Recent works by Antonio Cortés Rolón
May 4–May 30, 2013
AREA Lugar de Proyectos
Caguas, Puerto Rico
Opening: Saturday, May 4, 4pm
www.proyectosarea.com
www.antoniocortesrolon.com
Curator: Paco Barragán
AREA Lugar de Proyectos (Caguas, Puerto Rico) is pleased to announce the project An Actor at the White House: Politics, Celebrity, and Popular Culture by Antonio Cortes Rolón (b. 1951, Cidra, Puerto Rico).
Through a series of ten paintings, Antonio Cortés Rolón offers a critical view of the complex relationships between politics, pop culture, and celebrity. This small and exquisite show enables the spectator to engage, among others, with Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson at the White House; J.Lo and Marc Anthony at Obama’s dinner; Arnold Schwarzenegger mounting on a horse; Vladimir Putin hunting; The Che, Benicio del Toro smoking; Barbarella with the Vietnam MI helmet; George Clooney and Obama; Nixon and Elvis, King of Rock…
From politics to entertainment to politics
Relationships, admiration, and even mutual dependency between The White House and Hollywood extend far back into history. “In a democracy”—says curator Paco Barragán—”where mass media like cinema, television, and radio performed a more and more prominent role, the identification of a president with Hollywood stars could only enhance the politician’s standing. Now social media have added a new and extraordinary dimension to it.”
Politics gravitated toward entertainment and entertainment gravitated toward politics. In such a way Reagan became the first actor-president, or ‘show biz president’. With his habitual irony, Reagan came about to say that “There have been times in this office when I’ve wondered how you could do the job if you hadn’t been an actor.” Not too many people would imagine that Conan the Barbarian or Terminator would be elected Governor of California.
From mass media to painting
Painting is by definition a ‘slow’ and ‘physical’ medium—think for a moment of the magnificent and laborious detail of the reflection on Michael Jackson’s sunglasses—that enables to counteract the ‘celerity’ of mass media and operates like a ‘estrangement-effect’ of a reality that is very difficult to apprehend for the average citizen.
Antonio Cortés Rolón embarks upon a challenging journey through an original and critical proposal that explores and analyses, on one hand, this process of mutual attraction and influence between the world of politics and the world of celebrities, and, on the other hand, the role that mass media play within it.
“Actors”—as ACR points out—”perform a role and follow a predetermined script. There are no uncontrolled situations, no risks. Everything is written beforehand.” After all, we can conclude that both entertainment and politics share the same goal: entertaining an audience.
The past still remains blurry in our memory through these intense and delicate greys, blacks, and whites. Antonio Cortés Rolón’s An Actor at the White House constitutes a magnificent challenge for revisiting it in a critical manner again and again.
