WorkSpace:
Pablo Vargas Lugo
Eclipses for Austin
Through February 21, 2010
The University of Texas at Austin
MLK at Congress
The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin presents Eclipses for Austin, the next installation in the museum’s WorkSpace series of contemporary art. Eclipses for Austin, conceived by Mexican artist Pablo Vargas Lugo, addresses the sense of belonging that collective activities inspire in people—despite their unique backgrounds. Total eclipses of the sun provoke astonishment, anxiety, hope, joy, and fear in people, compelling them to question their place in the world.
On Tuesday, October 6, 2009, two hundred volunteers gathered at the Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium at The University of Texas at Austin to stage a performance recreating four solar eclipses that will be visible from that exact geographical position in the years 2024, 2200, 2205, and 2343. The group sat in a circular arrangement flipping two-sided cards in a choreographed performance to simulate future trajectories of the sun and moon.
Vargas Lugo envisioned this project as a communal ritual and a commemoration of future events. Through Eclipses for Austin Vargas Lugo notes the relationship between eclipses and sporting events in terms of collective observation and ritual practice. This perceived connection led to his decision to stage his new piece in the UT Stadium, an arena that frequently serves as a site for collective identity building and communal excitement. In addition to the four videos on view at The Blanton, the work is comprised of a newspaper publication (also available at the gallery space), and a soundtrack that plays along with the videos. Like other works of collaborative art, Eclipses for Austin encouraged a shared sense of community, inspiration, and achievement through its making, and hopefully, will also in its viewing.
About the Artist
Pablo Vargas Lugo was born in Mexico City in 1968. He lives and works in Mexico City and Lima. He works with different media ranging from painting, collage, and sculpture to installation and video. His work is distinguished by an apparent simplicity, which underlies a series of interlaced visual and conceptual games that deal with the conventionality of measures, signs, and time. It combines sculptural and graphic elements drawn from a variety of sources such as weather diagrams, astronomy charts, flags, maps, psychological tests, or camouflage spots. In striking a balance between these varied sources, Vargas Lugo’s work emphasizes the way in which those representations are inseparable of a long series of beliefs and aspirations.
WorkSpace at The Blanton
WorkSpace showcases cutting-edge developments in the work of emerging and established contemporary artists on the museum’s second floor, serving as a coda to the modern and contemporary collection galleries. The exhibitions that result from these artistic investigations provide Blanton visitors ever-changing glimpses into the art of the present moment.
WorkSpace: Eclipses for Austin by Pablo Vargas Lugo is generously supported by members of the Blanton Contemporary Salon. The exhibition is curated by Ursula Davila-Villa, The Blanton’s interim curator of Latin American art.
The Blanton offers special thanks to the Athletics Department of The University of Texas at Austin for its assistance in the production of the project.
Blanton Museum of Art
The University of Texas at Austin
MLK at Congress
www.blantonmuseum.org
