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Review of Gema Alava's lecture at SUNY Rockland (24 September 2009)
Nov 2009
Gema Alava Tells Us the Truth
By Susanna Perlov, Contributing Writer
Published October 20, 2009
Art is not just about creating an aesthetically pleasing piece, but
rather creating it to convey the artist’s message that underlies the
work. Spanish artist, Gema Alava presented the lecture,“Tell Me the
Truth,” to Art Appreciation students on September 24t as part of
Hispanic Heritage Month at SUNY Rockland.
Before beginning her lecture, Alava projected her support towards the
students enrolled in the art program at RCC for fighting and believing
in their art form, as creating art is a constant struggle. Undoubtedly,
this struggle was highly prevalent in this artist’s path to become a
renowned figure in the creative world.
Her career originated at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain
where she studied traditional styles of art. “I wanted to communicate
and share dialogue through art,” she explained when describing her
switch of interest from traditional painting to a more refreshing and
contemporary style.
Intrigued by American contemporary styles, Alava began to express her
true art form at the San Francisco Art Institute by using installation
pieces and photos. Her objective is to tell stories and express ideas
through her work, rather than focus on technique. When Alava was asked
which art mediums she works with most, she simply stated “whichever is
needed to tell stories.”
At the San Francisco Art Institute, Alava faced adversity from her peers
who criticized her work as not being “cutting edge” enough, simply
because they did not understand her Spanish background as well as her
purpose in the work.
“I make things that make sense to me but may not make sense to you.
Everyone comes from different places; we need to see how many realities
are out there so we can exchange ideas,” explained Alava when
introducing some of her pieces in a slide show presentation. An
important piece that was discussed was “Land of No One, 2002,” where she
cut old Spanish business letters dating back from 1911 into small
pieces and pinned them on a wall. The pieces were pinned in a way to
depict delicateness and vulnerability and re-arranged into a manner that
makes it almost inconceivable that these were once real letters.
One of Alava’s signature styles in her art is to purposely create pieces
that look like they’re about to break. The reasoning she gave for doing
so is, “It is interesting to see how people move around things that
look like they are about to break.” It is almost as though each piece
poses a new social experiment, which one doesn’t so often see when
viewing art.
Although Gema Alava stresses the importance of creating meaning behind
art, she allows her pieces to generate answers, “Once my work is out
there, it’s not my job anymore. It’s up to the piece.”
Aside from having her work shown in such impressive museums as the
Solomon S. Guggenheim Museum, Alava also devotes her time to helping
hopeful, young artists display their work through various organizations
rather than contributing to mass media.
Her reasoning behind doing so is that there is more value in “changing
things” rather than name and she goes further on to say that art is “not
about money or power, it’s about the art itself.”
Gema Alava’s challenging and revolutionary pieces open people’s minds to
new perspectives on creativity. When asked to deliver one message to
artists that are trying to make a name for themselves in the industry,
Alava answered without hesitation, “Believe in yourself.”