fire & indigo

Gerardo Castro

The works in this series are branded on paper through the use of a steel silhouette cut-out of the artist’s body, heating the steel and burning his body in effigy onto paper. This “body” of work bears no portrait like resemblance to the artist - it is not mimicry, what is created is the building up and layering of images in which the ritual of fire is a powerfully symbolic gesture referencing the bodies magical transformation; his figure re-invented or reclaimed from a point of reincarnation that reaches back to a time in history. These pieces are inspired by supernatural forces - the unseen “Seen”- influenced by the artist’s knowledge of indigenous cultures and Afro-Cuban/Caribbean religions and spirituality. The prospect of Magic symbols appear to be artistic as well as mystical by using ideograms found in these belief systems, sacred symbols (signs), to serve as a catalyst for manifestations: ideograms to call down the spirit to motivate forces into action; a direct connection to nature itself; multi-layered and encoded with meaning. 

The transformation on paper transcends process even further with the application of Indigo, a mystical color running through the work that ties it all together. The artist lays thin washes of indigo oil paint over the figures. Indigo is associated in many cultures with magical and spiritual rituals – probably because of the processes of change it goes through; which looks dull green in a vat, emerging into the air transformed to a vivid blue. Indigo is symbolic of inner mind the intuition and the vast consciousness. Through simple forms and a straight forward presentation, the viewer is presented with powerful and dignified images, the artist’s figure re-invented or reclaimed from a point of reincarnation, a feeling of a pagan ritual. It is somehow both haunting and life-affirming.