Gabriel Orozco's Sculptures: Oval with Pendulum Explored

Introduction

According to Werner (1997), multimedia installation work has been increasingly popularized throughout Mexico in recent years, with Gabriel Orozco emerging as one of its most prominent practitioners. Taking images from what is commonly encountered during daily life, Orozco reformulates these images into thought-provoking sculptures that have attracted considerable attention from critics and the public alike. As Mattick (2003) reports, "Contemporary art nevertheless remains flavored by the sentiment of distance from the culture of business, a distance central to the identity of art in its modern sense. There are artists whose work directly addresses the commercial operation of galleries, museums, and art fairs — like Gabriel Orozco" (117). This paper provides a brief biography of Orozco, followed by an overview of his work with a particular focus on his sculpture Oval with Pendulum. A review of that sculpture's critical reception is followed by a summary of the research and its salient findings in the conclusion.

Biography and Artistic Career

Orozco was born in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico in 1962. He attended the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Mexico City and later the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain (Biography 1). According to one biographer, "For Orozco, objects are either the provocation or the residue of an event." Some of the sculptor's major works include the patterned human skull of Black Kites, the curvilinear logic of Oval Billiard Table, and the extended playing field of the chessboard in Horses Running Endlessly (Biography 1–2).

Orozco has also experimented with other media. Although he is noted for the quality of his paintings, sculpture has been the predominant medium through which he has earned critical recognition. For instance, his sculptures were featured at Documenta XI in 2002, "where his sensuous terra-cotta works explored the elegance and logic of traditional ceramics — a pointed commentary on Mexican craft and its place in a 'high art' gallery space" (Biography 2). Another notable exhibition was the so-called "Sonic Process," which featured eight visual and sculptural installations designed as veritable sound studios for an exhibition held at the Pompidou Center in Paris in 2002, with subsequent showings in Berlin and Barcelona (Lovejoy 293). Today, the artist lives and works in New York, Paris, and Mexico City (Biography 3).

Orozco's Oval with Pendulum

According to Joselit (2000), "Gabriel Orozco makes such 'impossible objects,' in which the stain of reality remains pungent. For Orozco, objects are either the provocation or the residue of an event. Two aspects of rendezvous are evocatively juxtaposed in the second gallery of his LA exhibition" (173). One aspect of this collision between harsh reality and viewer experience is a collection of 40 photographs entitled Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe — a series of pictures of the artist's yellow Schwalbe scooter (a brand manufactured in the former GDR) photographed alongside identical bikes parked on the streets of Berlin (Joselit 173).

The other aspect of this rendezvous is Orozco's sculpture Oval with Pendulum (1996), described by Joselit as "an oblong, pocketless billiard table holding two white balls and a red one, which hangs from a cord like a pendulum. Pool cues are available in a nearby rack, inviting visitors' participation" (173).

As can be readily seen from descriptions and images of the work, Oval with Pendulum is not a traditional piece by any means, yet Orozco clearly created an elegant and sophisticated object that quickly catches the eye and invites further investigation and hands-on activity. Perhaps the most appealing quality of this work — and of many of Orozco's others — is its accessibility and the overwhelming sense of participation it engenders in the viewer. Who could resist trying their hand at this graceful but apparently challenging "game," one that appears to have no specific rules yet provides viewers with concrete artistic boundaries within which to formulate their own? Joselit makes this point precisely: "Oval with Pendulum is a game without rules but not without a specified playing field. The encounter it facilitates is therefore both restricted and open-ended. Conversely, in Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe, it is the playing field that is fluid (the entire city of Berlin) and the rules that are clear (find another yellow Schwalbe)" (173).

Conclusion

The research showed that Gabriel Orozco has made his mark on the world of art through installation pieces that have caught the attention of critics and the public alike. Although his works are not necessarily life-changing, it is clear that Orozco's talents lend themselves well to the installation sculpture medium, and his pieces continue to evoke strong reactions from those fortunate enough to encounter them. By breaking the traditional mold of what is considered sculpture — and even "art" — Orozco has helped redefine his medium into a modern and sophisticated one that takes ordinary found objects and makes them unique. All in all, Orozco stands in the vanguard of sculptors who continue to redefine traditional views of art and make them their own — and if viewers are lucky enough to find themselves drawn in, that is very much the point.