EN SILENCIO
Andrés Cortes, 2023
Curated by Daniel Paul Schubert
"A vast empty Western landscape. The camera pans across it. Then the shot slides onto a sunburned, desperate face. The long shot has become a closeup without a cut, revealing that the landscape was not empty but occupied by a desperado very close to us.
In these opening frames, Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots.
There is a moment, for example, when men do not notice a vast encampment of the Union Army until they stumble upon it. And a moment in a cemetery when a man materializes out of thin air even though he should have been visible for a mile. And the way men walk down a street in full view and nobody is able to shoot them, maybe because they are not in the same frame with them.
Leone cares not at all about the practical or the plausible, and builds his great film on the rubbish of Western movie clichés, using style to elevate dreck into art."
- Roger Ebert “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” RogerEbert.com, 3 August 2003, rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1968.
Andrés Cortes, 2023
Curated by Daniel Paul Schubert
"A vast empty Western landscape. The camera pans across it. Then the shot slides onto a sunburned, desperate face. The long shot has become a closeup without a cut, revealing that the landscape was not empty but occupied by a desperado very close to us.
In these opening frames, Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots.
There is a moment, for example, when men do not notice a vast encampment of the Union Army until they stumble upon it. And a moment in a cemetery when a man materializes out of thin air even though he should have been visible for a mile. And the way men walk down a street in full view and nobody is able to shoot them, maybe because they are not in the same frame with them.
Leone cares not at all about the practical or the plausible, and builds his great film on the rubbish of Western movie clichés, using style to elevate dreck into art."
- Roger Ebert “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” RogerEbert.com, 3 August 2003, rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-1968.
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veering towards something else
a bit of chase cat and mouse never this or that never a one or two area of gray outside the rules our own marks to follow a moment then we brake rift towards another direction this town deserves a better class of criminal check my range just good, honest, hard work broken shovels off guard a fresh black eye patiently calculates never static streamlined a tactful approach "check your range" work internal external artist enters a practice work 'road warriors' acting as the drilling personal discipline feed and nourish roll off some thoughts vastness greater as a group think about the center core, tools/materials more with less can Dig be composed of flowers sticky situation TO BE PIGEON HOLED... 'more a wandering carpenter than a painter' |
process, context, scale, material
just made something nothing more nothing less just insulation primer and golf leaf a plastic tarp can Dig be composed of flowers Superstitions "slumps" No regrets, no blame game, no excuses on the road to Omaha memories help inform from a distance a mosaic restraint and silence less with your words more with the material spaghetti westerns long takes desperados landscape a shoot-out no words solace in the silence Little Italy warm days warm nights sounds of the railroad the Missouri River physical and non-physical space open ended quiet journeys in between a sort of mortar One week out El Camino a path, or a road a footpath, a horse trail external route internal quest to let go a little stillness at the end |
How do we write a story? Or does a story tend to write itself? The words we write down might have meaning for a moment, provide us with brief direction along the ‘El Camino Road’ but those words change their meaning, lose their meaning, and gain new meaning all together. The good stories tend to meander through that meaning, find benefit and pleasure through the forks that develop along that ‘El Camino Trail'. And for certain moments, precious moments, the words stop all together and provide an ease of uninterrupted silence. That’s when the real work begins, that’s when time starts to slow down and perhaps pause all together. A breeze passes through Little Italy, a ripple gallops off the Missouri River, steam billows from the railroad, and a shovel digs into the midwestern clay as the story continues.
Photos Courtesy of David Cortes
Photos Courtesy of Dan Schwalm
About the Artist:
Andrés Cortes is a first-generation Mexican/California native, born in Los Angeles, CA in 1985. He received a BFA in Drawing and Painting, with a minor in Comparative World Literature from California State University, Long Beach in 2010. Andrés lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY from 2010 – 2015. He currently resides and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Andrés Cortes is a first-generation Mexican/California native, born in Los Angeles, CA in 1985. He received a BFA in Drawing and Painting, with a minor in Comparative World Literature from California State University, Long Beach in 2010. Andrés lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY from 2010 – 2015. He currently resides and works in Los Angeles, CA.