I wrote this write-up about a year ago after the Amazing Ernest Concepcion showed his work in my school. Google him and marvel in the work that is....
Against Nature exhibits art work that signifies a clash between a man-made thing and the natural world. The piece that called my attention was “A Desire for Conflict”, cleanly drawn on paper with a thin sharpie and a vivid imagination by Ernest Concepcion. This piece holds fast to the overall theme of the gallery pitting something man-made or completely alien against the animals that roam the earth. One can only hope that Concepcion’s attention to detail, dark love of portraying violence, and wittiness in his pieces will propel his artwork to where it belongs; the top.
As I scanned over the piece, attempting to locate all of my favorite famous robots like R2-D2, Optimus Prime, the Terminator, and the maid from the Jetsons, graphic details poured into my brain like bubbly into a flute. A zebra’s guts spurt from its body after being sawed in half by a vicious robot, a rhino impales a robot in his gut whilst another robot lays stunned in his path, the Iron Giant crushes seals underfoot, and wildebeest trample several robots into the ground. The classic characters included in the painting draw ones attention to the piece and were meant to hold you there. The key parts to this drawing are the details, and one is forced to look at them. Since this piece is simply inked with sharpie, the viewer’s eyes are free to scan the entire piece and not focus on a specific detail due to the boldness of colors. The artist says his violent images are a product of the videogames he constantly plays to rid of his artists’ block. Although the piece is gruesome to the point of losing a meal, it conveys the sheer horror of war; however this doesn’t involve men against men, but robots against animals.
“A Desire for Conflict” is a gruesome battle between what is said to be placed on this earth by god and what was built on this earth by man. Ernest Concepcion’s groundbreaking portrayal of wars at their grisliest is a fresh revival on other depictions of war. Instead of pitting people against people, he sets trivial things against equally trivial things. Some may not understand his reasoning or actions; others may simply wish to hug a toilet when they view his work, but after taking that typical seven second glance at this piece, I couldn’t pull my eyes away. Those average seconds blurred into an abnormal five minutes and without hesitation I started to record the details the average person might miss. That severed giraffe head is rotating towards the robot that shot it, not away from it as it should. Despite the slight lack in understanding in physics (or maybe the bullet way especially made by the robots creator, or maybe even the head was not off, but my perspective), “A Desire for Conflict” held my attention like none of the other paintings could.
AWESOME.
Mia.
