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A reminder to us all

By Susan Kendzulak
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Sunday, Sep 09, 2001, Page 19

An installation titled Exit (Vanitas), by Fernando Baena, is on exhibit at the Bamboo Curtain Studio until Sept. 23. PHOTO COURTESY OF MANRAY HSU

Fernando Baena's installation Exit (Vanitas) at the Bamboo Curtain Studio in Chuwei, on view until Sept. 23, reminds us of human failure and mortality.

Baena, who lives in Madrid, was invited by the Bamboo Curtain Studio to be one of its annual international visiting artists. The huge exhibition space, formerly a chicken feed factory situated adjacent to the Tamsui River, is a perfect place for singular thematic installations. Paradoxically, the factory was used to develop revolutionary chicken feed to increase the weight of chickens with greater, industrial efficiency. It is within this morbid setting that Baena's installation draws its philosophical power.

The title of Baena's exhibition provides a clue to the meaning of his work. The word "vanity," derived from the Latin "vanitas," denotes something that is futile and worthless, as well as excessive pride. Dealing with the ephemerality of life, vanitas is a major theme in art and in Baena's installation.

His work references 17th-century European still life painting, or what are called "memento mori." A still life of succulent fruit, robust cheese and freshly baked bread rendered in dramatic light and shadows alluded to the eventual death and decay of all life. Here, Baena doesn't remind us of our eventual decay with traditional oil paints and turpentine like the old masters, but with newspapers.

Exit (Vanitas) at Bamboo Curtain Studio. PHOTO COURTESY OF MANRAY HSU

Newspapers, made from organic material, publish the day's events, but by the next day, they are aged and useless. In Baena's hands, the newspaper becomes a metaphor for the passage and limitations of time.

In this expansive exhibition space, the walls are covered with approximately 400 enlarged newspaper photos of businesspeople. Baena collected the images from the Sunday business section of one of Madrid's leading papers, which publishes announcements of important corporate promotions. This is the crowning moment of glory for those promoted as they climb the corporate ladder.

Anonymous faces with their names printed below stare back at the viewer. A string of lightbulbs strewn on the floor like theater lights shine up at these rising stars. Middle-aged men and women in varying levels of grayness appear memorialized in newsprint.

In Brooks Brother suits or with pearl earrings, these photos of businessmen and businesswomen lined up in rigid rows give a false sense of security that the (business) world is in safe hands, because these immortalized keepers of the shop look so respectable.

Not only do businesspeople have to worry about having only 15 minutes of fame -- artists suffer the same fate. In an art world that increasingly mirrors the fashion world in its constant search for new talent, artists who strive to make timeless art must contend with the fleeting and fickle whims of our contemporary world.

A plaintive dirge emanates from a video monitor on the floor. But this is no funeral march, or is it? Baena elongated and flattened out the individual notes of the Spanish national anthem. So patriotism and capitalism combine to create a bland and mournful marching song for the global business world.

The video shows the portraits from the wall seamlessly morphing into an unending and hypnotic sequence of heads. The video shows us how shaky life really is at the top of the corporate ladder; one can easily be replaced.

But in life, what goes around comes around. A dozen birdcages with canaries are scattered throughout the room and attached to the walls. Canaries, those harbingers of potential disaster, warn us of the pitfalls of vanity and fame, because lining the bottom of their cages are newspapers with the same images on the walls. So today's news announcing a person's personal triumph is tomorrow's birdcage trash.

Baena's use of canaries also reflects the cultural exchange in coming to Taiwan. The small golden finches are native to the Canary Islands, a territory of Spain since 1479. Keeping small caged birds is also customary in Chinese culture, so Baena merges the two cultures effortlessly. Canaries are also bred as caged birds. These birds are unable to escape, which is similar to the plight of the contemporary businessperson or artist.

As an artist living in an increasingly corporatized planet, Baena points his finger, metaphorically taking on the role of the canary in the mine. He asks: "Is there not more to life than jumping on the bandwagon and molding oneself into a successful ladder climber?"

Art Notes:
What: Exit (Vanitas)
Where: Bamboo Curtain Studio (竹圍工作室), 36, Ln. 88, Chungcheng E. Rd., Sec. 2, Tamsui, Taipei County (台北縣淡水鎮中正東路二段88巷36號).
When: Until Sept. 23
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