THE MAN THE OWL THE LION THE THING
Of Owls and Men and Endlessness
Ryan Cullen
The most basic definition of poetry could be understood as at least two things sitting next to each other. In this way
we can consider the slot machine to be primarily an instrument for the production of poetry; its reels presenting an
endless variety of at least two icons side by side. In this exhibition, we find New York based artist Daniel Boccato
similarly partaking in the production of such poetry, five paintings each in simple binary form: the owl and the man.
Additionally, in the back room we find a sculpture from an ongoing series of lions perched on various objects.
The works contained in the man the owl the lion the thing are modular in their potentially endless iterations.
Each work presents its own internal poetry, binaries with variety. The works are not the artist’s first examination of animal, or even avian iconography, first in a series of paintings which present a similar binary to that presented
here, parrots and women, and then more recently in Boccato’s sculptural inquiries into the ubiquitous birds of prey
adorning various national flags and various logos.
We find represented in a variety of styles, owls and men side by side, painted on paper and pasted onto charred
plywood panels. At first glance of these five panels one can already imagine an endless pile of such works on
paper. Presented with these two constants of the owl and the man, one begins to question the vast formal array
with which these icons are rendered. Over the duration of recorded human culture the bird has more often than
not stood as a signifier. Different birds meaning different things at different times represented in different ways.
Most famously we might recall Hegel’s interpretation of the Owl of Minerva as the angel of history, a bird’s
departure marking the passing of time only in retrospect, serving as the demarcation between past and
present, “taking its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.”
We might then notice how Boccato’s owls are never taking flight, never leaving, and neither are the men.
The figure, a constant throughout art history, changing slightly, but never leaving, never moving, caught by history’s
gaze, the everpresent owl. On deeper reflection one might make a comparison between the artist’s shifting albeit
non-negotiable constants of the lion and the thing, the predator and the prey, the owl and the man, the figure and
history; and our cultural reality, haunted by constants which change in style but never in substance; perhaps more
defined by the owl who refuses to leave than a past that evades its own burial.
In the case of this exhibition however, we are reminded of repetition and difference, systematically beholding a
figure in wait for an owl to take its flight; for a lion to dismount its thing. Caught in this forever-present, we might
consider Boccato’s plural binaries to offer a possibility of producing new poetry from old constants. Playing, rather
than merely watching the slot machine of a slot machine culture.
Brussels, 2021
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Daniel Boccato's artistic universe is
essentially symbolic. In some cases, it verges on the mythological, but in the
Barthesian manner- "contemporary mythologies". These pop mythologies
of Boccato's contemporaneity, incorporate birds (parrots, owls, eagles); humans
(woman, man); the natural and the artificial; the spontaneity of the stroke and
the artifice that goes from the industrial-machine to the repetition or the
"innocent" or "clumsy" representation that is attributed to
children's drawing.
In the work of this artist all these
elements undergo a process of hybridization through images that already exist
and that are archetypal of diverse cultures and moments in history along with
his own.
The man
Symbol and center of all symbolic
production. Subject and object of all representation. Only man, or to be more
exact, only humanity is capable of having an approach of itself as support and
container of creation. However, we cannot ignore that all that "man"
entails is immersed in a deep and permanent crisis.
The crisis of the modern man lies in the
loss of the spiritual component, and consequently of his immortality. Perhaps
for that reason, the man in these pieces goes through various degrees of
representation throughout history, until he reaches the scribbles which blur
him and is loaded with a sense of humor.
The owl
In Greek mythology the owl is the messenger
of Atropos, one of the three Moiras, the inexorable mortal destiny of all
living things. In Egypt, the owl is associated with the night, cold and death.
While in the imaginary human the nocturnal performance makes this animal
possessor of a connection with the afterlife, it was also associated with
lightning, forging and solstice. It has been said that in archaic times this
animal presided over the days when swords and magic mirrors were forged.
The lion
By antonomasia it is the symbol of the
sovereign. As the king of all animals, the lion represents power, nobility,
wisdom, justice. All great spiritual leaders have been compared to the lion.
Lions appear on coats of arms, coins,
shields, banners, monuments and in their sculptural aspect, they appear on the
gates of cities. For example, in Babylon there were walking and winged lions.
Being a solar symbol, its presence dispels darkness. However, it can also mean
the force of the wild and indomitable against reason and human thought.
The lion has been used as a figure of
protection of institutions of which it is the emblem and defender. The artist
addressed this in a previous exhibition he titled "Sentinel"
(Tabacalera Madrid, 2018). Throughout his work we find a recurrent repetition
of the figure of this animal, as well exercising repetition itself in several
elements and processes of his work.
The thing
The thing is the only element in this work
that does not belong to the symbolic universe.
When we read the thing in the title, the
first thing we think of, by direct association, is the washing machine that
supports the lion sculpture. Daniel Boccato has been working on pedestals which
support the sculpture for years. This element takes on an artistic sense that
adds to the work in the manner of a "ready-made", on this occasion
intervened, thus ceasing to be so. In previous versions, this element consisted
of cardboard or wooden boxes, refrigerators, garbage containers and other
objects. In this case, it is a washing machine intervened with paint and sand.
“The thing” can be the deconstructed
totemic ready-made but also something else.
Here the thing would be the work, the sum
of all the elements. The object-exhibition that is constructed in the mind of
the spectator or receiver and that is the bearer of all the conscious,
unconscious and historical symbolic charges that make up "our
culture". The thing as such does not exist but is incorporated into the
world through the relationships established in the system of
"things". That is to say, "the thing" becomes an entity in
that wide system of signification called "language".
Maria Virginia Jaua , Madrid 2021