V E S T I G E S
A REFLECTION ON AUTHORSHIP
The appropriation of the easel panels from the painting classroom at IDA (Art Institute of the UnB) was used to reflect upon the author; they had accumulated multiple layers of paint that exceeded the borders of the students' work, paintings that are no longer present but left a trace.
It is rather ironic that the easel, symbol of classic and mimetic academic painting, is used as the starting point to think about the controversial postmodern practice of appropriation.
Following the thought of Heidegger, the easels (once liberated from their usefulness) will perform their essential - Allegoric - function as works of art: Refer to something else.*
In Vestiges, the multiple authors (the students who used the easels) left plenty of unconscious traces on the panels over time. I designated those panels as a work of art and appropriate them by the following actions:
Authorization to change the easels for new ones.
Signature to document the appropriation.
Application of fixative to declare the painting “done”.
Application of gold foil to the edges as a reminiscence of a frame.
Addition of two pieces of wood to the back in order to hang them and project a shadow on the wall.
The complete collection of “Vestiges” counts 8 Large panels 109 x 79 cm
5 Small panels of 79 x 73 cm
*All through this work, Elena Oliveras' book Estética, La Cuestión del Arte (Aesthetics, The Question of Art), served as the thread of Ariadne to visit the philosophical labyrinths of the 20th century and the concepts of aura, ready made, authorship, originality and work of art in a contemporary context. An analysis of the poetics of the work "Vestiges" is made under the concepts of "Limits" (Eugenio Trías), The Open Work (Umberto Eco) and Parergon (Jacques Derrida).