Helena Almeida: 'Seduzir' [To Seduce, 2002] (detail)

Collection

Balance (ibérico) [Balance (Iberian)]

Image caption
JONATHAN HERNÁNDEZ

Balance (ibérico) [Balance (Iberian)]

  • 2011
  • Collage on card
  • 155 x 100 cm
  • Cat. F_142
  • Acquired in 2012
By:
Beatriz Herráez

Balance (Iberian) (2011) is a collage that was exhibited at the artist’s solo show at La Caja Negra Gallery in 2012, which was entitled ‘Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man’, a quote from writer Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience (1848). The exhibition proposed an acidic reflection on the social and political situation in Spain during the period marked by the consequences of the crisis that began in 2008.

In the same way as in previous projects, Balance (Iberian) is an image constructed by reorganising different shots from the press and such diverse sources as postcards, books and printed advertising. The composition of the image is determined by a swing-like structure, in an elegant play of links between elements that are familiar to the viewer. Furthermore, the work refers to the outlines used in compositions inherent to the constructive avant-garde.

Jonathan Hernández’s approach to the archive that he has recently been preparing is part of a tradition of the use of the image, where priority is given to humour, irony and even sarcasm. A record constructed to critically approach and consider the most ‘common’ images, those reproduced in the press and in advertising based on the use of analogy and a syntax that breaks up the usual readings of these ‘vulgar’ materials.  It is an archive in process, which serves as a starting point for his reflections on the social and political present, in this case of the context in which he showcases his pieces.

Beatriz Herráez

 
By:
Beatriz Herráez
Jonathan Hernández
Mexico City 1972

Jonathan Hernández studied at the National Visual Arts School and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and also studied Architecture at the Canadian State University in Montreal in 1991 and 1992.  He completed various work placements and residencies in Bogota, São Paulo, Madrid, Vienna and Tokyo.

For several years now, Jonathan Hernández’s oeuvre has involved a relentless task of cataloguing photographs mainly published in the press. He adds these graphic materials to his image atlas, with a direct reference to the system of ‘writing’ by analogies used by Aby Warburg, the historian and founder of the modern iconology. Like an archivist, Hernández first accumulates then systematically organises these printed images, establishing unexpected links and interpretations through compositions that he tests out in his collages, panels and publications. This archive, which has been described as ‘potentially infinite’ enables questions to be asked, for instance about the construction of the symbols of power and the behaviour of subjects by studying the gestures and the infra-history that runs through any printed narrative.

His work has been exhibited at solo shows in spaces and institutions including the Center for the Image (Mexico City, 2017); the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (United States, 2015); the House of the Lake (Mexico City, 2014); and La Caja Negra (Madrid, 2012). Hernández is represented by the Kurimanzutto Gallery in Mexico City, with which he put on his latest solo show entitled ‘Extinción de dominio’ [‘Expired Ownership’] in 2016. He has made a notable contribution to the publication of artist books, including You Are Under Arrest, Vulnerabilia and Diario japonés.

Beatriz Herráez

 
«Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its services, but not one man», Galeria Caja Negra (Madrid, 2012).
Vv.Aa. Colección Banco de España. Catálogo razonado, Madrid, Banco de España, 2019, vol. 2.