Emotional Minimalism
Marti is Spanish, and this can be seen in the sense of spirituality of his native land and the strong sensuality he evokes. At the same time though, he represents a stateless nature: born in Spain, studying in the United States, living for a long time in Australia and finally moving to Glasgow, Scotland. This makes him the right person to represent a globalised and neo-baroque society, full of syncretism and contradiction; a society in which people seek dystopias of illusion and excess because they perceive harmony and happiness as no more than a mirage.
One of the most evident characteristics of Dani Marti’s work, instantly perceivable by critics and by the general public, is the illuminating mixture of a ‘cold’ medium and an ardent content. On the one hand we have the choice of an abstract language based on simple geometries which are repeated in a modular manner; on the other there is the will to concentrate on a figurative genre, the portrait, particularly on the psychological introspection and on that high degree of intimacy between artist and subject (but also between subject and spectator) that it entails. The technique chosen implies a repetitive and patient labour, a concentration on the rule that governs
the weaving of the cords that does not allow any emotions or distractions; and then there is the ability of 2 communication, bound to the sensuality of the materials used and the emotional force of the colour. Marti glances at minimalism and all the abstract-geometric tradition of the twentieth century in his forms – in the way he uses space, in the choice of lowly and industrial materials, in the patient warping of the surfaces. However he manages to express a rather baroque style in the way in which he makes these forms become opulent, luxuriant and communicative.The most pertinent comparison to Dani Marti could be that of Felix Gonzales Torres, to whom Marti dedicated a passionate homage in the exhibition “Looking for Felix” (Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney, 2000).
Like Marti, Gonzales-Torres overheats his forms and minimalist and conceptual languages using everyday objects and industrial materials to relate about himself, loss, love, death and other experiences. To all this Dani Marti adds the pious exercise of a craftsman, the study of language of which he learnt all its subtleties in time. This skill is the starting point from which to enter, finally, into his work.
The artist seeks an intimate relation with his work and, in turn, the work seems to invite the spectator to do the same.
Extracts from Closer by Domenico Quaranta, published in Dani Marti: Dark Bones, exhibition catalogue, Brescia, Italy, October 2006
Video Works
Marti’s recent video works (his first in this medium) deal with the same obsession as the woven pieces: portraiture. While The Stamp Collector (2006) delivers a more abstract and formal approach– we hardly see the person, and when we do so it is under the ‘second skin’ of a mask and a rubber suit – The Evils of Forgetfulness (2006) provides us with a greater sense of the persona, Robert. However, faced with the camera, the character soon slips into a succession of spontaneous performances turning the whole idea of making
a portrait into a contractio in terminis.For Marti, both weaving and (video) taping represent an act of bondage, a ritual that enables the artist to ‘possess’ the person that is portrayed. Aesthetics, pleasure, fantasy and security come into play reminding us of Foucault’s ideas about violence as an exercise of power that negatively affects freedom and through which the dignity of the other is perceived under a new light. It is
a question of faith, of mutual consensus, but also, and most importantly, about portraiture as an impossible act.In his work Dani Marti exposes the torture of our spirits and our desire for emancipation, in a visceral and suffocating way. It is as though the artist wants to remind us that heaven and hell are inside ourselves.
Extract from Heaven and Hell, Paco Barragan on Dani Marti, Contemporary Art Magazine, Vol 86, 2006
Paco Barragan is an independent curator based in Madrid and the Artistic Director of the Castellon County Council International Painting Prize.