"Music is related to the way of thinking for what
I do—because music offers no solution. It has no content.
It’s just total subjectivity."
"I’d like the visual images that I’m trying
to do to be nonobjective, just like music."
"I think there’s still potential for abstraction
to become a viable language of visual communication."
"You are fragmented, and the piece comes from fragmentation.
And what I want is that this experience of the fragmented
person and the fragmented image becomes a new whole, a
hybrid experience."
"Being Latin American, you’re
made up of so many fragments from different cultures...
The
way that you are fragmented inside makes you stronger.
I see it as a positive thing. It just informs who I am."
Who are the people
in the photos here above your table in the studio?
HERRERA:
The photos are of two of my
favorite artists. One is Stravinsky and the other one is
Balanchine. They’re important for me just because of
what they did—Stravinsky, music and Balanchine, choreography—and
their collaboration was very important for art in the twentieth
century. They’re like my mentors, they’re part
of the studio in a sense.
Stravinsky—especially in his early work and also in the
neoclassical work—used fragmentation to compose seamless
pieces, but they’re actually based on snippets from
this and snippets from that to create hybrids. They seem
to be so unique but they actually come from different sections
from Russian music or from different quotations. The neoclassical
period also is very beautiful and how he can change from
that early exuberant period to the neoclassical, it’s
very interesting to me.
Balanchine—he approached choreography
as an analytical form. By using the classical language of
ballet—which is somewhat limited—he created so many steps
and combinations with that language. Working together they
created some amazing pieces.
ART:21:
And in a way, you’re a
kind of choreographer.
HERRERA:
Maybe the reference to choreography
deals more with wall painting: how the viewer actually attempts
to move when entering the space, which direction they follow,
what kind of steps they tend to take. Usually the images
are conceived with architecturalscale and a sense of the
function of the building in mind—so it’s not
like just any image could go into these buildings. The space
is
something that hopefully the viewer will be able to operate
within and trace back their steps to be able to create their
own movement within that specific area. So choreography—when
looking at images or looking also at collages—becomes a
very intimate way of limiting your boundaries or defining
your space to be able to receive from the image what you
want.
ART:21:
Does choreography also apply
when you create the work?
HERRERA:
Well, I’m thinking of
Balanchine—his combinations of steps to create a formalcomposition. Maybe it’s also a part of making the collages,
using elements to create an image. Choreography is unifying
certain steps to create a new dance and the same thing with
collage—you have fragments. The language of collage as an
elevated art form is somewhat recent. I mean collage has
been going on for a long time before that, but it was elevated
by the Dada artists, Picasso, Braque, and the Germans. The
twentieth-century history of collage is extremely important
for me. I’m
very aware of all the people that have worked in the medium.
ART:21:
You’re also influenced
by music.
HERRERA:
Music is related to the way
of thinking for what I do—because music offers no solution.
It has no content. It’s just total subjectivity. So
it lasts for a limited time, and it’s gone. Unless
somebody plays it...it’s just non-existent. This
experience of making it happen and then disappear—the transient
nature of music—is fascinating to me. I’d like
the visual images that I’m trying to do to be nonobjective,
just like music.
I want to go further with music because I don’t understand
it. I can’t play music, I don’t have a musical
ear. I’m frustrated by that. I’m a patron of
music, I buy records or CDs and I go to concerts. That’s
the only thing I can do. I have two brothers that are good
musicians but I wasn’t blessed with that gift. I really
would like to play music or at least to know how it is made
or how it is composed. It’s such an enigma to me that
somebody could actually put notes down and it will mean something.
So I will always try to solve the riddle, I will never do
it, but just keeping at it—going to concerts or buying music—will
allow me to be part of that process.
ART:21:
Structure is very important
to you.
HERRERA:
I think structure is a very
serious matter for visual artists. Even artists that don’t
agree that they are thinking about structure, I think they
have an innate desire or knowledge of how to construct things
with structure. In my case, I respect the way other artists
build structure or deal with structure.
Music is the most
challenging to me, just because I don’t know how it’s
made. I can see that a painting or a drawing was made this
way and will be impressed by the different solutions of this
structure, but in music it becomes totally impossible to
decipher because I’m not a musician.
In my work I’m
trying to set up structure that holds the image together.
