One of the most popular artworks at The Armory Show 2018 in New York was Jose Carlos Martinat’s piece “Distractor #4”, presented by Revolver Galeria, Lima. The work is a real eye-catcher, and that’s on purpose. The idea behind this eye candy is based on French theorist, philosopher and filmmaker Guy Debord’s 1967 book “La société du spectacle” (The Society of the Spectacle), a critique of contemporary consumer culture. At the center of the spectacular kinetic sculpture two LED screens display extracts from Debord’s book, such as “Spectacle is the sun that never sets over the empire of modern passivity.”
Jose Carlos Martinat was born in Lima, Peru in 1974. The artist lives and works in Lima.
Jose Carlos Martinat: Distractor #4, 2016 / Revolver Galeria, The Armory Show 2018. March 7, 2018.
Info text by Revolver Galeria:
Distractor #4, Morning in America is a visual representation of the current socio-political situation in North America, thirty-three years later. An sculpture made out of light, color and movement that, without a break, creates spectacular color scenes that, always in continuous change, attract people as moths are attracted to light, trapping them in a torpor that after a prolongued exposure becomes almost unbearable. In that sense, the piece works as an hypnosis machine, capable of overruling the will of anyone who sets eyes on her. Right on the center, two LED screens, discreetly, announce extracts from Debord’s book as an announcement (or warning) of what it was yet to come: Donald Trump, the súmmum of Debord’s maximum, “Showbusiness will be kings”.
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