Up All Night, Waiting for the Chelsea Hotel Magic to Spark my Creativity

2010 - Photography (Photography)

Image size: 12 x 17.5 cm.

Mario Garcia Torres

In Up All Night, Waiting for the Chelsea Hotel Magic to Spark My Creativity Mario García Torres constructs and documents a hypothetical scene, situating himself within a lineage of artists and creatives that used to congregate at the historic hotel. The long-exposure capture depicts García Torres at multiple stages of brainstorming, devising, and introspection, his ethereal figure connected with artistic giants of the past. Yet, there is also an insipid tone beyond mere insomnia or frustration at the lack of being able to garner inspiration. There is a sinking ennui as García Torres mulls in the shadows of the room, longing for this moment of inertia to be circumvented by a Eureka moment, quite literally signified by the lightbulbs in the room.

Mario García Torres is a conceptual artist who engages with various media in his practice, including film, sound, performance, ‘museographic installations’ and video. García Torres often cites untold or ‘minor’ histories, with a predilection for avant-garde art and music from the 1960s and 70s as departing points for his work. He has recreated historical exhibitions and has even ‘completed’ unfinished artworks, often blurring original and reenactment, past and present, while questioning universal ideas about truth, certainty and time – all core ideas in the development of his body of work.

Colors:

• hotel.n.01
• inspiration.n.01
• genius.n.04
• creativity.n.01
• historic.s.01
• calarts
• collective history
• contemporary conceptualism
• film/video
• mexican
• mexican contemporary artists