I think there are certain rules that allow for images to
be better than others—if that’s through structure
I’m not really sure. It’s complex. But structure
is a preoccupation of mine. I’m always looking for
something that will hold the image into place and that will
not look forced, but will look like this is the only way
that it could be placed on the paper. If it’s through
fragmentation, collaging, painting or drawing, I’m
always trying to look for the essential arrangement that
these elements need.
Well, the interest in abstraction
is that I think it still has possibility or potential to
communicate. Of course the optimism, idealism, or utopic
ideas of abstraction from the beginning of the 20th century
are no longer valid. But that doesn’t mean that younger
artists cannot use this language—because it’s
relatively young. I mean abstraction has been around since
the beginning
of the world—people have been using it in ceramics, sculptures,
textiles—so it’s nothing new, it’s part
of our DNA. But as a young artist with this history of modernism
and postmodernism, I think there’s still potential
for abstraction to become a viable language of visual communication.
The same thing with collage—we need to explore what else
they can do. I don’t know if I’m there yet, but
just to be able to have those possibilities, I’m grateful.
I’m going to continue to see what I can say with this
language, with this set of limitations or boundaries.
ART:21:
What are the rules of creating
an abstract image?
HERRERA:
Well, not using figures or representation.
Allowing form and color to be able to create a strong image.
I find abstraction satisfying because I can actually enter
the work more easily. It is a preference of mine to be able
to see work that is not telling me exactly what to think
about, or what to do with it. Abstraction allows me to play
within certain boundaries of interaction, and these boundaries
are pretty intimate because the work is not telling me how
to deal with them. I just bring my own history to them.
It
is a complex experience because we are informed with the
language of abstraction from the past—and we’re
seeing it also now. Some people might find it frustrating,
now,
in this age; some people will call it irresponsible. I think
there is a potential for these images to communicate different
things to different viewers in a very touching way. But that
experience is not a public experience. It’s very, very
private and it’s very, very personal. I’m more
interested in that aspect of the visual language, how an
image can speak to you in a very touching way that is both
charged with knowledge and with memory. It can trigger so
many associations because it’s not clear about what
it’s trying to say—but you actually attach yourself
to the work, and it becomes experience.
ART:21:
The experience becomes yours...
HERRERA:
Since there is no direction—usually
no title—you’re basically looking at this with
your baggage of intellectual knowledge and your memories,
desires
and emotional life, all combined. So you make your own collage
and then you bring it to the piece. You juxtapose yourself—attach
yourself—to the image and then a new thing is created. You
are fragmented, and the piece comes from fragmentation. And
what I want is that this experience of the fragmented person
and the fragmented image becomes a new whole, a hybrid experience.
Nothing is ever sure in life...so I’m playing
with that idea of ambiguity and uncertainty. And I’m
welcoming that.
ART:21:
Do you see any relationship
between language and abstraction?
HERRERA:
Being born in Latin America
and living in the United States, you get accustomed to accents
and the way people speak. Fragments of voice intonation,
the way people pronounce and use words. I find it very rich
to be able to identify those fragments of language. So maybe
fragmentation and the way language gets transformed and recycled
could be informative to my work...a correlation between
the visual language I use and spoken language—the way we
clearly identify a huge amount of information through very
short gestures or intonation of voices or fragments of words.
ART:21:
How has growing up in Latin
America affected your work?
HERRERA:
In Latin America there was lots
of exposure to Mexican film, Argentinean films, Brazilian
music. It was daily information. Venezuela is a country of
immigrants. Especially during the ’50s, a large number
of people emigrated from Europe and they brought their specific
accents and languages, so it was a complete mixture. Growing
up it was natural to be receiving that kind of information
from different groups of immigrants—through sound, language,
words. Traveling later to the U.S. with that kind of baggage,
it made me much more aware that each region of the U.S. has
a different personality through the way people speak.
ART:21:
What about abstraction as a
visual language?
HERRERA:
There could be a correlation
between language and fragmentation, at least spoken language—the
way we clearly identify very short gestures, intonation of
voices, fragments of words. The visual fragment carries a
lot of associative meaning in the same way. We read through
association in both visual and verbal language.
Being Latin American, you’re made up of so many fragments
from different cultures. Venezuelan culture is extremely
complex...and then you’re part of Latin America,
and part of America itself. The European tradition is part
of you because you came from there. The way that you are
fragmented inside makes you stronger. I see it as a positive
thing. It just informs who I am.
