Untitled (2)

Armando Andrade Tudela’s work explores the relationship between form, typology and meaning. Meaning emerges from very simple structures that are transformed by the superimposition of the context that originally gave rise to a particular form with the context (natural, social, cultural) in which that form now functions.

The Untitled 1, Untitled 2 (2008) works form part of a series of five similar sculptures derived from minimalist objects made with steel and rattan. The use of rattan points to an ‘exotic’ or ‘soft’ modernity and to the romantic or colonial notion of an economy based on traditional handcraft and natural products. At the same time, the rattan objects are reminiscent of Op-Art or optical experiments. The weave of this material, the rattan, layer on layer, produces a psychedelic effect that is characteristic of how the artist employs repetition, rhythm and colour in order to suggest a hallucinatory way of seeing. Thus the artist signals his interest in the possibilities of transforming human perception, making strong reference to sixties counter-culture.