Jonathan Hernández: Kaleidoscope

The Roesler Hotel, an exhibition exchange program between the Nara Roesler and foreign galleries and institutions, presents the first Jonathan Hernández (Mexico City, 1972) exhibition in Brazil. The Mexican artist – who in New York participated in the collective exhibition which opened the New Museum (2008) and Fit to Print, at the Gagosian Gallery (2007) – was awarded a residence this year in the Projeto Capacete in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. According to Daniel Roesler, Hernández’s work engages with that of other artists featured in the gallery, such as Cao Guimarães, Brígida Baltar and Marcos Chaves, whose kaleidoscope-like views capture the lyricism hidden in everyday scenes.

The exhibition is based on the series Couples & Celibataires (Couples and Celibates), started ten years ago, with around 25 photographs. According to the artist, the set of works addresses light and time as atomic elements of photography. “A formal, conceptual and emotional game of ping-pong through photography”, he states. Kaleidoscope also brings two films, one sculpture, 80 photographs and a part of his collection of press photos; raw materials for a process Hernández has developed for years.

The video “Nothing” presents a trip through a cemitery in Japan (Kamakura), where the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu is buried, with his gravestone, by his own wish, inscribed with the word “Nothing”. The other film “Friction” is a short filmed in 16mm in Mexico City showing a knife grinder working manually on his bicycle, “in a game of friction, light and obscurity.”

The sculpture “Mirror” was conceived during his residence period in São Paulo (February/March). What interests Hernández most in this work is the emptiness generated between the tables that form the sculpture, one made of dirty, scrap wood and the other of clean, well-finished wood. “With this sculpture I want to address an object's potential to reflect on a social landscape", says Hernández.

The artist produced the 80 slides/photographs that compose “Contratempo” from his 22nd storey window of the Copan building, also during his São Paulo residence program. All with identical framing, the photos span over the course of a whole day. And finally, in “Vulnerabilia, the artist groups together photographs taken from the press to create eye-opening poetic connections.