Impulse and inflection
focus and pacing through the concept of timing
The phrase: do it now echos in my mind all the time. I heard it a lot growing up and people identified it as drive. Doing now is not to be hurried or rushed, though I often felt that before. Now I cannot be rushed nor do I ever want anyone else to feel such a push from me. Though these social sensitivities are subjective, I wonder what their levers are. Do these feelings and emotions come from genetic memories? how much light our liver’s can metabolize or how much we personally feel our will is being successfully exerted upon the world?
By contrast, which is not to compare but to examine the spectrum of nuance: IT CAN WAIT, was a sign I noticed while walking in the streets with my camera in Chicago when I was still training in photography. I suppose training is still something that remains a must though the pressure feels less with practice. This pressure to do now (since life is short) versus wait and see reminds me the tension between free-will and fate, or the responsibility that comes with taking action versus a passivity encouraged by faith. The tensions are felt through the entirety of a human body: that’s how powerful thought and communication can be.
When it comes to timing, I think the matter at hand is not so much speed or day of the week but where and how something lands. This roundabout theory has been habored safely by the words of Marco Granados, who I had the good fortune to meet through a chance cancelation of plans while I was visiting my dear friend and showing some work in Mexico during September 2023. The words below the image are a translation from Spanish.
INFLECTION POINT
In each person’s journey through this world, there is a moment (sometimes more than one) that acts as something defining, a moment in which the personal and professional trajectory takes an unplanned turn.
For many artists, that exact point not only changes their direction, but also shapes their identity and their work. The collective show proposes to review this.
From personal epiphanies (if there are any), to unexpected external circumstances, each case reveals how a single decision or event can trigger a profound metamorphosis.
Even chance is a reminder that creativity often flourishes in the interstices of the unforeseen. But it is the willingness to embrace the unknown and the willingness to commit that really turns this chance into a meaningful and transformative commitment
Sometimes, art as an act of resilience, the work as a tangible testimony of the ability to resist, heal and be reborn, but also to see what underlying joy and appreciation for beauty.
Others, the pandemic as a creative trigger. Remembering how as we faced isolation, health concerns, and disruption to our routines, we ended up understanding that possibility as a means to find meaning, and a voice in the midst of the tumult.
Ultimately our exhibition in the Educational Gallery of the Marco Museum invites the visitor to reflect on their own turns in life and what crucial moments have shaped their path.
At PUNTO DE INFLEXIÓN, each work on display celebrates the resilience, courage, conviction and inspiration that accompany those who choose to embrace art and all its consequences.
Marco Granados, Marco Museum, Monterrey Nueveo Leon, Mexico
September 2023
