Born in Chili in the early 1970’s, artist Iván Navarro grew up under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, where the government controlled the populations’ electricity to enforce curfew and control. Growing up with this lack of freedom, it is well understood why Navarro uses light as a primary source with his Chilean and American referenced, historically-based installations.
Navarro created space- intriguing works where he started experimenting with all different types of mirrors, including interrogation-room style mirrors and reflective surfaces used in many buildings. He figured out how to create an infinite space combining normal and one-sided mirrors and adding lighting in between the two. “It’s very mysterious and you don’t see a reflection of yourself, it’s a trick”, says Navarro.
Navarro’s dedication to learning the English language, in addition to his fascination for symmetry, led to him reading through dictionaries and writing down words that could be divided into halves symmetrically in both directions. An example that he retrieved from this inspiration and used as objects and metaphors, were words such as “BED”, “HIDE” and “ECHO”, created with the use of his infinite mirrors, with only one vertical half of the word shown, in neon. The other half was used as an illusion, and could only be viewed in its presentation.
Neon lamps completely layering a shopping cart and a chair, created a completely different feel and “belief” of what the objects were actually capable of accomplishing. All this use of electricity throughout his work addresses “the history of electricity as a tool of torture during the dictatorship. It was important that you could leave it off if you wanted” stated Navarro.
“It was easy for people to come to your house and take you,” Navarro puts. This is a serious push and a keen memory that keeps this now Brooklyn based artist hungry and ambitious.
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