Raul Ortega Ayala focuses on varied habitual themes (as well as the office, food and gardening are current concerns) and explores them through an immersive process of research and direct experience lasting at least a year. The objects he encounters and his experiences become the materials to produce what he calls ‘souvenirs’, that are components of a series. Ortega Ayala exhibits a new work from Bureaucratic Sonata for this site-specific commission, installing a passenger lift in the centre of the plaza. The lift’s unusual location becomes more intriguing as passers-by discover a small opening, allowing them to peer inside. Viewers discover an undulating arrangement of post-it notes that make up a hypnotic and seemingly endless landscape inside the lift. Ortega Ayala suggests the thought-provoking capacity of a simple piece of paper intended for quick ideas and simple reminders. The Economist Plaza is an ideal platform for Ortega Ayala’s work because he believes that any environment, including the office, can generate artistic creativity.
Raul Ortega Ayala focuses on varied habitual themes (as well as the office, food and gardening are current concerns) and explores them through an immersive process of research and direct experience lasting at least a year. The objects he encounters and his experiences become the materials to produce what he calls ‘souvenirs’, that are components of a series.
The Artist:
London based, Mexican-born Raol Ortega Ayala graduated in 2003 with an MFA from The Glasgow School of Art and Hunter College, NY. Ortega Ayala is currently exhibiting in Orange, a festival of food and contemporary art in Montreal. Upcoming shows in 2007 include works from the gardening series at Laura Bartlett Gallery. Rokeby Gallery represents Ortega Ayala’s Bureaucratic Sonata, exhibiting some 30 works from the series earlier this year.