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Lot Essay
As described by the title, Rainbow Punch, this dynamic work from Ronald Ventura packs a dual punch in presenting an impactful painted canvas paired with a brilliantly crafted sculpture-installation. The rare combination of these two formats, Ventura's established and acclaimed medium of oil on canvas together with his love for sculptural creation, affords a complete visual and psychological experience. For a viewer observing this multi-faceted work and attempting to place it within an art historical context, it recalls the media-sculptures of the late Korean artist, Nam June Paik (1932 - 2006). A visionary of the technological revolution years ahead of his time, Nam often used the outer casings of TV sets to build human-sized robots, or large multimedia wall installations so dizzyingly kaleidoscopic that they could cause epileptic fits in a viewer. An iconic work by Nam which effectively captured the public's imagination was a tongue-in-cheek sculpture of Buddha, watching himself on a close-circuit television. This inversion of the relationship between observer and observed, and the role of the media as a source of unconventional wisdom has now been taken to a new level by Ventura, in a work equally colourful and dynamic but with a new, updated language of contemporaneity.
A Sucker Punch to the Rainbow of Quick Fixes
by Igan D'Bayan
Ronald Ventura's latest artwork (a painting-and-sculpture installation, an interaction between the 2-D and 3-D world) would make viewers pose the Alan Moore question, "Who is watching the watcher?"
Rainbow Punch is composed of a sculpture of a television set; inside it is a boy, with tongue out, with hands making the heavy metal finger sign. He is propped by gadgets that have been rendered essential in our everyday multi-tasking world: laptop, PSP and cell phone - technology at his beck and call. He is snacking on burgers, fries and soda from a fast-food joint. Everything signifying instantaneous kicks.
But dig the solipsism: it is the figure inside the TV set that is watching the spectacle.
In this case, a painting of a wrestling match splattered with blood that has been transformed into all the colors of M&M candies: yellow, red, violet and blue in cute, saccharine hues. The brutality and resulting gore from these grappling wrestlers have been transfigured into something with a high entertainment value. Something that would take our minds off the atrocities outside our own windows. Something that speaks about our society's bloodlust for violence, violence and more violence.
Of violence - like those addictive M&M's - that melts in your mind, not in your hand.
How we all crave for instant gratification - not just what we put in our hands and our mouths, but also what seeps into our heads.
If singer Bruce Cockburn kicked the darkness until it bled daylight, Ronald Ventura throws a sucker punch into a motley-colored rainbow of quick fixes and instant kicks until it bleeds profusely, exposing the blackness of our own hearts.
A Sucker Punch to the Rainbow of Quick Fixes
by Igan D'Bayan
Ronald Ventura's latest artwork (a painting-and-sculpture installation, an interaction between the 2-D and 3-D world) would make viewers pose the Alan Moore question, "Who is watching the watcher?"
Rainbow Punch is composed of a sculpture of a television set; inside it is a boy, with tongue out, with hands making the heavy metal finger sign. He is propped by gadgets that have been rendered essential in our everyday multi-tasking world: laptop, PSP and cell phone - technology at his beck and call. He is snacking on burgers, fries and soda from a fast-food joint. Everything signifying instantaneous kicks.
But dig the solipsism: it is the figure inside the TV set that is watching the spectacle.
In this case, a painting of a wrestling match splattered with blood that has been transformed into all the colors of M&M candies: yellow, red, violet and blue in cute, saccharine hues. The brutality and resulting gore from these grappling wrestlers have been transfigured into something with a high entertainment value. Something that would take our minds off the atrocities outside our own windows. Something that speaks about our society's bloodlust for violence, violence and more violence.
Of violence - like those addictive M&M's - that melts in your mind, not in your hand.
How we all crave for instant gratification - not just what we put in our hands and our mouths, but also what seeps into our heads.
If singer Bruce Cockburn kicked the darkness until it bled daylight, Ronald Ventura throws a sucker punch into a motley-colored rainbow of quick fixes and instant kicks until it bleeds profusely, exposing the blackness of our own hearts.