[Gabriel Orozco: "Mirror Crit"] [Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City] Buenos dias, buenos dias. [IN SPANISH] The knife is covered with salt. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] "Salt on the knife." I love Jell-O, as you can see, because I always put Jell-O in my work. [IN SPANISH] As you know, I am a young artist and there are still some things that I can't resolve in relation to the background or to the object. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] So this work is called "New York Knicks Celebration Day". And this was the day that we were all celebrating. And you can see the basketball full with confetti. Since that day, I was really interested in the idea of covering objects-- [IN SPANISH] Or covering the objects and changing their appearance in relation to a determined context. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] --in relation to a specific
context. [IN SPANISH] The chair that is covered with... let me see because I just forgot. [This is not Gabriel Orozco's art] [It is Maximiliano Siñai's] The "Mirror Crit" was an idea I had a long ago when I was invited to do crits in universities, post-graduate, and go to the studios of the students and talk about the work. I somehow didn't like that too much, to do that. And also I thought I was not so useful for
students to do a crit: twenty minutes, one-to-one, and fifteen students in one day. Somehow I thought about doing all crits speaking myself as if I was the artist, and try to explain the work right on the spot. [WOMAN, OFF CAMERA] Styrofoam? [OROZCO] I suppose... it's styrofoam. [IN SPANISH] Let's see. "Cooking Salt"... I was trying not to have so much information-- so just to have the image and try to talk from that. [IN SPANISH] Obviously this is a t-shirt with
foam-chips. Hung from a barbed wire, it seems because there is not a hook or anything. The background is interesting. They work together well like a painting. But I don't know if it is doing something
to explain what could be the use of an object like this or what metaphoric implications it can have. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] I have this image... One day I have insomnia, and I was dreaming with sheeps in skateboards, crossing Fifth Avenue. And I was counting them all the time. I was very happy, because finally I go to sleep counting sheeps in skateboards. [IN SPANISH] And that was my kind of interpretation of those dreams that I had when I had insomnia. But finally I am more interested in keeping
with the idea of objects in their context to change them, to alter them although in this case, clearly, as in others not in all of them but in many cases the object that covers the skateboard is completely foreign to this situation. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] This object... This material is very exotic for that situation. So there is a slightly contradictory thing
here, because... and that makes it more surrealistic. The artists were, I think, very appreciative because it's a different way of learning about your own work. And everything I didn't say probably was useful, too. So it's not just what I say about the work-- it's not about my opinion; It's about what I miss-- what I couldn't see in the images of the work. [IN SPANISH] So Max, the artist, is here. [RESUMES IN ENGLISH] Very good, Max. [ALL LAUGH] [MAXIMILIANO, IN SPANISH] Maybe this format
should be adopted in art schools. It is a great way to criticize a work when you appropriate it and talk about it as if it was your own without knowing the concept without knowing "why did you make it," right? Because many people, even me when I speak about my work I sometimes intellectualize myself while the work speaks for itself, right? [OROZCO] And if I was an older artist, I will call it, like, "Eclipse of Sound" or something like that. But I'm very young, and the title is, "Disco con arena" ["Disc with Sand"] [ALL LAUGH]
