December Issue 1999
New Frontiers 3: Dario Robleto at the Mint Museum in Charlotte
The third exhibition
in the Mint Museum of Art's New Frontiers series, showcasing
young, emerging artists from the South, features the work of San
Antonio artist Dario Robleto, Dec. 4 through Feb. 20, 2000. New
Frontiers 3: Dario Robleto is co-sponsored by Cosmos Cafe
and Mythos located in Uptown Charlotte, NC.
For Robleto, the culture of popular music is pivotal to his art. At the core of his work is the phenomenon of sampling. As a term originating in rap, deejay and hip-hop music, sampling refers to the reuse of passages from other musical compositions to create a new work. In Robleto's art, specific vinyl records are melted and have been transformed into new objects that rely on the associations with their song titles for meaning and purpose.
There is an irony in the subtitle, I Love Everything Rock-N-Roll (Except the Music). Robleto is as concerned with rock's archrival - dance music (particularly disco). Rock, with its focus on the talent of the individual singer, musician or group, relies on the concept of "musician-cum-artist," whereas disco is an anonymous form more concerned with the beat than with personality and status of the musician. Disco, as a musical and cultural phenomenon, challenged rock's claims to authenticity by allowing the "meaning" of the work to come from its use (dance beat) and not from its claim to art. Disco itself privileges the record disc at the expense of the live performance.
Robleto's epic work to date, Mourning and Redemption (At the Gates of the Dance Floor) sends us headfirst into the confrontation between rock and disco, between the real and the falsified. Carefully chosen and painstakingly placed on a makeshift dance floor, the 24 objects represent a rich peak into the artist's associative psyche. One half of the works were created from Crystal Gale's country song Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue; while the other half came from Gloria Gaynor's disco anthem I Will Survive.
Mourning and Redemption nostalgically invokes and reinterprets both the heyday of disco, complete with a homemade disco ball, and the slow dances at any number of high school proms and weddings. Robleto's search for the soul of music is manifested as a dialogue between the visceral lyrics and emotions of country music, with all of its associations with rural white culture, and the heavy, move-your-rear beat provided disco dancers from black and gay communities with Gaynor's song of liberation.
In other works, Robleto continues to tell the history of popular music that relies on complex and intertwined degrees of separation. In the case of I've Kissed Your Mother Twice and Now I'm Working on Your Dad, the cast of an antique lipstick holder is crafted from three melted records: David Bowie's Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, The New York Doll's Trash, and The Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen. The choice of these specific records highlights the connection that exists among them as anthems of Glam Rock and the gender bending tactics of their lead singers and horde of followers. While the origin of the piece is from the world of popular music, the craftsmanship of the lipstick holders evokes the artistry and skill of previous generations' metallurgical designs.
With all of this reliance on sound and its effects on the body, however, Robleto's work is remarkably quiet. Instead of overpowering the viewer with a cacophony of noises and aural stimulation, the works function mostly within the viewer's memory and through his/her ability to make the associations among disparate references. Robleto's work urges viewers to reevaluate on a continual basis and on increasingly complex levels the nature of our interaction with popular culture. The show offers a look at the interconnectedness of our everyday lives and the ways in which our society takes for granted the value of an accreted history that accompanies the objects that surround us. The race for newness and the jettisoning of the old is critiqued by the references associated with Robleto's "sampled" art.
Dario Robleto has exhibited in group shows at Exit Art Gallery in New York and throughout Texas. His work was recently acquired by the Altoids Curiously Strong collection, currently on view throughout the country. This will be Robleto's first solo museum exhibition.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the museum at 704/337-2000.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.