ARTISTS

Ernesto Rivera

www.ernestorivera.net

Still of video performance depicting the artist covering his own body with baby powder.

Installation view

A found file cabinet drawer was on a white glass top that was sustained by five grapefruits. Inside the drawer, a burner was heating constantly a metal sheet. Falling from above, insistent drops of water were hitting the heated metal sheet. The drops evaporated immediately generating a particular sound that acted like a heartbeat for the installation.

Installation Detail

Artist Statement

My methodology is primarily a ramble. In my daily walks, I am enticed by my encounters with the quotidian: metaphors in language traces from stories, ordinary materials and found objects. In my work, the content drives the medium. My creative process is quick and intuitive, and I welcome a chance and digression. I’m interested in drawing processes, art installations and video performances.

Two key concepts frame what I do. Immediacy conceived as instinctive and bodily proximity to materials and sources. Distance, expressed in a reflective analysis of the context and cultural references in which my work is situated. The physical traces of the world seen on my walks and ideas encountered in history and literature are essential components of my research. I pursue a sense of freedom from categories through an allusive, poetic approach, avoiding the restrictions of militantly polarized declarations. Meaning in my work is layered and sometimes veiled but open-ended enough to engage the instinctive and sensorial perceptions of audiences with whom I am keen to dialogue.