Review

A review of RITUAL: new works on paper by Miguel Rivera and Soad A. Kader

Miguel Rivera, "Untitled," toner on paper, 37" x 137" inches (5 panels), 2008. Image: courtesy of the gallery

Cara and Cabezas Contemporary
Kansas City, Missouri
June 19 — July 31, 2010

We all cling to rituals to express, fix, and support shared values and beliefs. Born into customs and traditions, we are unaware of the social and developmental implications of the rituals we are subjected to, unconscious of how a mandate of “norms” will shape and mold our being. As we swiftly age we began to uncover exactly just how these customs and traditions have influenced our lives. For many, these rituals are starting points for a personal exploration of meaning. For others, the adaptation and admiration of the beauty that can be found in specific rites or traditions can serve as a source of inspiration. Since rituals play such a vital role in shaping identity, it is only natural that artists depict and represent their rejection, acceptance, and/or reverence for the specific rituals that they have been exposed to.

For Miguel Rivera and Soad A. Kader’s exhibition, ritual acts and the expressive potential of printmaking serve as points of connection. Ritual is a simultaneously explosive and challenging — as well as meditatively heartbreaking — exhibition that presents Rivera and Kader as artists who are longing to create meaning from a perhaps imperfect existence. It is clear that both artists are striving to explore ideas of physical connectivity while using religion and dance, mainstay rituals of Latin American culture, as a form of departure for their exploration.

The exposure to specific customs can be unsettling and horrific. The six abstract prints featured by Miguel Rivera create a heavy tone for the first half of the exhibition. Rivera grew up in Mexico where he encountered disturbing rituals of the Catholic Church. Specifically, he was exposed to acts of self-punishment such as flagellation. Rivera’s two untitled works both reflect this act, stressing the physicality of the body and its importance in Catholicism, in order to promote a better understanding of the emotional complexities of faith. The result is a complete paradox: Rivera’s attitude takes a form of skepticism towards religious obligations and ideals (formally this is represented by his choice of black), while the energy of his renderings verge on the spiritually transcendent.

Rivera’s work evokes not only the essence of suffering, similar to the work of Anselm Kiefer, but stirs up our longing for physical connectivity. Flesh and blood act as catalysts where Rivera is striving to depict the fervor of the religious fanatic, the desperation of the tortured, and the intellectual energy that it takes to commit to anything within this world. He does this without literal depiction. Instead, Rivera takes the viewer beyond just a minimalistic portrayal of formal qualities to a place of pure raw emotion. There is a tension to his images, provoked not only by religious fervor but also by the poverty and affluence he witnessed in Mexico. The two unframed, untitled prints featured in the exhibition are bodily and rough. They appear chaotic, yet they are for the most part completely controlled. They are also loosely based on Catholic numerology, which determines the number of pages Rivera uses for both of the prints. Faced with the overwhelming emotional qualities of the prints, the reference to numerology seems secondary for viewers. Most are apt to be more focused on Rivera’s remarkable display of raw mark-making than his interest in numerology.

Rivera’s process, in fact, is his secret weapon. His primary medium is recycled cartridge toner, which he controls with the push and pull of a ballpoint pin and magnets, fixing the created images with an orange concentrate solution and heat. He also occasionally employs water as a resist. This process gives the work its visceral and humble painterly qualities. The toner appears worked into the very grains of the paper, under a layer of blotches (created by the water resistant) and swirling, violent lines that form the gestural quality of religious zeal.

Miguel Rivera, "Assumption IV," etchings from editions of 12, 30" x 40" (each), 2009. Image: courtesy of the gallery

Rivera also has four other more traditional prints in the exhibition. They are part of a series of 12 etchings titled Assumption, a reference, given Rivera’s Catholic heritage, to the Munificentissimus Deus, a theological proclamation that was issued by Pope Pius XII in the mid-20th century. The Munificentissimus Deus states that the Virgin Mary’s body and soul, like the body and soul of Jesus Christ, also assumed heavenly glory upon her death. It is interesting to note that leading up to this proclamation, the assumption of the Virgin Mary’s ascension was depicted in art for many centuries before this. Christians and non-christian artists all over the world, with some of most famous interpretations being works by Titian and Rubens, have created depictions of her ascent.

For Assumption I-IV, Rivera decided to shy away from the art historical tendency to represent the ascension literally. Instead Rivera chooses to depict abstractly the intellect and heart simultaneously.

Pushing the boundaries of being subversive, the image is inked in black and printed upon a dark gray ground, which creates the abyssal feeling of the images. Black is also an interesting conceptual choice because it absorbs all frequencies of light in the spectrum and does not emit light. Perhaps Rivera is unintentionally making a statement about the current state of faith within the world?

Whatever the commentary may be, these prints appear to be more about the skepticism of an individual — the presentation of an intellectual dilemma, especially when confronted by confusing theology. Formally, the marks, as in the untitled prints, are full of tension and energy once again; however, Rivera separates the plates and creates a transcendental moment of breath amongst all the commotion. In the end, Rivera is generous: he gives the viewer a place to pause and meditate upon his or her own spiritually.

Soad Kader, "buscando el abrazo," ink monotype on cotton rag paper, 5" x 10" (image), 2009. Image: courtesy of the gallery

On a lighter but no less complicated note, the other half of Ritual is comprised of simplistic small-format monotypes created by Soad A. Kader, who is a native of San Francisco. Like Rivera, Kader’s work focuses on the physical aspects of our experiences. Instead of dealing with the heavy subject matter of the Catholic faith, Kader has chosen the ritual of dance as an area of inspiration. Kader’s series, titled Abrazos (which means embrace) is in reference to her love of tango, which she discovered she had a passion for while visiting Argentina in 2008. Kader’s artist statement gives great insight to her interest in tango. Kader states, that for her, “The process of learning this sensual, improvisational dance reveals layers of metaphor for life, relationships, and intimacy.” In short, these prints too are about physical connection.

From birth, we are engineered to long for the embrace of another. Kader’s prints are about this physical longing, represented through mostly semi-abstract black and white overhead views of single couples dancing. These serve as an attempt to see the nuances of the embrace in motion. Trained as a painter, Kader’s work first and foremost appears to be created as a formal exercise. Similar to Rivera’s untitled prints, Kader’s monotypes are gestural and painterly, presenting the couple swirling, fully engaged within the energy of this ritual. The prints themselves range from semi-literal depictions of couples embracing to forms that take on abstracted embryonic qualities (perhaps suggesting that the embrace is in reference to something more than just dancing). The images themselves never actually achieve a perfect embrace or perfect compositional unity. They do, however, slightly capture the essence of the emotion and movement associated with dancing the tango.

The work of Rivera and Kader both present contemporary man in the lineage of Modernism: as alienated individuals longing for connection. With a strong desire to understand their place within the cosmos, they have turned to rituals and art to serve as a foundational point of exploration. Whether it is in investigating the dark depths of a nation’s faith or the dance of a country’s heritage, Rivera and Kader reflect our most basic desires for both spiritually and earthly connection. Their work cries out, speaking to the emotion, spirit, and intellect of the human species.

-re-

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