| I love contradictions. I think that the only thing that holds life together is the constant necessity to contradict oneself. What would art and death be without them? I remember going back to a time when I was a fetus; this was during a hypnosis session, of course. I had the feeling that it was the closest state to being dead, while being alive that one can reach. It was a totally pleasant feeling, one of floating in amniotic fluid—eternally suspended and still, ignorant of all life. I remember that I didn’t want to leave that state and that I hated it when I heard the countdown calling me back to being completely awake. It was like a re-birth. |  |
Fabio Corredor is a Columbian artist based in New York.
Fabio Corredor, Stand Up Donââ¬â¢t Fall, 2007. Augmented Reality Installation and performance. Cardboard boxes, computer interface, RC tank. Courtesy of the artist.I love contradictions. I think that the only thing that holds life together is the constant necessity to contradict oneself. What would art and death be without them? I remember going back to a time when I was a fetus; this was during a hypnosis session, of course. I had the feeling that it was the closest state to being dead, while being alive that one can reach. It was a totally pleasant feeling, one of floating in amniotic fluid—eternally suspended and still, ignorant of all life. I remember that I didn’t want to leave that state and that I hated it when I heard the countdown calling me back to being completely awake. It was like a re-birth. I think that in my artwork, in one way or another, there has been an underlying need to reach that state. It’s like I am reminding myself and telling people to forget about everything that seems to be relevant, that there’s something unknown out there that is even better. Maybe it’s pure art, or perhaps total destruction.
In an art critique someone suggested that my work seemed to be founded on Gnostic Mysticism. I didn’t know what he meant then, but then I did research and I can’t agree more. I guess that that is why I am so seduced by all mass media news junk running infinitely every second. As a good reader of Baudrillard, I know that there’s no message at all, that we all are a mass-produced byproduct of the idea of freedom and liberty. I buy that idea, seriously. But I’m not that existential. And I still see the beauty of junk, and of its empty message, because as I said, paradoxically, I can’t let go of the idea that there’s still something good out there beyond comprehension. I just don’t know what it is, but maybe I have the feeling that it’s something compared to that feeling of peace going to bed and waking up fresh and relaxed the next morning. Usually, those nights are of deep sleep and make it very hard to remember my dreams the next morning. When that happens, I immediately begin a self-hypnosis session, and induce myself into lucid dreaming, to try to remember, or better, to continue in that nirvana-esque state.
One day I forgot to come back to total awareness, and I went into a hypnotic state through the city. I would say it was like sleepwalking. I can swear that if somebody asked me to jump on the train tracks, I would have done it, and I am glad I didn’t hear any voices then, but otherwise it was quite an experience. All junk was brighter than ever, which made me feel so attached to the feeling of being alive. Time went very slowly. It almost seemed to be receding at times. Then someone in the subway started talking about global warming and how we all are going to die. That was a super heightened frightening feeling, an abrupt distraction that took me off of my fetal hypnotic tranquility. I can swear that we are all going to die. I just don’t know if it will be from global warming, cancer, AIDS, bird flue, rat bites, or another bad presidential term. My next show will be about that: distraction and global warming. Hell yeah, global warming is yet another coping mechanism to escape existence, a distraction from that something else we don’t know about. And, beware: when all sea water levels rise, we’ll be plagued with alligators that will devour us all. But don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate life. I just love art even more.
