VIEWING ROOM "THE SNACK"

"The snack"

The snack is perhaps the painting of my production that has generated the most controversy among viewers when they see this explicit scene for the first time, which can be unpleasant for some and prevents them from continuing to read the meaning of its message.

A message whose intention is not only to show a gruesome scene without more, but to go further in a conversation that the character has with herself about her inner being that is in constant transformation.

The first aspect to analyze in this painting, would deal with our perception of what should be considered beautiful.

I have always liked the so-called beautiful motifs referring for example to landscapes, still lifes or human models full of harmony. I am convinced that just by painting a well-executed flower, one can masterfully transcend.

Who could not like that long list of themes that awaken pleasant values ​​in us regardless of what fashions and ideals dictate. But my approaches over the years have also found a suitable ground to express many of my concerns in the territory of what is considered incorrect, macabre, twisted or unpleasant.

Ideas that are politically incorrect for some are very necessary for others.

Another characteristic that my paintings in this line must have is that their message must not have a moral sense as a priority, but rather a reflection on the limits of human personalities and their existential readings.

The concept of beauty is relative for each person, what for some may be sharply unpleasant, for others it is an opportunity to expand those aesthetic limits of beauty.

I do not believe that art has to fulfill only the function of pleasing, it can also question and disturb, and if the proposal requires it, one must dare to explore those areas and take the risks to achieve the intended meaning.

This painting marked the end and the beginning of a new stage in my work with a technique and concepts that experienced a change in procedure and language.

The symbolic, fantastic and dreamlike themes that had been feeding my previous paintings inspired by dreams would begin to diminish in 2008 and would gradually be replaced by conceptual proposals directed towards an internal psychological analysis.

A story about doubles, clones, replicas, twins or doppelgangers.

In The snack the characters seek their own self-analysis to obtain answers about themselves and for this they resort to a double with whom they can converse, but above all discuss in their privacy about those personalities that we do not want to recognize as part of ourselves but that we avoid talking about because they are unpleasant, contradictory or violent.

The painting aims to be a mirror for the viewer to look at themselves and reflect on the possibility of finding an answer to the whys of their own imbalances.

As a kind of stage design, the painting shows us the theatrical staging of a metaphor starring two women who are actually one, interpreting a story whose experimental genre theme is called The snack.

The furniture of the setting accompanies the protagonists through symbols, reinforcing the narrative through a pair of chairs arranged with a table, a white tablecloth, cutlery for eating and drinking, and a clothesline from which X-rays hang in the middle of a green field with a sky full of clouds.

Does the second woman want to eat the first, or is the first woman forcing the second to eat her?

Is the first woman forcing the second to cut off a piece of her arm to eat herself?

Or is the second woman the one who dominates, forcing the first to devour herself?

The fact that one of the women is cutting off a piece of the other's arm to use as possible food is actually only suggested by the series of instruments present, but beyond what this may mean for each spectator, the approach also raises an unknown about what role each of these two characters plays and whether there is a dominant figure between them that guides us to formulate a diagnosis about what is happening to her.

The objects on the table are arranged towards one of the characters, as is the case of the glass of water, which, in addition to indicating who may be the next to eat, proposes the interpretation of water that cleanses and purifies everything.

At this point, it is worth highlighting the symbol that refers to the circular, supported by the shape of the round table that raises a concept of feedback.

The circular symbolizes the constant struggle, the cyclical nature of things, the eternal return of cycles that end and begin.

In a continuous manner and synthesizing the two women as one, the character is swallowing herself, giving rise to the representation of a rebirth of things that never disappear but only undergo eternal transformations.

Finally, the scene symbolically shows some x-rays that confirm the idea of ​​an internal examination of the protagonists, but that by being hung from a clothesline create new and small metaphors within each other.

Some x-rays that hang, drying in the sun and the wind. We have washed them and all that remains is to wait for them to dry.

The explicit metaphor of cannibalism proposed by The snack moves within these limits and risks being classified as a mere grotesque image without any further meaning, but that is precisely the challenge that this painting aims to address, that of transgressing not without cause, but with a reason to capture attention and propose a complex analysis.

It is important for an artist to be aware that when we paint a metaphor in a very realistic way, we create the sensation in the viewer that this image is real and true, so we must be careful not to distract the reading and the conceptual meaning that we are proposing with the images; we must seek a balance to transmit the message.

The snack was awarded an Honorable Mention in 2008 by the International Competition of the Foundation for the Arts and Artists of the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), and is part of its collection.

–Edgar Mendoza