iván Navarro transforms Paul Kasmin Gallery, into a synesthetic environment. The works of the exhibition continue Navarro’s ongoing use of light, sound, and language to engage with issues of power, migration, and propaganda. The artist uses electric light as his primary medium, making politically charged sculptures and installations that address the violence inflicted by the Chilean state. On a local level, his works refer directly to crimes perpetrated by the country’s military regime, but some also reflect his concerns about global issues, addressing, for example, capital punishment in the United States. Navarro appropriates the austere visual language of Minimalism, in particular that of Dan Flavin’s fluorescent-light sculptures and imbues it with explicit and critical political resonance. In the first gallery the viewer enters a labyrinth of six 6 x 6 foot structures that together make up the “Impenetrable Room” (2016). This new body of work co-opts the materials and format of portable “road cases,” which are customarily used to transport and protect musical instruments. Refitting the cases with mirrors and neon light, Navarro transforms these static objects into deep spaces that appear to recede towards infinity. The adjacent gallery features two freestanding 6 foot diameter drums that incorporate neon, LED lights, mirrors, and electricity. Circular texts written in light repeat the words “KICKBACK” and “KNOCKNOCKNOCK”, that give the appearance of an endless loop. At the center of the back wall stands “TUNING”, a pyramid of six towering drums. Navarro combines the drums with mirrors and the words “HIGH”, “TONE”, “TUNE”, “BASS”, “MUTE”, and “DEAF” to create a visual representation idea of sound (or noise) while at the same time removing and negating the original function of the instruments. Throughout the exhibition, the new works employ silence and stillness to create an uncanny perception of sound and movement and to explore the relationship between seeing and hearing. Black and white paper squares are scattered across the floors of both galleries. The words “Read You” and “Loud Unclear”, printed on opposite sides of the cards, call attention to the disjunction between the visual and auditory aspects of communication. Informed by the aesthetics and rhythms of military parades, the exhibition contemplates the juxtaposed feelings of celebration and intimidation that martial music is intended to create.

Info: Paul kasmin Gallery, 293 Tenth Avenue, New York, Duration: 26/10-23/12/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.paulkasmingallery.com