Reality at the Scan of a Barcode Steven P. Nichols Jr. - The News
go to original March 12, 2012

Look on the back of pretty much any product you own, whether it’s a book, a movie, a bottle of water, a sandwich wrapper or a stick of deodorant, and you’ll find one reoccurring trend: the presence of a barcode. The barcode, which has proven indispensable for the clerk at your local supermarket, has weaseled its way into so many aspects of everyday life it has almost become a staple of modern culture.

That’s why Liliana Duering, an Argentine painter and set designer who works with the concept of “defragmented realities,” jumped on the idea for an art exhibition. The result is the Museo Mural Diego Rivera’s newest art exhibit, titled “Somos códigos” (“We Are Codes”), which was inaugurated yesterday.

The exhibition features a series of 19 paintings and drawings made by the artist in 2011 that examine the way in which the barcode relates to and affects the daily reality of modern urbanites.

“Liliana Duering interacts with human beings, objects, environments and architecture without violating them, without forcing anything,” art critic Raquel Tibol said. “The shapes, which are executed with brushstrokes in different directions and a smoothness which also blends well with more forceful strokes, allow her to explore singular and hidden meanings and express them in a way that the things that appear from her artwork become visible to a certain extent.”

Some of her pieces take a more indirect and abstract approach to revealing the phenomena, such as the case with the oil painting “Código bamboo” (“Bamboo Code”). The painting features a strong black background with shoots of bamboo stemming from a series of faded numbers at the bottom of the piece. The bamboo shoots, which appear to be etched on, rather than painted, are represented by a series of lines, varying in thickness, which appear to represent barcodes – something that could easily be missed if weren’t for the numbers on the bottom.

Other pieces, such as “Hombre de negocios” (“Business Man”), a piece which uses a hodgepodge of different materials plastered over a piece of composite wood, leave no doubt about the Duering’s intention while creating the works. “Hombre de negocios” features a man dressed in a suit, holding a suitcase, walking in what appears to be a dark alley – the piece is entirely black and white, with the forms of the objects in the environment and the human figure only becoming visible by the occasional interruption of a series of fragmented barcodes.

The ominous colors of the piece, coupled with the fact that the face of the unidentified man is obscured by the numbers and thick lines of a barcode, paint a dark and negative picture of what it’s like to be in his situation.

While Duering’s works featured in “Somos códigos” may appear bland and simple to the untrained eye, devoid of the detail and intricacy of paintings by other artists, Sylvia Navarette, the curator of the exhibition, sees it differently.

“People say this type of thing is easy,” Navarette said. “But there is nothing harder than working with rudimentary and simple subjects. She incorporates, artistically speaking, this monotone system of digital signs and rules into distinct properties of the everyday environment, mimicking the qualities of the architecture and public transportation of the surroundings.”

Decide for yourself by visiting exhibition which will remain open through Apr. 22 at the Museo Mural Diego Rivera’s Historic Center location.

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