The work of Bartus Bartolomes straddles both the remote past and a sense of a not so distant future.
He conjures a remarkable Cosmo-vision of pictographic figures infused with a peculiar stamp of absurdity that inspire amusement, induce anxiety and resist easy branding.
One could call him a magician of the everyday who beguiles the senses while weaving a dynamic fabric of ever-changing forms, unfolding, expanding and contracting in a dance of conscious creativity.
The flourish, the dizzying contradictions, the shadowy origins with which his images are produced imbue them with a startling immediacy.
At times the artist creates gridded panels upon which mutant, biomorphic characters that appear to have recently crawled out of the primordial slime are seen splitting apart not unlike amoeba or caught in the act of forceful copulation.
These figures leap out at the viewer simultaneously as if bombarding one for attention without overtly revealing the history of their own making.
In one of these ineffable works the Paris-based Venezuelan artist frames his glyph- like creatures within a rectilinear, geometric background that brings to mind Mondrian and other titans of Modernism who established the grid as the sacred cornerstone of Western visual culture for much of the 20th century. Bartolomes also layers the image with snippets of text further freighting the picture with a sense of ambivalence.
This work’s paradoxical nature is additionally heightened by its logographic qualities suggesting the writing systems of an early Ur period while also hinting at a dystopian post-literate society reminiscent of Marshall McLuhan’s Guttenberg Galaxy. Perhaps, most impressively its graphic nature also hijacks references ranging from the genesis of art history, to urban graffiti, to cell phone texting.
This comes as little surprise as Bartolomes is also a poet who often experiments with combining imagery and language.
Just as the ancients transcended the vacuum of meaning by employing archetypical symbols, here the artist tinkers with notions of perception by introducing text next to quixotic, primeval life forms that provide templates and platforms for unexpected modes of expression.
These figures are not your typical throwbacks to the ancient petro glyphs of bygone civilizations. They come to existence through cracked, earthen surfaces as if struggling to become solid entities spawned from liquid origins.
Their march for subsistence seems so simple in concept that they belie their maker’s painstakingly intricate and complex designs. Yet much like the artist they appear to be telegraphing a big yes to life.
Fast forwarding to the present and future Bartolomes evokes a sense of the cacophonous din of visual noise in the internet and text messaging era where spoken communication approaches the endangered list and people exchange ideas through emoticon transmissions.
One of his most compelling works depicts what appears to be the archetypical Tree of Life sprouting from a digital touch pad rising monolithically from a barren landscape.
The structure is surrounded by a hallucinogenic cast of anthropomorphic shadows, dancing bears and acrobatic sumo wrestlers who soar heavenward with handcrafted wings tempting fate with the hubris of Icarus. Some of the semi-nude porcine grapplers even appear on their knees and passing gas violently at the forefront of the composition.
Above one sees swirling stars, birds and even the figure of a sperm-like emoticon. From the top of the digital tablet where the naked limbs of the tree scratches toward the cloudless sky, roost the disembodied heads of two Ayatollahs and a solitary peacock.
The minutely detailed vision of a techno-savvy world where networks of communication seem to have imploded upon traditions of oral history distill an unsettling evidence that Bartus Bartolomes is an artist with a powerful grasp on these uncertain times and an uncanny knack for storytelling.
By Carlos Suárez de Jesús / Art Critic.
Miami New Times.
art@miaminewtimes.com
January 2012, Miami, Florida, USA.
