Herman Aguirre
The emotional and moral issues that surround the images
depicted in these paintings concern loss and death. Combining
the languages of representation and abstraction, I bring texture
to the depictive and affective aspects of an image. I use a variety
of techniques and materials to investigate charged subjects and
prompt a sense of the fragility of human existence.
The texture is achieved through the thick application of paint.
The painting process becomes a confused, frustrated, and
overwhelmed accumulation of impasto, which not only gives value
to the image but also allows for its proper burial. It conveys both
clarity and ambiguity, as the paint grotesquely complicates the
picture plane with its seductive yet distancing materiality. The
language I develop is derived from a personal state that embraces
many possibilities and allows for exploration. Some paintings
include references from an archival collection of violent events
occurring in Mexico, including images of victims, objects, and
locations, as well as my own family photographs.