Ruben Torres-Llorca. Easy-to-Build

Frost Art Museum at FIU. From Jan 20th through Mar 19th, 2006The Frost Art Museum at FIU is presenting a solo show by Ruben Torres Llorca. Modelo Para Armar / Easy-to-Build is a site-specific installation where the artist cleverly mixes medium and message, while retaining a heavy dose of irony and sense of detached biting sarcasm. Since the early eighties, the works of Ruben Torres Llorca have been loaded with many obscure references of daily routines, ideological myths and contemporary anxieties. It seems like he is always in a continuous scrutiny of human nature and the complexities of contemporary existence. The artist waves together well-known American cultural references and more universal symbols to create an ambitious storyline out of what at first sight, seems like an arrangement of individual pieces or isolated commentaries on art, culture, and politics. But his cinematic approach and literary inspiration guides the viewer through the installation where each work function as a sort of scene or page, ultimately coming together as a dramatic but coherent whole. Conceived by the artist an installation itself, the exhibition was curated using borrowed pieces combined with newly created objects. Many of the works that were initially created as individual pieces have been reclaimed by the artist and re-invented somehow as to become part of this large exhibition. Torres Llorca’s works have consistently revisiting certain themes, images and texts. Many works, for instance, exhibits graphic-style depictions of figures reminiscent of the World War II era, appealing to banalities of domestic life. Figures are set against the backdrop of a meticulously cut and collaged newspaper snippets, introducing the recyclable nature at the same time the resemble knowledge as an inseparable part of life. Other three-dimensional objects are accompanied by chalkboards with writing, creating a disjointed association between images and words. By walking through the installation, the may be confronted with a mirror effect, it could be questioned, challenged, and most of all, it will be encouraged to continue walking. For more information, please call: 305.348.2890