RAKE-TIMES: DIEGO BENAVENTE
rake² (rāk) η. 〚contr. of rake-hell〛 a dissolute, debauched man having a trim appearance suggesting speed: as said of a ship both jaunty and dashing.
Artist Statement
Diego Benavente transforms the space he inhabits/works into his workshop, lab, studio, sound stage, bunker or gym and even at times, shooting gallery. Through a multidisciplinary process initiated by the artist but never entirely under his control, the installations incorporate graphic draft works on paper, prop-like objects/sculptures, expansive wall treatments and an over all suggested forensic performance of acts/actions and scenarios. His recent collection of new works, “The Gun Under My Nightmares Pillow,” seeks to develop a play in three acts, where repetitive arrangement, derangement and rearrangement of objects speaks to the aggression of destruction, the perseverance of sustaining and creation cyclically back into destruction. It is this recursive looping of time and repeating code, ever moving and ever lasting, in which his characters suffer, toil and new synthesis are reborn. What is left are the traces of this habitual engagement between this cycle of acts and the objects, drawn works, assemblage, light sculptures and costumes which the characters employ. Benavente becomes possessed by the spirit in turn work is created, carefully placed, a collage in the space whose nature is also incorporated into the play in an ever self-conscious acknowledgment of his aesthetic process. Like Christian Boltanski and James Lee Byars, he seeks to ask the question above finding an answer.
cosmichuaso@yahoo.com
raketimes@gmail.com
Artist Statement
Diego Benavente transforms the space he inhabits/works into his workshop, lab, studio, sound stage, bunker or gym and even at times, shooting gallery. Through a multidisciplinary process initiated by the artist but never entirely under his control, the installations incorporate graphic draft works on paper, prop-like objects/sculptures, expansive wall treatments and an over all suggested forensic performance of acts/actions and scenarios. His recent collection of new works, “The Gun Under My Nightmares Pillow,” seeks to develop a play in three acts, where repetitive arrangement, derangement and rearrangement of objects speaks to the aggression of destruction, the perseverance of sustaining and creation cyclically back into destruction. It is this recursive looping of time and repeating code, ever moving and ever lasting, in which his characters suffer, toil and new synthesis are reborn. What is left are the traces of this habitual engagement between this cycle of acts and the objects, drawn works, assemblage, light sculptures and costumes which the characters employ. Benavente becomes possessed by the spirit in turn work is created, carefully placed, a collage in the space whose nature is also incorporated into the play in an ever self-conscious acknowledgment of his aesthetic process. Like Christian Boltanski and James Lee Byars, he seeks to ask the question above finding an answer.
cosmichuaso@yahoo.com
raketimes@gmail.com
