Singapore Biennale 2008 (11 September - 16 November 2008)

Artistic director: Fumio Nanjo; curators: Joselina Cruz and Matthew Ngui.

Introduction

By Joselina Cruz (Curator)

On the facade of Raffles Shopping Centre in Singapore, looms the large-scale photographic work of Isaac Montoya. The image is a rainbow-coloured portrait of a young woman, hair seemingly in dread locks, her mouth open. The photograph pulstates with a frenetic energy.

Most of Montoya's artworks are amnipulated photographs that allow for several layers of meaning. On one hand, he creates glossy, attractive images often identified with consumerist iconography. These images are reminiscent of those found in magazines, advertising billboards and TV ads. All are slick - visual gratification, immediate; the bombardment of the products' glories, relentless. Montoya's photographs however lend several, alternate readings. By providing screens or filters that reveal other images, he provides us with another reality. A reality we would we would rather not see, or be be reminded of. He ensures that the second (and third) portraits that are revealed draw us into an uncomfortable place - one we would rather have remain at arms length.

Montoya has been called a chameleon, a reference to his work and his open person. He has created a female version of himself as Isa Montoya (Montoya himself dressed as a woman), whose return to Spain is chronicled in a parody of 'Hola' (re-titled by Montoya 'Ole') a Spanish magazine dedicated to the idiosyncracies of the rich and famous. His other photographs too are 'doubled', all are simulacra of realities that border on mockery and social commentary.

For the Singapore Biennale, Montoya's work Fantasmas (Phantoms) (2008) contains several images that nudge us to think about the state of contemporary word events. He layers three images, two of which areseen through red and blue filters. Montoya has taken the imagistic spectres from our subconscious - the portraits are glimpses of places around the world where violence continues unabaited, where peace is still rooted in the hope of its coming. The work's location in a busy consumer area prompts people to face up to this situation. There is not one but several realities, a variety of angles to everything and every event.

Text courtesy of Joselina Cruz and Singapore Biennale 2008

FANTASMAS, 2008. Instalación en vía pública.

Fantasmas surge como una instalación en la vía pública dentro de la Bienal de Singapur en 2008, comisariada por Fumio Nanjo y Joselina Cruz. Para esta ocasión se plantea un proyecto de imágenes ocultas (Criptovisión) en el que existen dos imágenes que sólo pueden revelarse a través de un filtro rojo y otro azul.

En Fantasmas, 2008, el espectador dispondrá de tres niveles de relación. Una primera imagen que podrá descubrir a simple vista, con el rostro multicolor de una Drag Queen, abriendo una multiplicidad de identidades a medio camino entre el disfraz, el maquillaje y la ambigüedad personal. Al realizarse en la vía pública los filtros tendrán un protagonismo especial, entre la escultura y la funcionalidad urbana. Se plantean como unas cabinas donde el espectador puede entrar físicamente y descubrir otras realidades. Las imágenes ocultas revelarán dos lugares en conflicto, aún hoy, como son Irak y Afganistán. El grito de las victimas parece soterrado por el bullicio de un mundo de rascacielos y lujo, lleno de color y reflejos, como un maquillaje de indiferencia.