Gabriel Orozco @ Tate Modern
19th January - 24th April 2011

Gabriel Orozco is an internationally recognized artist who captures urban momentums. His work reflects stories through objects his has found in urban cityscapes. His artwork, be it a installation, photography or a painting, invites viewers to re-discover the connotation of his found objects only in a different context. After travelling and discovering multicultural cities, the streets especially have inspired him to connect with reality and express it in a spontaneous way.

The primitive and metaphorical approach he possesses transforms his artwork into a notion of a momentum, accomplished with significance. His obsession with circles, geometry and symmetry revolve around human roots and immediacy. Widely known for using different mediums, he is clearly keen on experimenting and evokes an interaction between the viewer and his artwork.

He invests times into objects he finds fascinating and a connection, like the famous skull Black Kites (1997) illustrated with a geometrical pattern. Perhaps he might have been reflecting his own experience with mortality when at the time when one his lung collapsed. Another object he discovered while in Paris was a Citroen DS, which he re-built into a LA DS (1993). The new miniature form of the car represents its effective mobility in modern societies. He also encountered a lift, which he saved in Chicago at 1994, which he fantasized with in relation to Pink Panther before gravity had compressed it. The notion of his subjects embodies a sense that we live in an overcrowded and compact society where commodities have a short life.

The attention he pays to detail is incredible, the unusual features captured through natural light in photography of subjects like mankind, animals and urban spaces. Without a doubt, Orozco is on a mission. While most of the residents of multicultural cities would not stop to explore an abandoned object but pass it, then again Orozco presents it as a remarkable spectacle.