"‘Pleasing Vertigo' is a very complex composition, where nothing is random.”
~ José Conceptes
THERE is something about black and white photographs which gives a sense of ‘heightening’, an unexpected thrill and sublimation.
Where art appreciation is concerned, it does not take an expert to decipher meaning. If something moves you to a point an image is embedded in the mind forever, then you are in the “bell jar” – there is no coming back. But it is the best kind of madness and makes the best kind of stories.
The artist says: “My work is open to many explanations, whichever drives you to intensify your mind when looking at every single photograph.
“Each one of them is a very multifaceted composition, where nothing is random. But it also leans towards perception, and I attempt to produce unique works. I would like to convey an aesthesis of timelessness through the simplicity, calmness and neatness of urban buildings.
“These ‘snapshots’ delves into something much more than mere cognitive content, allowing audiences to see my work according to my ideas of architecture. The images disassociate them from the actual structure, from its real space.
“I capture my perspective of the empty spaces simply through my camera lenses. Through my work, you can imagine how the past fuses with the present and future, where chronology is abandoned.”
Jose Conceptes is a multiple award-winning Spain-based conceptual photographer and creative graphic designer. Born in Valencia, Spain in 1978, Conceptes is interested in what can be seen and can’t be seen by the human eye. Each of his photographs allows the viewer to extend the imagination and form a personal reflection of the work.
Architecture and urban landscapes dominate his works. He plays with the strength of angles, lights and shadows (in black & white) to give his photographs a special attraction where simplicity, cleanliness and stillness convey the essence of eternity inherent in urban structures.
The artist’s images, at a glance, appear not of this world, that sense of surrealism being the basis of his compositions. Through years of experimenting with angles, forms and patterns, he gives audiences a universe seen through his eyes, where equivocalness is the key to unlock his mind.
What pulls you in are not the images themselves, but the connection of his emotional reaction to them. There is a rigid yet lucid beauty in the razor lines of his buildings. It is like a maze through which runs a coiled and non-figurative macrocosm of lines, cubes and circles that come together into an ordination where one finds it almost impossible to see where it begins or ends. But then again, this is the artist’s intentions – to manipulate reality, to make us look harder and see the spaces in between. We are forced to ideate structures as ‘living’ entities; they grow, change and eventually collapse.
No doubt, the communicatory quality of Jose’s photographs relies heavily on beefed-up tonal contrasts and intensive use of black and white, but the photographer also channels an immense personal relationship with his subject matter and leaves an indelible ‘trace’ that is quite fascinating.
But then, any photographic content surely concerns effects in the dealings between the photo taker and the topic/ theme, the reciprocation between subject and diarist does more than to sire the essence of the image.
Pleasing Vertigo is not mere impalpable representations, they permit the artist to design and exploit his brand of phantasmagoric architecture through the lens, irrespective of the ‘real’ space captured.
The sensory experience of Jose’s sphere can be understood as defiance of reconciling on a classical interpretation of any ordinary setting. Pleasing Vertigo suggests that reality is his private matrix: his realities are divergent.
Take ‘Selfie’ as an example; the artist’s silhouette stares at us from a pinnacle, and his form bleeds into an abyss which then suspends into a straight verge, only to go deeper into the unknown.
This same delineation is seen throughout his works, a deviation from the usual geometrical harmony, connoting a letting-go for the dimensions bestowed in the natural world. What is oval becomes round, the narrow stretches too broad, and it gives fresh meaning to what beauty is.
Jose first turns his images into flesh, then moulds them into light, shadows, grids – presenting us with his stinging reality. We see what he wants us to see, yet alerting us that art as both forms of expression and encounter has a fundamental effect on our lives.
In the words of art critic Herbert Read, “The ultimate values of art transcend the individual and his time and circumstance. They express an ideal proportion or harmony which the artist can grasp only in virtue of his intuitive powers.” – The Vibes, March 27, 2021
Click here to visit Jose Conceptes virtual exhibition, 'Pleasing Vertigo':
'Pleasing Vertigo' concludes on April 16, 2021
Vallette Gallery
8, Lorong Kemaris 5, Bukit Bandaraya,
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
019 301 2569
www.vallettegallery.com
