The Colombian critic, José Hernán Aguilar (b. 1952), emphasizes the importance of the viewers’ gaze in the work, Sin título (1984), by Alicia Barney (b. 1952). In Aguilar’s opinion, the participant/viewer actually ends up taking part in the research. On this point, it must be stated that Barney was constantly concerned about the very limited visual and conceptual culture of the public, in general. This made it more difficult for viewers to experience projects with a large scope, works that included prior research and unconventional forms of the images [within the piece].
Changes in the ways of making and presenting art in the 1980s created incentives for the critic to introduce and interpret the approaches of artists like Barney, in spite of the specialized language of criticism. In this particular article, Aguilar does a comparative analysis of two of the artist’s projects, which he discusses in the following terms: “While this (Río Cauca) is an artwork, it also acts differently: it is scientific evidence, a document and a political stance (…).” “It is a visual report, artistic, but serious;” “there is an investigative approach in Barney’s work, but it also asserts its artistic intent.” Excerpts of this kind reinforce the idea of the change that permeates this work.
Alicia Barney is one of the visual artists who marks a change in the forms of representation in the 1980s. Barney experiments with new materials, and her approaches are based on substantial research processes. Her interest in ecological themes becomes evident in the two works reviewed by the critic, Aguilar, in his article. An idea first developed in Río Cauca, in which the water is a protagonist, gains strength in her work, Sin título, executed two years later. It is an assembly of three structures that are turned into closed spaces entered by the viewer in order to discover the artist’s hypotheses about the destruction of the environment.
This document is interesting because, apart from its informative nature, it opens up two issues: the work of an artist that integrates serious research, and visual arts approaches that highlight the importance of a critical stance at the time. Thinking about art and making art as two aspects that are complementary and necessary. For other documents related to this one, see “Alicia Barney entre la realidad del arte y de la vida” [doc. no. 1087494]; “Alicia Barney: El paisaje alternativo. Aferrada al drama que la naturaleza provoca [doc. no. 1078601]; and “A propósito del ‘Diario Objeto’” [doc. no. 1098241].
