Rodolfo Edwards (Chile)

Aquí y Ahora en Directo. Mixed Media on Canvas: 55 in x 130 in, 139.7 cm x 330.2 cm, 2011. 

The title of this piece is taken from a phrase that journalists use for talking about what is happening during some news or event. It is usually stated during popular sports events, and it always expresses intensity and strong emotions about “the right moment.” It is commonly said in South American countries when we are watching a football game. I am using this familiar yet passionate phrase to name my work, representing this in a narrative of sliding images that are telling something about a specific moment via simultaneous images, like different television channels playing at the same time. This idea represents carpe diem in our contemporaneous digital world, where images are passing by in front of us fast and at a same time. We are simultaneously living and enjoying the present moment.

AR-L: Your piece for the Diálogo 465: CARPE DIEM exhibition about living in the now, and I was hoping you would tell us more about your process, and the way in which you go about executing each piece with such precision.

RE: This piece is a extended narrative of images. I pretend to involve the viewer in my world of thoughts, images that are passing like stop motion movies, where the action is present in simultaneous ways. The precision of this and most of my work is based in my background with architecture. My creative approach is always preceded by an order of the space. Before I start to create images and colors, I create a main structure – a grid – where I compose images that are strips taken from photos and selected drawings, then I join these vertical strips with linear drawings, recreating an urbanist portrait of the images.

AR-L: What can you tell our readers about the relationship between your career of an artist and your experience as an immigrant?

RE: Living in New York City for a couple of years, you can feel there is a lot of stuff going on and great energy around you, not only in the big scene of the arts that exists, I’m also talking about the multicultural fact that you see everyday here. It is very stimulating and there is so much information that you can receive that sometimes I remind myself to focus on my principal goals and not pick around because it can be distractive. These years in the United States have changed and improved my artistic perspective and creativity with powerful and rich resources that I’ll be absorbing for a long time.

AR-L: Would you like to tell us something about your other current projects, and are there any upcoming exhibitions you want to tell us about?

RE: I’m currently invited to participate in the 3rd Bronx Biennale 2012 , during November, where I’m presenting an installation using recycled light boxes. This is an interesting project where I’m using another media, expanding the reuse of material in a tridimensional way. I’m also participating in the upcoming PINTA Art Fair, the most important Latin American art fair in New York.

AR-L: Since another of the “carpe diem” themes is the idea of the harvest: is there a favorite cooking recipe you’d like to share with us?

RE: Here is one of my favorite recipes that I will share with all of us:

Ceviche de Mariscos (Seafood Ceviche):

• 1 cup fresh shrimps
• 2 cup fresh tuna
• 2 cup fresh calamari
• 1 glass lemon/lime juice
• 2 red onions
• 1 red or green pepper (or both!) 
• 2 avocados
• 1 apple
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Hot sauce (optional)

Instructions:

1. Chop the tuna fish into small squares and put into the bowl or container you have prepared for this. A round pyrex bowl is perfect.
2. Add the onions, the green and red peppers (you could also use yellow), the apple and the avocados.
3. Add the hot sauce (picante) to taste. I particularly, do not use hot sauce but I know that many people enjoy it.
4. Cover everything well with the lime juice. It should cover the fish by at least 1/4″
5. Cover the bowl.
6. Leave on the kitchen counter overnight, or until the fish is the color white. 6-8 hours is about right.
7. The fish will have cooked in the lime juice. If it is too watery, just pour some of the lime juice out.
8. Refrigerate until cold. When it is cold, it is ready to be served. It will last for about a week.

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