An Amalgamation of The Americas : Santibáñez Servat
The work of Pablo Santibáñez Servat is a magical synthesis of occidental and indigenous visuals intrinsic to the Americas. Born in Uruguay to Chilean parents of European and Native American descent, the artist himself is a uniquely American amalgamation.
Santibáñez Servat often weaves ancient symbols with contemporary images as though no time has lapsed; he creates his own symbolic language, which seems to deny the very concept of time or at least the beginning and ending of eras, suggesting instead the coexistence of epochs or congruence of time.
The work, “Ninfo”, 2016, is a perfect example of this approach. The subject’s torso is modeled after an old black and white image the artist found of a French sailor, the legs are the artist’s own with tattoos painted to match the sailor’s, while the head and face of the figure are actually female and taken from an image of an open mouthed opera singer performing in the Vivaldi opera, “Motezuma”.
The strangely beautiful Mary Shelley-esque creature is seated in a modern red leather chair, while at the upper left of the painting, injected at a hard right angle is what appears to be a neoclassical sculpture, a European woman, perhaps a saint, with a red orange stripe across her mouth. Why? I’m not sure to be honest. Is she meant to be viewed in contrast to this new form Servat has created? I will ask him.
Sanibáñez Servat painted “Ninfo” because, “…it pleased me”, and though the painting has been rejected by gallery after gallery due to the difficulty in selling such a work, it also pleases me. Not so much because I disagree with their assessment, but because I find it intensely compelling, as I do all of his work.
Perhaps most evocative of this mixing of American symbology is “Colibri”.
She shares her eyes with two hummingbirds or colibri in Spanish, hence the title of the piece. Hummingbirds are often seen as symbols of fertility and abundance. In stark contrast to her is the flat representation of death, hands bound, in the background. The flatness of death only adds to the three dimensionality of life, depicted in the foreground by the subject and her accoutrement.
She is crowned with a life giving prickly pear, (a cactus fruit), and surrounded by a triumvirate of cacao pods which were once used as currency in Central and South America. Floating in space to her right is what appears to be a heart shaped peyote cactus, make of that what you will. The nude female chimera of European ancestry, bears the tattoo “sauvage”, French for “savage” across her chest with a devil underneath and literally holds her tongue. Is it simply a sensual pose as the artist himself says, or do I see something more?
…art is the ultimate Rorschach test, and Santibáñez Servat’s work certainly lends itself to a deep dive into the American subconscious.
- S. Conde
Pablo Santibáñez Servat’s work will be on exhibition in the group show, “Scorpio 1969”. Join us for the opening Thursday, November 7th from 6-9 pm at Conde Contemporary, 204 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables.