Rolón, who also goes by the name Dzine, has been recognized for his elaborately crafted paintings and ornate sculptures that come out of Kustom Kulture. His practice encompasses a range of media moving seamlessly between murals, sculpture, painting, and installation while he investigates pop culture, craft, ritual, beauty, spirituality, and identity and its relationship to art history, subculture, appropriation and the institution.
Mi Casa (My House) incorporates themes of domesticity, multiculturalism, pattern, and craft-making traditions. His carefully crafted, hybrid works are playfully situated between the contradictory worlds of conspicuous consumption and urban artefact.
The exhibition Mi Casa at Pearl Lam Galleries, Singapore can be seen as a follow-up to Rolón’s highly successful installation My Mother’s Living Room at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, which was an exact reproduction of the artist’s childhood living room from 1976. Born to a Puerto Rican family and growing up as a child in Chicago, the artist bore witness to the ways in which first generation immigrants adapted to new American middle-class lifestyles. These families brought the diaspora into the homes by decorating walls and furniture with exotic colours, textures and patterns to create a sense of identity, comfort and ultimately, an aspirational lifestyle. It is from here that Rolón’s present characteristic incorporation of custom culture, faux luxury and excessiveness originate.
Mi Casa creates an all-encompassing installation that not only pays homage to this culture, but also produces a shrine-like presentation and embraces the universal themes of the home.
Everyday items are treasured as artifacts, elevated to a higher status and their functionality becomes secondary. The incorporated original, coloured and decorated porcelain dinnerware, elaborate customized candelabras, ornate chandelier and sculptural decanters are at once melancholic, excessive and exuberant, yet poised somewhat between celebration and regret.
Carlos Rolón/Dzine
“Carlos is unique in his ability to dissolve barriers between artistic disciplines and the observations which come from his practice are a result game changing and inspiring. I am very excited about introducing this artist to the Singapore art scene”. ~ Pearl Lam, founder and Director of Pearl Lam Galleries
Exhibition: Mi Casa
Dates: Till 15 March 2015
Hours: Tue – Sat 11am – 7pm; Sun 12 – 6pm (Closed on Mon and PH)
Venue: Pearl Lam Galleries, 9 Lock Road, #03-22, Gillman Barracks
Web: www.pearllamgalleries.com
