Daniel Martinez at Simon Preston
I once had the opportunity to hang out with Daniel Martinez in Tijuana during inSite05, he’s an amazing person, charismatic and smart and generally I’m a fan of what he does and has to say. However this show I hated. It was boring and not compelling at all. The text and numerical figures of human carnage painted on to the walls of the gallery are blunt and sad realities of humanity, but the display fails to do anything, even hit the viewer over the head, which I think is what Daniel is trying to do. Putting this stuff inside of a commercial gallery is simply silly, stupid and claims the viewer as ignorant. If an artist is really going to try to use a commercial gallery as a platform to declare outrage at human carnage, then do something with it. This show does nothing. Or perhaps the gallery sold some of the work and they made $$$.
I kind of liked the hare bomb, could be a compelling symbol in a more interesting installation.
Fun facts by Daniel Martinez
If he had really exploited the fun house mirror or just the fun house as a point of departure, perhaps it could have been a stirring installation. “HUMAN LIFE IS A MISTAKE WE ARE NOT HERE BECAUSE WE ARE FREE WE ARE HERE BECAUSE WE ARE NOT FREE…” BLAH BLAH BLah blah blah…