MARCO ROUNTREE CRUZ

Club del aburrimiento

Opening Friday September 27, 2013

CYRIL: Well, I should fancy you are all a good deal bored with each other

VIVIAN: We are. This is one of the objects of the club

Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

Marco Rountree Cruz’s entire career has been built as a practical answer to the question: Who is an artist? What does an artist do? In Marco’s particular case his being self-taught is fundamental to understanding the idea of the artist’s calling. His attention is directed to all kinds of things: small and big, important and trivial, and it is through the mixing and transformation of these things that his practice as a visual artist earns its meaning.

In his use of everyday things and materials he intentionally “upgrades” them to transform them into decorative objects. For Rountreee it is indeed the concept of ornamentation what turns a common object or a trivial material into a special one, what brings it out of its natural environment and inserts it into the art field. 

Under this perspective the title of the show The Boredom Club is in itself a statement, a declaration of intent that is only in part an ironic reference to the contemporary artist’s leit motif. Rountree’s works sets off the problem of the definition of art: Are these objects plain and common ornaments or are they enhanced with and artistic aura? Does art result from intention or from chance? Is art useful?

In his essay The Decay of Lying, Oscar Wilde defends a series of concepts that invest the works included in Rountree’s exhibition: art only expresses itself, life imitates art more than art imitates life and lying is the true and ultimate purpose of art. It is still to decide if Rountree´s works are the product of an elaborate ruse or of an unbreakable faith in art.