Artwork presentation

Characters, downstairs

Artist: Victoria Cuomo

Year 2022

Semester Second semester

Fecha October 9, 2022

Link to the work: Characters, downstairs - p5.js

Characters, below

Through iteration techniques and the use of multiple transparencies that simulate movement, “Characters, downstairs” is a work inspired by the work of Marcel Duchamp “Nu descendant un escalier” (nude descending the stairs, 1912). The dynamics of repetition, as shown in the photograph of the man descending the stairs, simulates a sensation of alteration in the position of each of the characters; when shown varying dyes with various parameters. A work is mobilized that shows cartoons in rebellion with their “static” state. Likewise, in different stages of the song, multiple character changes occur, each time establishing a new fanatical reality of the consumerist world.

For its operation, use a two-dimensional array that establishes the positions of each repetition on both axes, to position each of the characters “going down the stairs”, in addition to a variation in time of the tint of each image.

Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development

The choice of the characters Cuphead and Mugman (taken from the video game “Cuphead: don’t deal with devil”), Oswald (former character, best friend of Mickey Mouse in other times) and Droopy (classic witty character) as protagonists, is due to their role in consumer culture as a totally vital facet in its functioning (like other of the many characteristic animated icons belonging to the world of exhibitions).

At the time, these characters became part of what Boris Groys called in his text “installation politics”: the art system. A world is mentioned where all creative works, including animations, were made for the popular public and, consequently, belonged to what we know as mass culture. If the objective of works of art was naturally to make visible realities often overlooked and open our eyes to new worlds, cartoons (and other facets of consumer society) are responsible for selling that today anything can be art and, therefore, all reality - true or not - is valid.

Even so, we talk about alogical objects that have everything to do with full creativity, like the lives of two characters with cup heads (whose grandfather, pardon the redundancy, is a teapot); or a dog standing on two legs with a sign that says “I’m so happy”: it shows that the way out of our current reality is to make it work in our favor.

Let’s talk about the massive reproduction of characters in social spheres. In the text “on contemporary art” by César Aira, a race is established between the work of art and its technical possibility of reproduction. Mention the following:

_“That programmatically imperfect reproduction suggests another work; the irreproducible point is there to generate a different story.” _

The contemporary era, owner of the art of formats and the ubiquity of its products in the market, determines that certain objects and their massification are omnipresent owners of the same art system that Groys mentions; where works are merchandise. The only difference is that at its irreproducible point, new realities can be created; if we have the ability to put it in our favor.

Literature

Groys, Boris. (2014). “Política de la instalación”. Buenos Aires: Caja Negra.

Aira, César. (2016). “Sobre el arte contemporáneo”. Buenos Aires: Literatura Random House.

Obras usadas

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