As part of the Oxygen Art Centre’s summer residency and exhibition program, Quebec resident and Argentina-born sculptor José Luis Torres will be creating and installing new work from his series of in situ installation pieces called Mutations.
In these evocative installations the artist has in the past gathered and then assembled random everyday material such as, snowboards, deer antlers, chairs, street signs into contemporary art constructions. In doing so he reflects back to us our obsession with material culture and our desire to collect.
The Oxygen Art Centre will host an opening reception for Torres and his Mutations Friday from 7 to 9 p.m.
The artist will give a talk about his work Saturday at 4 p.m. The exhibition will run through September with gallery hours from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.
Although part of a series, Torres’ installation at the Oxygen Art Centre will be unique to Nelson.
Torres says that “In my work, I attempt to stimulate the relationship between location, my pieces and the individual experiencing it. My body of works, which are mainly in the form of sculpture, are essentially motivated by the possibility of diverting the senses and simple manipulation to everyday objects and recycled materials from our domestic environments. “
If Torres’ installations and sculptures provide a striking image of urban plight they also point towards paradoxical aspirations of finding home and leaving home that is at the core of his work — a position Torres knows well having immigrated from Argentina to Canada 12 years ago. He feels that these are “conditions of existence.”
It is perhaps in this parallel pursuit that the pendulum of energy confronts the viewer to find a still point in his work.