“I try to experience the same distance, strangeness and fascination that came to me as a child from the stamp of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis or the humour and songs of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. It’s strange, it was the ’70s, but we lived bombed by a remote time. Maybe it was a strategy of the dictatorship’s regime to combat the present and the immediate past.” César Gabler
For over more than a decade, César Gabler has developed a distinctive style, with drawing and illustration at the crux of his practice. No pens or ‘Sharpie’s’ mark the line but instead tools such as brushes and India Ink, tying him back to the origins of illustration. These drawings themselves are the result of pressures, inclinations and movements of the ink on paper. They allow him to create a deeply personal world based on loss and displacement.
Underscoring César Gabler’s drawings is...an exposure of a dire aspect of our political culture. He highlights how countries in Latin America still suffer from a neo-colonial relationship with Europe and North America. The works in the London exhibition draw on iconographical inspirations from Chile’s past – such as when in 1866 McNeill Whistler travelled to the port of Valparaiso in Chile, a journey that has puzzled scholars. There are still questions as to whether Whistler was clandestinely carrying arms or just wanting to depict a small country like Chile at war with Spain. No evidence supports either theory. The second inspiration uncovers the theories behind Walt Disney’s travel to Latin America and particularly Chile in the 1940s. Spearheaded by President Franklin Roosevelt, the mission of his trip was to curb the interest of Nazism and fascism in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Disney was to create new cartoons inspired by the region with the intention of bolstering good will. The legendary animator thought Chile did not have much to offer except the Condor eagle, the Andes Mountains and a figure called ‘Pedrito.’ Within the drawings, colonial figures are interwoven with Hollywood images and military figures. Many of the faces are erased. The iconography highlights a troubled past. For the works on show at the Santiago gallery, the iconography is more personal. Self-portaits of the artists are interwoven into the images. This political work is deeply personal.
The works in both exhibitions appear like memories of actors that have been blurred in the history of Hollywood films and political Imperialism. They equally reflect a kind of silence and, by using drawing as the medium, appear anachronistic. It is as if the artist is living in the margins of global visibility. Thus, Gabler infuses his work with the imagery and energy of this strange Chilean heritage and niche culture.
Entrada actualizada el el 07 jun de 2017
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