(Repost from 2006) Nancy Clark: Insights into some of Fernando’s significant Exhibitions
Editor’s Note: Here is an excerpt of Nan Clark’s posting in the Photo Gallery
This performance was part of the Nada Group’s show at the Biltmore Restaurant at the Biltmore Hotel. As part
of the performance, participants were asked to pay $1.00 for their bad portrait. The person would be asked to recline in a chaise lawn chair and Nan would place a shower curtain over their clothes leaving only the face exposed. She would hold the canvas tightly over the face and very quickly Fernando would apply paint and finish with what he called “the fixer” which was sparkles thrown on to the wet paint. The end result was always a surprise. Some appeared almost as if they were African masks while others looked quite a lot like the “sitter”.
ON THE LINE: This piece was multi-dimensional. The ” On the Line” Exhibition was done simultaneously in Key West at the Tennessee Williams Center and at the Gables library. There were drawings tracing the line US1 made between Miami and Key West. One of the larger pieces was a huge piece of paper with a wide line of paint. This was created by Garcia as he rode a motorcycle down the dividing line on US1 and held out a paint brush as he passed the piece. Ask part of the performance element of the exhibition, we had Barbara Young speaking on the telephone from the Gables to Key West thereby making another connection involving the line between the two places. At the Gables library site he drew a white line on the floor and placed very large mirrors facing each other at both ends of the line. When you stepped on the line and looked you would see yourself standing on the line in multiple images that seemed to go on into infinity. Another piece was a video he made shot from the waist up as he was naked. His intent was to put himself on the line in a very exposed way both physically and emotionally.
THE SPHERES: This piece was commissioned by Dade County for the opening of Miami’s first museum, The Center for the Fine Arts, now renamed the Miami Art Museum. The spheres were actually weather balloons and each had a specific theme painted on the surface. The piece had a ground to sky connection in that geometric shaped wood sculptures were placed on the plaza. Each sphere was anchored to one of these sculptures. Inside the sculptures were Florida elements — first they were filled with sand - then sea shells and coconuts were added. The spheres could be seen from an amazing distance. The first sphere going up in the air was a memorable experience. As it was filled with helium and released into the air, buzzards that make the court house their home in winter all came flying out to inspect the sphere circling their new potential prey. We held our breath in fear they would attack it.
However, once they viewed the art they never bothered the spheres again.
The spheres also startled employees in the government buildings surrounding the museum. Apparently some meetings were disrupted when one of the huge spheres floated too close to the windows.
This project was to be repeated on an annual basis in December. However, the project was only repeated once, the following December when an additional sphere was added to the piece. The plan was to add a sphere for each year. Unfortunately, the spheres were damaged by museum employees after being carelessly moved to a different storage facility that had no air conditioning. Without air conditioning, the spheres which had been carefully placed into storage with massive amounts of powder between layers to keep them from sticking together were affected by the high humidity and many destroyed. The project was never resurected with new pieces commisioned to replace the damaged one by Dade county for future. It is still possible to recreate the project as the original themes are clearly shown in photos. The Spheres project was an overwelming success made in part with the help of many dedicated volunteers due to its large scale.
MAKING PURPLE: This was commissioned by the “Art in Public Places” group. The Okeechobee main terminal station was the site. This station has three large glass shafts with skylights at the top. The concept was to have both blue and red neon installed in each shaft with a timer. As trains were leaving the station every 15 minutes it was planned that all possible combinations of color would be displayed within the 15 min. time frame. The way it worked is the blue or red color would come on and completely fill the shaft. At the same time the other 2 shafts would be displaying different colors. If the shaft was blue a red neon would start climbing up the shaft from the bottom and the blue would be coming down. In the moment the two colors intersected the shaft would turn purple. Their were sky lights on the platform itself that could be viewed by passengers waiting to board. As an example #1 may be all blue - at the same time #2 may be red and #3 purple. Garcia worked with Steve Carpenter of Argo Neon who executed the installation. Due to lack of maintainance, repair and hurricanes, this amazing work of art has been left in total disrepair. However this ground breaking public art project can be restored to its original condition with proper funding as Steve Carpenter is still working with light and the original architectural drawings and directions by Fernando are still available. This is one of Fernando’s finests conceptual works of art and as a public treasure and legacy, should not be allowed to dissapear.
of the performance, participants were asked to pay $1.00 for their bad portrait. The person would be asked to recline in a chaise lawn chair and Nan would place a shower curtain over their clothes leaving only the face exposed. She would hold the canvas tightly over the face and very quickly Fernando would apply paint and finish with what he called “the fixer” which was sparkles thrown on to the wet paint. The end result was always a surprise. Some appeared almost as if they were African masks while others looked quite a lot like the “sitter”.
