javier toro blum: no past, no present, no future at patricia ready gallery

‘no past, no present, no future’ by javier toro blum at patricia ready gallery works from left to right: ‘concert grand,’ ‘lampada di galileo,’’ ultraviolet,’ ‘librero (caminamos sobre las cenizas de otros tiempos),’ and ‘infrared’

chilean artist javier toro blum presented five works in his third solo show titled, ‘no past, no present, no future,’ at santiago’s patricia ready gallery. responding to a cultural focus on newness and the present, the exhibition asks the question, ‘what is the contemporary?’ each of the conceptual sculptures presented alludes to the past through the composition, scale or material but is recontextualized as contemporary work: resonating in a timeless continuum, the works negate a temporal mentality, such that what was produced in the past is not immediately rendered obsolete in the present.‘I’m interested in the relation that we can have from our present with other times and even with other cultures. it is interesting how, for example, the romantics saw in the medieval ruins and the landscape the sensibility that they were looking for, or how certain western thinkers have seen in the east his ideas better reflected as in their own culture. I think those cross-cultural connections manifest complex social and subjective processes, more than being mere fashions or whims.’ – javier toro blum

‘ultraviolet’, polyurethane painting and lacquer on panel, 205 x 152 cm. ‘librero (caminamos sobre las cenizas de otros tiempos)’, lacquered wood, burned books and glass, 215,6 x 60 x 31.8 cm. and ‘Infrared’, polyurethane painting and lacquer on panel,

‘lampada di Galileo’, stainless steel, 225 x 150 x 150. concert grand lacquered wood, 273 x 156,7 x 34,5 cm. and ‘librero (caminamos sobre las cenizas de otros tiempos)’.

‘librero (caminamos sobre las cenizas de otros tiempos)’ detail

‘concert grand’ making process and model

‘concert grand’ making process

‘lampada di galileo’ model