Rocío Rodríguez
World upon Worlds, 2007
Oil on canvas, 120 x 79 ½ inches
World upon Worlds is based on an 1835 map of the heavens showing the Milky Way and adjacent constellations. This painting is part of a body of work that utilizes maps as the departing point, to serve as a conceptual substructure in the composition. Maps are a way of organizing our “world,” a world that can be the way we think about our physical place here on this planet politically, socially, culturally or philosophically—or how we think about ourselves in relation to the universe. These paintings address present earthly and personal concerns such as foreign wars, divided cities, dual identity, cultural and political concerns as well as existential ones by using bits and pieces of maps as the grounding for my expression.
In this particular painting I want to address an existential concern—our place in the universe. In addition, I want to express the beauty that connects art and science. This map combines visual and symbolic elements that express connections and parallels rather than isolation. The map makes no sense from a scientific astronomical point of view, but it is a metaphorical map that attempts to express that yes, we are cosmic dust, yet, within this universe, we have a place—as does every other planet and star. In that is the mystery of our existence.
My paintings address a binary position or dialectic that includes a world-view which embraces differences, oppositions and contradictions. I am always seeking the essence of the subject by presenting it pictorially in various ways. The themes that have been present in my work have at various times acted as surrogates to address larger philosophical and conceptual concerns. One of the questions that I explore in my work is What is the nature of a specific thing if it can be represented in various ways, even in opposing ways? This is essentially an existential question.
The subject of my work is the world and my relation to it within a personal sphere, as well as a global one. The world is a highly complex structure politically, environmentally, culturally, philosophically. We live in a global reality where we can witness multiple events occurring, simultaneously accessing innumerable amounts of information available within seconds. All this data is received and processed, and a new fractured, splintered reality emerges. In my paintings several “worlds” co-exist—from a disintegrating cosmos, to foreign wars, to the silence of a private garden. By combining visual and symbolic elements I offer differing dichotomies; the global and the personal, the natural and the mechanical, the concrete, the abstract. Our lives are a confluence of chaotic and ordered experiences that we perceive on various planes. For me, painting parallels the complexity of this dynamic.
